Singapore’s NUS forced to overhaul handling of sexual harassment cases after backlash over Monica Baey’s peeping Tom incident
- The National University of Singapore will set up a unit to support sexual assault victims, among other measures, after a student was filmed showering
- Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has called NUS’ penalty for the offender as ‘manifestly inadequate’; other top universities are also rethinking their policies
The measures were announced during a two-hour town hall meeting on Thursday, at which the student body raised concerns about sexual misconduct to the university’s vice provost for student life Florence Ling and dean of students Peter Pang.
“The town hall was definitely necessary because clearly a lot of voices from the student body were demanding to be heard,” said Inez Yuen, a final-year sociology major who was one of hundreds at the meeting. “Sexual assault has been normalised by institutions for too long and the loud majority have finally had enough.”
These efforts come amid closer scrutiny of university policies after NUS student Monica Baey last week took to social media to publicise an incident in which she was filmed while taking a shower in her hostel bathroom.
She asked for “real change” in how authorities tackle acts that violate women.