The outrage over the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) response to a “peeping tom” incident involving one of their male students being caught filming a female student in a dorm room shower shows no signs of abatement, with one business publicly denouncing the school’s administration in harsh terms and promising to cut off all ties with NUS until the offending student is expelled.
In a Facebook post to their official page, OnHand Agrarian, a Singapore-based seafood farm, condemned NUS’ official response to the crime, starting off by pointing out that there is no ambiguity in the case as the offender — identified as Nicholas Lim — had already confessed to the crime. The post also includes screenshots of the victim’s Instagram story post detailing her upset with NUS and the perpetrator.
https://www.facebook.com/OnHandAgrarian/posts/2470445429655596
“This isn’t a case of he-said-she-said; The offender has literally admitted to the crime in writing, after voluntarily consuming a legal narcotic.
This is a for-profit entity that’s made the monumentally stupid decision to compromise it’s product and the clients who paid good money for the product, for absolutely no reason, by allowing a criminal to continue to use it’s facilities.
Therefore, Agrarian will suspend all dealings with #NUS until Nicholas Lim is expelled. No talks, no internships, no site visits, no use of our company when you need industry partners to be Co-PIs for government grant submissions.
Same goes to you #GreatEastern. Terminate the little shit or you’ll never get our corporate insurance business.
#consequences
PS: Sincere apologies to all the other Nicholas Lims out there who share his name.”
The post, which was published yesterday evening, has been shared nearly 900 times as of the time of writing, with the vast majority of comments praising Agrarian’s strong stance. NUS has not yet responded directly to Agrarian’s post.
The victim in the case — Monica Baey, a third-year communications major at the university — bravely opened up about the incident on Instagram on Friday in order to call out NUS for their response to the crime.
After Monica reported the incident, which took place in November, to the police, the authorities responded by giving Lim a “12-month conditional stern warning”, meaning that he could be discharged without being acquitted of the offense but could be prosecuted for committing the same crime within that time period.
The response from the university was to only suspend Lim for one semester and ban him from entering campus dorm halls, but Monica said he was still allowed to visit the campus, placing other female students in potential danger.
In her Instagram posts, Baey asked that NUS implement clearer campus policies to protect students against sexual misconduct, including stricter punishments, more transparency in how cases are handled, and more education for students on sexual harassment and respectful relationships. She also asked that NUS provide better support for victims of sexual harassment, including setting up a one-stop office providing free services for sexual misconduct victims.
NUS’ dean of students, Associate Professor Peter Pang, released a statement on Saturday evening apologizing for Baey’s “distressing” experience.
“We are sorry for Miss Monica Baey’s distressing experience, which is of extreme concern to the university,” said Pang. “We are in the process of reaching out to her to offer our support and assistance.”
Recognizing the public outcry, Pang said NUS has pledged to review its frameworks for disciplinary action and victim support in such incidents by convening a special committee.
The news did not go down well with concerned students and members of the public, with many chiding the university board on their Facebook page for responding by merely setting up another committee and not taking more concrete action.
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