SINGAPORE, Oct 25 — The rector of National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Tembusu College, Professor Tommy Koh, said yesterday he would offer his resignation to the university in the wake of a sexual misconduct scandal involving a professor of the college, but later backtracked.
Prof Koh said this on Facebook, in response to a netizen’s comment on a post he had made earlier yesterday in which he reiterated that the university had been wrong to delay informing students and faculty of the college about the case but an hour later and after several other commenters said he should not resign, he recanted.
He also replied to a query from TODAY saying that he had been “joking” when he said he would offer to resign.
“The last few weeks have been a very difficult time for the Tembusu College,” he had written in his post, outlining how professor Jeremy Fernando was accused by two NUS female students of sexual misconduct and dismissed on Oct 7, after investigations uncovered he had had an intimate relationship with one of them.
“The university did not disclose this fact until 11 days later on Oct 18,” Prof Koh noted.
“The delay in informing the students and faculty of the college was wrong because the students had a right to be informed about the dismissal of one of their teachers before learning about it from the mainstream and social media.”
A Facebook user named James Ong had commented on the post: “As rector, you should resign and take responsibility.”
Dr Koh then replied: “I will offer my resignation to NUS.”
An hour later, and after several commenters had said he should not resign, he commented again, in reply to Ong: “I am afraid that most of the people do not agree with you. I will abide by their sentiment that I should not resign. Thank you for your suggestion anyway.”
His Facebook post and comment came a day after NUS held a media conference to admit shortcomings in the way it had handled the allegations about Dr Fernando.
During the conference, Prof Koh had said NUS had “fallen short” by not being transparent enough about the case. — TODAY
