End of sem1

With another week of examinations to go, the semester is finally coming to an end.  It feels like time has whizzed by awfully fast!

Anyhow, it's been quite a good semester for me.  Overall, I've really enjoyed my stay in Tembusu.  I can say that I am very happy to be staying here for another three sems...  there are quite a few things about Tembusu to be grateful for, and I guess it's good to start off this blog on a positive note.

For one, I appreciate the energy of Tembusu. Residents in general are very positive about staying here, and I suppose that has a lot to do with the freshness of the college.  Being conceptually novel and physically new, it is a clean slate that is defined only its potential.  Many students here can sense that opportunity to shape this college, and are excited by it.  I am excited by it.  I really like how there seems to be an openness (in general) to new ideas and suggestions, especially from prof. C.

However (yes, there always is a however, somewhere) if being new is going to be the only exciting thing about Tembusu, then Tembusu isn't going to be exciting for long.  The problem with Tembusu at the moment it that it seems to lack a direction.  It's nice that the college seems to be left to grow rather organically.  Much like how we have "interest groups" in place of CCA, the organisation of most activities in Tembusu are left to students' initiatives and spontaneity.  On one hand it is a good opportunity for taking on responsibilities and allows for the college to be shaped by the demands of the student population.  However, there is an odd passivity about this autonomy.

Let me explain before I sound any more contradictory: firstly, the fact that many activities are optional, means that many students can opt not to participate.  In all likelihood it is because study commitments naturally override non-compulsory events in the eyes of a muggerporean, which, let's face it, most of us are.  The result is a weird lackluster that is the product of the excitement of opportunity and the dismal turnout of many events.  Granted, highlight events like Cultural Night did not seem to suffer this effect, but on the average Master's Tea or Interest Group meeting, it's not so great.

The second point about passivity goes back to the lack of direction.  Sometimes it seems that organisers and leaders in Tembusu aren't sure of what to do or how to do things.  Please note that this is not a criticism of their incapacity; rather, it's a lack of a goal.  Tembusu as a whole still lacks an identity or any defined (non-academic) purpose, and I reckon it's hard to work with that.  It's like we are on this blank sheet of paper, called Tembusu, and told we do (well pretty much) whatever we like with it: We could write on it, or render it beautifully, or... fold it into origami –   but what do we choose?  We don't know.  That's what makes this college as confusing/ frightening as it is exciting, that we are easily lost in the multitude of possibilities available to us.  It's only a little bit trickier that there are not many models for starting a college that we can follow either.  I suspect that most student-leaders in Tembusu are actually stuck in the rut, because there isn't a mutually understood/ agreed direction that the leadership has decided to take on.  The solution for us, then, would be to start forming a picture of a Tembusu we would like to live and learn in, and working towards that.  With the new (and more permanent) CSC having settled into their roles, this should not be too far from our reach.

More on that next time. Ciao.