A high-profile joint venture between Yale
University and the National University of Singapore named a president and
vice-president, moving closer to a launch planned for fall 2013 despite
lingering debate over the merits of the new college.
Pericles
Lewis, a professor of English and comparative literature at Yale, was tapped
Wednesday to head Yale-NUS as president, while a professor from the National
University of Singapore, Lai Choy Heng, was named vice president. Both
appointments will take effect July 1.
The
venture—which benefits from Yale's pedigree and complete funding from the
Singapore government—will create Singapore's first liberal-arts college,
testing whether American-style liberal-arts education can take root in parts of
Asia where critics complain about limitations on free expression. It will also
test Yale's ambition to extend its brand beyond the U.S. at a time when
American universities are competing to attract talent from Asia.
The
college will employ teachers from both Yale and NUS and has started taking
applications for admission next fall—receiving more than 800 in its first
administration round and accepting more than 50 so far. Construction on the
college has started, though it's not expected to be completed until 2014.
Yale-NUS,
part of a wider effort by Singapore to position itself as an educational hub
for Asia, has generated heated debate since its launch last year. Many Yale
professors and alumni feel that Singapore—with a longstanding reputation for
limiting speech and heavily regulating behavior, such as with its famous
chewing-gum ban—is not the right fit for a college bearing the institution's
name. Freedom House, a Washington-based advocacy group, recently ranked
Singapore 150th in the world in press freedom, behind Liberia and Central
African Republic.
Last
month, Yale's faculty passed a resolution expressing "concern" over
Singapore's "history of lack of respect for civil and political
rights." A number of professors have written op-ed pieces—both for the
Yale Daily News and other U.S. media outlets—expressing reservations about
Yale's operating within Singapore's social and political environment.
But
many other Yale professors are keen to teach at the new college, Yale
University President Richard Levin said at a press conference on Wednesday,
saying that there's still a lot of enthusiasm about the joint venture back in
New Haven, Conn., Yale's home base. Mr. Lewis, the newly-appointed Yale-NUS
president, said he took the role with "no hesitation at all," calling
Singapore a "perfect environment" for Yale's vision.
Singaporeans
have accused critics of the project of high-handedness and of overlooking
changes in the city-state in recent years that have encouraged public debate,
including the emergence of a thriving blog culture. Singapore Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong, in a speech at Yale-NUS's launch last year, labeled the
collaboration a "complicated project" because of "differences in
social and political contexts" but said the city-state is constantly
seeking to change and evolve.
Responding
to the Yale faculty resolution, Singapore's Minister of EducationHeng Swee Keat
said earlier this month that the government shares "the disappointment
expressed by NUS and many Singaporeans" over the vote, but that it was
"essentially an internal issue to Yale."
But
some academics in Singapore do continue to question the venture.
"What
remains to be seen is whether Lewis is up to exerting influence in the alien
administrative context of Singapore and NUS," said Michael Montesano, a
research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore and a
Yale alumnus.
For
himself, Mr. Lewis said he is "confident of researchers' ability to pursue
their scholarship freely" in Singapore, and that he was given assurances
from both the government and NUS regarding academic freedom. In a speech on
Wednesday, he gave the government credit for its "strong support and
commitment," calling it essential for the new college.
The new
Yale-NUS campus is expected to comprise three residential colleges with about
330 students each. They will graduate with four-year bachelor of arts or bachelor
of science degrees awarded by the NUS.
SHIBANI
MAHTANI
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