It is that time of the year again when we look back and wonder how the year flew by so quickly. Of course we were already pondering over this mystery of time when the exams were drawing nearer. But now, without the pesky detail of exams to narrow our recollection of the past year to what was taught to us in our lectures and tutorials, it hits us that we have one year less of being a student. If you prefer the other side of the coin, we’ve inched a year closer to being a full-time working adult unencumbered by exams. Whether you cheer or jeer at the prospect of a year less of remaining in NUS, indulge us in reminiscing on the events that made news in NUS in 2006.

How can we forget our unsuccessful attempt at protesting against the university fees hike. It appears that our NUS students are more fashion-conscious than one is led to believe. We take pride in color coordinating our outfits and are not receptive to being dictated on the color of outfit that we are supposed to wear to school, even if it is black, a common color of the outfits worn by students here in NUS. Frivolous as this reasoning might be to explain the failure of our protests, it is surely a more palatable reason for the failure of the protest than the more likely reasons; apathy among the student body and/or ineptness of the student leaders.


There was the forum on the 2006 Singapore General Election, held in March, jointly organized by the NUS Political Science Department and the Political Science Association of Singapore. Mr Chiam See Tong and Ms Indranee Rajah were among the participants in the forum, tasked with wooing the post 65-ers to vote for their respective parties. We all know how successful the SDA and the PAP were in the election. Perhaps the very warm reception that Mr Chiam received in the forum from the attendees should have been a harbinger of his eventual success in retaining his parliamentary seat as MP for Potong Pasir.   


It was goodbye to one of the more better-dressed and eloquent bunch of NUS students, the Law students, as they moved to their Bukit Timah campus in July. Not many students envied the Law faculty for the exclusivity that they enjoyed with having a campus all to themselves though. We all just love our Kent Ridge campus too much. It was also weird walking through the passageway connecting the business, law and arts faculties and looking at the empty tutorial rooms, benches and tables lining this passageway. The weirdness won’t last for long though as the computing faculty is set to take over the vacated premises next year.

Idol fever came closer to school this time around as we learnt the name of one more student in school and realized that he could actually sing quite well for a change. Jonathan Leong, a third-year arts student, was first runner up in the Singapore Idol contest and has since clinched a recording contract. We might be hearing more from him and enjoy it as well, just as we enjoy the voice of an alumnus of NUS, Corinne May, who was plucked out from relative obscurity and became a recognizable name in Singapore this year.




We are also now successfully in the Guinness Book of Records (only for the world’s fastest paper crane folder) and the Singapore Book of Records for the following feats: 9037 paper cranes folded in 1 hour, 350 litres of Milo consumed in 25:29 mins and having the world’s fastest paper crane folder, Ms Eng Tze Hwee who managed to fold 6 cranes in 5 mins. These feats were realized on NUS Breakers Day on the 22nd of August, an event initiated by the NUSSU Public Relations Unit. Now that we’ve conquered Milo, maybe we should move on to the favorite beverage of most students in NUS, coffee.