Many donors are passive donors and do not have time to care about what happened to their donations. I am otherwise. Although I have many donations to NTU, I do keep track of them, usually by emails, but not always. Sometimes keep track of them involves visits to NTU, to talk to the people involved, or to attend the events.
By early 2013, due to my vision defect, I had to give up driving. Marina, the DO director, gave me special treatment and book me one of the NTU cars with driver, to take me from home to NTU and back. By mid 2013, my walking has worsened. Whenever I go out, I had to be pushed on wheelchair. Marina kindly gave me extra attention to have either herself or one of her staff to accompany me to push my wheelchair.
About some new donations, I am not happy when there has been no news of progress from the donation receipients. I may take the drastic step of reducing their funding amount and adding to the funding of those I am happy with.
[To be continued, latest update, 2 Oct 2013]
Monday, 30 September 2013
5. Donating to Student-centered Activities
These are new activities. I have my reason for donating to this type of activities. In our university environment, it is not difficult to find guidance from professors on what are good and suitable for students. To counter this trend, I would like to encourage and reward student-centered activities where students suggest, plan, and guide their own activities.
I first come across such activity when in the early 2000 I donated directly to the student debating club to help them start in NTU an Inter-tertiary series of debates. I asked them to call it Dorothy Cheung Series of Debates to remember Dorothy who personally helped engineering students to start debate in the early 1980s. I donated once more directly to them. In subsequent years they faithfully continued the Dorothy Cheung title as the series was already established even among neighboring countries.
This student club was so active that they started in NTU their own series of Model UN, inviting international participation, and holding them at the NTU Executive Centre, normally booked for events held by professional organisations.
I think these two are good examples of student-centered activities. and was gong to add to their donations. Donations to the former come easily under Dorothy Cheung Memorial Fund. For Model UN events the student Committee to giving an Award to the best speaker and calling this Dorothy Cheung Award.
This was when the NTU Admin. stepped in to give these supports proper financial control. These Admin Depts are the Student Affairs Office (SAO) and the earlier mentioned Development Office (DO). The SAO give subsidies to these student clubs based on their budgets and on how worthy are their activities. They welcome additional external donations like mine. All external donations are first channeled though the DO which issue rules and regulation on their administration.
I then continue to look for good existing student-centered activity. I found one called TEDx-NTU. They had a success conference in 2012 called "the pursuit of Happiness". I was glad to donate to give them greater encouragement.
[to be continued, last update 1 Oct, 2013]
I first come across such activity when in the early 2000 I donated directly to the student debating club to help them start in NTU an Inter-tertiary series of debates. I asked them to call it Dorothy Cheung Series of Debates to remember Dorothy who personally helped engineering students to start debate in the early 1980s. I donated once more directly to them. In subsequent years they faithfully continued the Dorothy Cheung title as the series was already established even among neighboring countries.
This student club was so active that they started in NTU their own series of Model UN, inviting international participation, and holding them at the NTU Executive Centre, normally booked for events held by professional organisations.
I think these two are good examples of student-centered activities. and was gong to add to their donations. Donations to the former come easily under Dorothy Cheung Memorial Fund. For Model UN events the student Committee to giving an Award to the best speaker and calling this Dorothy Cheung Award.
This was when the NTU Admin. stepped in to give these supports proper financial control. These Admin Depts are the Student Affairs Office (SAO) and the earlier mentioned Development Office (DO). The SAO give subsidies to these student clubs based on their budgets and on how worthy are their activities. They welcome additional external donations like mine. All external donations are first channeled though the DO which issue rules and regulation on their administration.
I then continue to look for good existing student-centered activity. I found one called TEDx-NTU. They had a success conference in 2012 called "the pursuit of Happiness". I was glad to donate to give them greater encouragement.
[to be continued, last update 1 Oct, 2013]
Sunday, 29 September 2013
4. Why do I donate to NTU ?
It is well known in the academic circles, both local and international, that both Singapore's national universities, NTU and NUS, are rich with large amounts of research funding. This is why I have always been asked, "Why donate to NTU when it is so rich".
