The Essential Freshman's Guide: Taking the Bus

Hoorah for the third Essential Freshmen's Guide! It's officially a series now. I want tackle a certain problem that actually affects more than just Tembusu College's freshmen, but the commuters of NUS's shuttle services as a whole.

The issue really is with the shuttle bus services between U-Town and the main campus. Most of us are familiar with the problem: the buses don't come frequently enough to ferry students to and fro U-Town – especially D2 service that brings students from U-Town to the Arts/ Business/ Design & Environment faculties.

OHS Level-up

I've noticed the OHS is really tightening up on their rule enforcement. They recently sent out a mass email about keeping the corridors clear of our footwear/ shoe racks, and the RAs and GFs have been doing room checks. OHS has also realized one gaping loophole in our college's security, which is free lift access to the lobby from the basement. There are actually quite a few more gaps in the security, so I'm waiting to see if they'll pick up on the rest of them. I think most of it's an illusion though, because these security features have serious limitations. One would be surprised how easy it is to get around Tembusu without a card key...

In any case, it's good that they are putting in some effort to keep this place in shape. (although some rules are quite silly.) It'd be also nice if they could provide the corridor rooms some shoe racks, but until they actually start confiscating footwear from the corridors I don't think it's a huge issue.

The Lipdub

Good morning! Well it seems like Tembusu's lipdub has started its circulation. There seemed to be a lot of over-excitement about it last semester, and I honestly had my doubts that this video would ever come together, but look – here it is! Good job, everyone.

The Essential Freshmen's Guide: Teas and Things

Hello one and all, I am very proud to present to you today the next post in The Essential Freshman's Guide series! (Yes, it is now officially a series. Here's the previous one.) Today, I thought I'd bring you through the list of some of the more regular programs that we have in Tembusu. As you might have already noticed, the concept of "Teas" has really taken off in this college.

Two things you need to know about these Teas: most people don't actually drink any tea at these sessions, nor is it always held at teatime... I suppose they were named as such to emulate the casual, open and conversational nature of actual teas. From an attendee's perspective, most of these Teas are essentially the same thing with different structures. Let me explain:

The House Committee

I currently have a lot of thoughts bouncing in my head so I thought I'd put some of them out. One thing that's been bugging me is the position of Wing Leaders. If you didn't already know, the Wing Leaders are like the middle management team of Tembusu College. They are somewhat responsible for the "welfare" aspect of student-residents' lives. Each Wing Leader takes charge over one of two wings in each level (hence the name). About six to eight of these Wing Leaders form a team called the House Committee. One member of each committee usually gets elected to be a Captain to head the Committee.

This House Committee assists the College Student Committee (CSC), the Residential Assistants (RAs), the Graduate Fellows (GFs) and the Resident Fellows (RFs) to organize and administrate events and activities for their House/ the College. (Look here for a recap on Tembusu's leadership positions.)