28 January 2013
Straits Times
(c) 2013 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Renaming of Angsana gets students asking: Who are Alice and Peter Tan?
THE National University of Singapore (NUS) has quietly renamed Angsana, its newest residential college in University Town (UTown), just six months after it opened.
It is now known as the College of Alice & Peter Tan in recognition of a “substantial endowed gift” from Mrs Alice Tan.
The change, which took effect on Jan 15, was made public in a statement posted on the college’s website.
But the move has got students asking: Just who are Alice and Peter Tan?
Some were also upset that most of the college’s 600 residents were told about the decision at a town-hall session only on the eve of the name change.
The college is one of three undergraduate residential colleges which are named after trees indigenous to the area where UTown is being built. The other two are Cinnamon and Tembusu.
While it is not uncommon for schools to name buildings after donors who are usually well- known figures, NUS’ move has raised eyebrows because it has declined to say who the Tans are or how much they have donated.
Citing the Tan family’s request for privacy, it only said in the online statement that “Mrs Tan’s six children are all NUS alumni”.
The undisclosed sum will be matched by a government grant, said NUS.
The money will support needy students and academic programmes in the college, as well as in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Faculty of Science, NUS Business School and Yale-NUS College.
When contacted, an NUS spokesman would only reveal that Mrs Tan and her family are “highly respected members of the Singapore community”.
“With the family’s tradition of philanthropy to the university, the naming of the college is a fitting recognition of their gift,” said the spokesman.
The Straits Times understands that the couple are Mr and Mrs Tan Eng Sian. Mr Tan, who died a few years ago, was a descendant of pioneer and philanthropist Tan Kim Seng. Their six children include two prominent doctors and a well-known botanist from NUS.
The low-profile couple were dragged into a huge controversy in 2010 over the value of a large collection of Straits Chinese silverware and porcelain they gave to the Peranakan Museum. The collection, originally valued by an expert at $15 million, was subsequent marked down to less than $2 million by another expert.
The couple later asked for their donation to be returned.
Students interviewed generally respect the family’s request for privacy. But some, like law student Gerald Leong, 23, felt that they could identify better with the new name if they have more information.
One resident, who googled but could not find any information on the couple, said: “It’s a bit strange going to a college named after people you don’t recognise.” She declined to be named.
MP Lim Biow Chuan, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Education, said that institutions should exercise care when naming buildings after donors so that they are not seen as “selling naming rights”. These donors should have a certain stature, such as being active in philanthropy.
Fellow GPC member and MP Baey Yam Keng said that while a donor’s request for privacy must be respected, naming a college after them “is very public”. In this case, naming a room in the college after the Tans may be a better option, he said.
But architecture student Louis Lim, 22, felt the new name is more meaningful. “We’re a new college with not much of a history yet. When someone asks, I can tell them that the college was named after people who cared about education.”
The Angsana College at NUS University Town is now known as the College of Alice & Peter Tan. This has raised eyebrows as NUS has declined to say who the Tans are or reveal the donated sum.