Apparently the newly employed Development Office Director Marina was ready with answers to awkward questions. She suggested to me that a Dorothy Cheung Memorial Term Fund be established for the music events previously mentioned. If I add some more to this funding amount, the 1.5:1 government subsidy will endow a larger amount permanently available for my original purpose. Yes, permanently available !
I caught on this idea of permanent Memorial Funds at the U. This is when I next wanted to establish one to remember my well loved first boss S K who also died while still employed. For this Fund I asked the Dept. to poll students of each year of study who they like as the best teacher, and award him or her as the best teacher for that year.
Apparently the newly employed Development Office Director Marina was ready with answers to awkward questions. She suggested to me that a Dorothy Cheung Memorial Term Fund be established for the music events previously mentioned. If I add some more to this funding amount, the 1.5:1 government subsidy will endow a larger amount permanently available for my original purpose. Yes, permanently available !
I caught on this idea of permanent Memorial Funds at the U. This is when I next wanted to establish one to remember my well loved first boss S K who also died while still employed. For this Fund I asked the Dept. to poll students of each year of study who they like as the best teacher, and award him or her as the best teacher for that year.
Saturday, 28 September 2013
3. Beginning of the LT 19 Concert Series.
This series began at Dr Cham's time when he invited the Singapore ESSO oil to donate to support a series of concerts by individual or a small group of musicians to perform at NTI. He then asked Eugene D at NIE to administer this. Eugene selected a 350 seater lecture theatre as the venue. This LT 19 is located at NTU but it is easily accessible from NIE.through a covered staircase.
Subsequently ESSO Singapore has become part of Exxon-Mobile Singapore. Their senior management continued to support this. But instead of having just music performances, Eugene had broaden these concert series and called this Explorations of the Arts Series. The music performances continued to be held in LT 19 and administered by CELT's capable PA Vivien.
Soon Exxon-Mobil Singapore decided to discontinue their support. Eugene approached me to continue the support. I agreed to support only the LT 19 music performances and call these also the Dorothy Cheung Concert Series. There will be 7 performances a year. Eugene can decide on the type of music and the musicians as long as the attendance is good.
[last update 29/9/13]
Subsequently ESSO Singapore has become part of Exxon-Mobile Singapore. Their senior management continued to support this. But instead of having just music performances, Eugene had broaden these concert series and called this Explorations of the Arts Series. The music performances continued to be held in LT 19 and administered by CELT's capable PA Vivien.
Soon Exxon-Mobil Singapore decided to discontinue their support. Eugene approached me to continue the support. I agreed to support only the LT 19 music performances and call these also the Dorothy Cheung Concert Series. There will be 7 performances a year. Eugene can decide on the type of music and the musicians as long as the attendance is good.
[last update 29/9/13]
2. Beginning of the Nanyang Auditorium Concert Series
At that time Mr Cham Tao Soon was the President of NTU. Being also the Chairman of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), he launched a community outreach programme and wanted to try it out at the Nanyang Auditorium. This outreach concert was held I think in 2000.
At the first Symphony Orchestral concert, there was no special budget for this activity. When the next outreach concert in NTU was planned due to popular demand, I was asked to donate to cover the internal publicity expenses. As Dorothy before she passed away has also been MC of some music events, Mr Cham agreed to let this series of auditorium concerts be named after her in memory of her. I was of course very happy and played a part in suggesting improvements.
I got the idea for one notable improvement from many pop concerts. This is to have video cameras to zoom onto individual musicians and their instruments. These video images are then projected onto the backdrop screen. For us this'll help those in the audience new to these orchestral concerts identify the instruments and their sounds.
By now I notice many orchestral concerts on TV also have this practice.
At that time although Chinese orchestral playing has a much shorter history than Western classical orchestral playing, the former in Singapore and China are developing very fast. After Mr Cham left NTU in 2002, I decided to invite the Singapore Chinese Orchestra to have their outreach playing in NTU.
