Yale-NUS leaders to hold virtual town hall with students' parents

National University of Singapore (NUS) president Tan Eng Chye has agreed to an online town hall meeting with parents of Yale-NUS College students to hear their questions about the school's closure.

The meeting will also be open to parents of students in the University Scholars Programme (USP), he said in an e-mail response to parents on Thursday.

The exact date for the town hall meeting has not been set.

Professor Tan had initially refused a town hall-style meeting, saying that he would instead hold a series of individual, face-to-face meetings with them in the later part of this month.

The parents then sent a letter rejecting his suggestion for smaller group meetings in favour of an online town hall meeting yesterday at 7pm.

In his reply on Thursday, Prof Tan said: "Due to prior commitments, I will not be able to make it for the proposed town hall on Friday... However, I am pleased to separately arrange a virtual town hall next week."

On the same day, the Yale-NUS leadership sent out a letter to all parents stating that they would soon receive an invitation to a virtual town hall meeting next week featuring Prof Tan, Yale-NUS president Tan Tai Yong, and Yale-NUS executive vice-president for academic affairs Joanne Roberts.

NUS made a shock announcement on Aug 27 that Yale-NUS - a liberal arts tie-up between Ivy League university Yale in the United States and NUS that began in 2011 - would stop accepting new students and merge with NUS' USP to form the New College, a placeholder name.

Following this, over 260 parents of current and former students of the college signed a collective letter asking Prof Tan Eng Chye to attend a town hall meeting with them to explain the reasons for the merger between Yale-NUS and USP.

One of the parents, who wanted to be known only as Madam Hui Ling, told The Straits Times that the consensus among parents, students and some faculty is that there has been a lack of transparency from NUS throughout the process.

"This decision is not something that NUS should be taking lightly. There appears to be very little regard for the psychological impact that this is having on students and faculty," the 55-year-old former media professional said.

Her son is a Year 2 student at the college.

Speaking to ST yesterday, five other parents who signed the letters called for the merger to be reversed, saying that the diversity of international students and small class sizes will be difficult to replicate in the New College.

A business owner in her 50s, who wanted to be known only as Ms Chong, said parents were not informed about the need to raise funds. "This is something that can be adjusted either by raising school fees or increasing the number of students... Why weren't these (used as) alternatives?"