NUS
student becomes target of online abuse
SHOCKED BY ATTACKS It was traumatic to know that some of
those I greatly respected in the USP were also the most relentless.
- Ms Keira Chen -- PHOTO: KEIRA CHEN
BY KEZIA TOH & MATTHIAS CHEW
THE National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate who
wrote a commentary in an online student newspaper has become the
target of vicious comments on a Facebook page.
Third-year student Keira Chen, 22, had said in her piece
in The Kent Ridge Common that the university's policy of making it
compulsory for students on the University Scholars Programme (USP)
to stay on campus for two years would put needy students like
herself at a disadvantage.
Such students would need financial help to cover the cost
of hostel fees, she wrote.
Another article on the website estimated that those fees
would come to at least $11,060.
Ms Chen expressed concern in her article that the USP, an
interdisciplinary honours programme, would become the preserve of
well-to-do students.
She is on the USP but is unaffected by the policy change
as she entered the programme before it took effect. Previously,
students on the USP, which was launched in 2001, did not have to
pay more in fees than non-USP students.
The cutting comments were made on the USP's private
Facebook page, which has about 700 members, including alumni.
In her article, Ms Chen had said that had she been
affected by the policy change, she would not have been able to
simply give more private tuition to earn the money as she was a "B
student" who needed more time with her books. Her peers latched
onto this, calling her "stupid" and "not the brightest crayon in
the box".
She said the few who stood up for her were drowned out by
the torrent of nasty comments.
Her commentary ran last October, but the online abuse was
exposed only last week in an article in The Kent Ridge Common by
website editor Koh Choon Hwee, a friend of Ms Chen's.
Ms Chen said she was taken aback by the personal nature
of the comments: "I expected better of USP students. I thought they
would empathise with the issue."
The attacks were all the more hurtful as they were made
mostly by people she knew by name, if not personally. "It was
traumatic to know that some of those I greatly respected in the USP
were also the most relentless."
NUS said it was disappointed with the comments, and that
USP director John Richardson had written to all the students on the
Facebook page, urging them to interact responsibly.
The university is not taking further action as the matter
"did not reach an intensity or scale that demanded disciplinary
action". Its spokesman said the Facebook page was a private one,
and that closing it would infringe on members' rights to social
networking.
Former Nominated MP and blogger Siew Kum Hong said NUS
could have issued a more strongly worded line that making fun of
someone from a low-income background is inappropriate. "It's
important for institutions and the authorities to set the right
social norms by making clear what is inappropriate. Otherwise, they
seed the space for more cyber bullies."
The incident reflects a class divide, where those who are
privileged are unable and unwilling to understand the plight of
those less well-off, he said.
Top of the news, The Straits Times, Monday, June 4 2012, Pg
A3