3 August 2022

Dear Yale-NUS community and friends,

A warm welcome to the new academic year! I am excited to begin the new semester and I hope you are looking forward to the activities we have lined up for this term as much as I am.

On Sunday, we celebrate the start of the new school year with Convocation, followed by our Balik Kampung event and a parents’ evening cocktail. You can look forward to carnival games, food and other fun activities, as you catch up with one another.

During the semester, we will be inviting distinguished speakers to speak at our public talks, and organising a slew of campus events such as the annual Summer Research Symposium, Mental Health Awareness Week and more. I can’t wait to see our campus abuzz with activities again, as our community members get together to share knowledge and ideas!

I am constantly encouraged by our tight-knit community, and I strongly believe our Core Values play an important role in strengthening our connections. On this note, I am pleased to share that the Core Values Champion programme has been launched, and all staff, faculty and students can start submitting your nomination for a faculty or staff member who has consistently displayed one or more of the College’s Core Values. Please visit the Staff or Student Portal to find out how you can submit your nomination.

Last semester, we organised a contest to select a Yale-NUS tagline that reflects how special and unique Yale-NUS is. Many thanks to all the students, faculty and staff who contributed their suggestions. I’m happy to share that the tagline selected is ‘Halcyon Days’. This tagline will be used as an overarching theme for events in the next three years and I hope it helps you remember how incredibly special Yale-NUS is.  

At Yale-NUS, we pride ourselves as a community of learning and this is a life-long commitment. In the same vein, our connections with each other will not end when the College closes in June 2025, instead we invite all Yale-NUS community members – students, faculty and staff – past and present, to join the Yale-NUS College Alumni group on LinkedIn, where we will share networks, encourage connection and continue to keep the Yale-NUS spirit alive.

As we look to preserving and celebrating our legacy, the College Digital Archives (CDA), a digital repository of materials relevant to the College’s history, provides us with a tangible way to do this. I thank the Educational Resources & Technology (ERT) team and their student associates for spearheading the effort to document our history and stories, and the rest of our community for your valuable contributions. Do keep them coming!    

This semester we also welcome new faces to our campus with members of the NUS College (NUSC) community sharing some of our facilities with us. Associate Professor Kang Hway Chuan, NUSC’s Master of West Wing will be living in Cendana College with his family. Hway Chuan is no stranger to Yale-NUS having served as Director of the Division of Science from 2013 to 2015, we are glad to have him back. Some NUSC students will also be residing with us on campus. On the administrative side of things, several NUSC staff members are occupying the first floor of the Administration building, where the Admissions and Public Affairs office used to be. We welcome our new friends to our campus, and we look forward to having them join our community at events and activities.  

I wish you a great semester ahead!

Sincerely, 

Joanne Roberts