The musings of the Student Union
-
NTU student union....
Friend of the students or a bo-chap committee out for a share of points only?
The truth is, in the past 3 years, the union has been plagued with consistent controversial events that have lowered its standing among the student population in NTU.
What it has done has raised far more question marks abt its creditibility then anything else. While the students look to the union to fight for student's rights and solve basic problems suffered by the foreign student population, it has continually failed in all aspects.
For starters, it has failed to ask the Administration for specific reasons for the course fee hikes that the university has implemented recently. It seems that with no one to keep the administration in check, they can raise the cost of the student fees as and when they see fit.
Another reason that has been raised by the local population is why are course fees still being paid when engine students are on industrial attachments? It is a known ruiling that students under IA are not permitted to use the equipment available in NTU because they have been classified as company employees.
In that case why are we still paying our course fees? At the very least we shd only be paying a fraction of our fees for that semester, not the entire sum.
Such unexplained ruilings have been allowed to flood unchecked becoz the union "voted" by the students have failed to fight for the students.
In the last sorry escapade of the student union, president jonathan pang stepped down amid claims of poor results. The truth is his own assembled committee was within days of calling an EOGM to oust him from the committee for a string of reasons.
It seems that history repeats itself to some extent; two years ago, the vice-president of the 99/00 workyear resigned from his post barely 2 months from completing his term, citing personal reasons. Rumours were going round that his inability to work with the executive committee was the real reason but upon interviewed by nanyang chronicle, the then president, Ms Lim Joo Lee said only "no comments".
Such is the communication bridge between the students and the union, it's no wonder students have no confidence in raising their problems to the union, instead going direct to the administration.
Despite their efforts in ousting "incompetent" presidents, the union committee is merely giving students more reasons to doubt the credibility of the union even further.
The bigger picture must be assessed. A strong union allows otherwise errant administators to explain their actions b4 committing into a decision or a ruiling that affects the welfare of students.
[This message has been edited by BillyBong (edited 04 March 2002).] -
hey man i agree with you. Much as i have overlooked many things like paying of the total sum when we r on IA, i do remember this issue being brought up some time ago but not much has been done to rectify the problem. I do hope the student union can take note of this issue and bring it up across the board again...cheerS~