It is true at first the quality of their instrument pieces and their sound are poor, but they are willing to innovate and gradually improve over the years.
The Nanyang Auditorium is big. It has 1800 seats. So far response from the NTU student and staff community has been good. I continued the early practice of one-hour duration, no charge for entry, and free seating. The only timing change is that instead of having it at lunch hours, I change it to a more popular time of 6 to 7 pm.
These two concerts used to alternate over the first and second semester which means twice per year. The amount of money I fund over each concert is not big as the supporting unit, the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) has waived all budget items that can be charged to the U. This is why the U has considered my donation an perpetual one. But the amount of administration and coordination work from the staff is very high. This is why I have reduced the concert frequency to once a year.
[to be continued, last updae 29/9/13]
At the first Symphony Orchestral concert, there was no special budget for this activity. When the next outreach concert in NTU was planned due to popular demand, I was asked to donate to cover the internal publicity expenses. As Dorothy before she passed away has also been MC of some music events, Mr Cham agreed to let this series of auditorium concerts be named after her in memory of her. I was of course very happy and played a part in suggesting improvements.
I got the idea for one notable improvement from many pop concerts. This is to have video cameras to zoom onto individual musicians and their instruments. These video images are then projected onto the backdrop screen. For us this'll help those in the audience new to these orchestral concerts identify the instruments and their sounds.
By now I notice many orchestral concerts on TV also have this practice.
At that time although Chinese orchestral playing has a much shorter history than Western classical orchestral playing, the former in Singapore and China are developing very fast. After Mr Cham left NTU in 2002, I decided to invite the Singapore Chinese Orchestra to have their outreach playing in NTU.
It is true at first the quality of their instrument pieces and their sound are poor, but they are willing to innovate and gradually improve over the years.
The Nanyang Auditorium is big. It has 1800 seats. So far response from the NTU student and staff community has been good. I continued the early practice of one-hour duration, no charge for entry, and free seating. The only timing change is that instead of having it at lunch hours, I change it to a more popular time of 6 to 7 pm.
These two concerts used to alternate over the first and second semester which means twice per year. The amount of money I fund over each concert is not big as the supporting unit, the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) has waived all budget items that can be charged to the U. This is why the U has considered my donation an perpetual one. But the amount of administration and coordination work from the staff is very high. This is why I have reduced the concert frequency to once a year.
[to be continued, last updae 29/9/13]
1. Introduction
My late wife Dorothy and I have both been teaching staff for many years at the Nanyang Technological Universiy, Singapore (NTU). We enjoyed the intellectual academic environment there, but we have no children. Very sadly, in May 1999, she passed away after a difficult three months in and out of hospital. As I was by then 59, I asked to retire early at 60 and go for a semi-retirement post called "Teaching Fellow" with half duty and half pay. The U let me stay on for three more years. After this I became a part-time staff.
Dorothy was very active at the U, and was the top choice as MC at many important functions and ceremonies. A notable ceremony was the official opening of the new campus at a grand Nanyang Auditorium. The President of Singapore, Mr Wee Kim Wee, agreed to be the Guest of Honour. But then giving the U only one week's notice, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's Prime Minister was also going to attend. As Mr Lee is well known to be a perfectionist and intolerant of any mistakes, any other MC would shake in the knees in doing this task. But Dorothy did this MC task smoothly with no trouble.
Dorothy was very active at the U, and was the top choice as MC at many important functions and ceremonies. A notable ceremony was the official opening of the new campus at a grand Nanyang Auditorium. The President of Singapore, Mr Wee Kim Wee, agreed to be the Guest of Honour. But then giving the U only one week's notice, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's Prime Minister was also going to attend. As Mr Lee is well known to be a perfectionist and intolerant of any mistakes, any other MC would shake in the knees in doing this task. But Dorothy did this MC task smoothly with no trouble.
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