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SINGAPORE: Tembusu College Chancellor Tommy Koh changed his mind about offering to resign from the National University of Singapore (NUS) less than two hours after he said he would.
In response to a Facebook comment calling for his resignation over the university’s handling of the firing of Dr. Jeremy Fernando, Professor Koh said around 1pm on Saturday (October 24) that he would offer his resignation to NUS.
Less than two hours later, he replied back to the person who posted the original comment: “I’m afraid most people disagree with you. I will abide by your sentiment that I must not resign. Thanks for your suggestion anyway. ”
On Saturday he told HOY he was “kidding” when he said he would offer to resign, TODAY reported.
The comments were made in a Facebook post on Professor Koh’s profile page, in which he addressed NUS’s delay in announcing the firing of Dr. Fernando.
READ: NUS has ‘fallen short’ in handling Jeremy Fernando’s firing, says Tembusu College Chancellor Tommy Koh
“The delay in informing university students and professors was incorrect because students (have) the right to be informed about the dismissal of one of their teachers before learning about it on social media,” he wrote on Saturday, adding that the last few weeks have been “a very difficult time” for Tembusu College.
“At yesterday’s town hall meeting with students and press conference, we agreed that going forward NUS would be open, transparent and share information with its stakeholders in a timely manner.”
Speaking to reporters at Tembusu College on Friday, Professor Koh said that NUS had “fallen short” in its handling of the firing of Dr. Fernando.
Dr. Fernando was fired by NUS on October 7, after it was discovered that he had “an intimate association” with a student, Professor Koh said.
The university-wide email to students and staff informing them of the firing of Dr. Fernando was sent on October 18.
READ: Fired NUS teacher had “close association” with BA; University makes police report
“The university can learn from the Singapore government from the way it dealt with SARS in 2003 and COVID-19 in 2020 … The policy is to be open rather than closed, transparent rather than opaque, to provide timely information to your students. interested rather than withholding such information, ”Professor Koh said Friday.
“So using these two, three criteria, in my opinion, NUS has fallen short,” he added.
Acknowledging that there was a “considerable gap” between the date the university fired Dr. Fernando and when the rest of Tembusu College was informed, Professor Koh noted that NUS had a “fairly conservative culture”, and felt that when a member of staff were laid off, HR practice would be “don’t tell the world someone has been laid off.”
READ: Student group asks NUS to show ‘transparency and accountability’ in handling the case of a teacher fired for inappropriate behavior
He added: “But what I told NUS is that this HR practice is applicable in the private sector, but not applicable to a public institution like this one.
“And Tembusu College is a public institution, I have many stakeholders, I have 600 students, I have a faculty, each of them has a right to know. And in this sense, I think NUS has fallen short.”
NUS confirmed Wednesday that it made a police report on the sexual misconduct allegations against Dr. Fernando, and police confirmed Thursday that a report was filed and investigations are ongoing.
