Welcome to the Bukit Timah Campus
Posted by Ray @ 11:12 pm…where everything is still under construction.
Alright, so our law faculty has decided to detach itself from the main body of the National University of Singapore, and plonk itself down in new (old) facilities at Bukit Timah. Ostensibly, this was done because (A) we’re growing and we need the space, (B) being closer to the city is a good thing, and (C) everyone will have access to bigger, better, newer and faster facilities.
I’ll give you (A) and (B), but (C)?
Our new library is miniscule! Barely half the size of our old library back in NUS, and most of that space is taken up by books. You basically have to slither between aisles and tables to get to your destination. Oh, did I mention the tiny photocopying area? C’mon, we’re law students, we kill more trees photocopying than the entire Brazilian logging industry!
I can just imagine the visiting academic / legal practitioner’s reactions:
“I need to photocopy this obscure text only available here, but there’s this long queue and damnit I’m in a hurry..!”
and
“Eh? Why is it so small?”
and
“Where can I sit down to browse this thing?”
Which brings me to another point: there are very few tables within the library itself. Sure, there are “study rooms” available… but from what I’ve seen they’re nothing like sitting in the quiet, contemplative environment that is the library. The pre-exam period is going to be interesting, to say the least.
Make no mistake, the C J Koh Law Library is extremely well-stocked and well-run. It’s just not well-equipped enough to handle the inevitable strain it will be put under.
And hey, what’s up with the student mailboxes? No longer are they all situated along 2 easily-accessible centralized corridors. Now they’re split up and scattered through the top-most 2 levels of the narrow “B” block. There’s no apparent structure to the scattering. M C Escher would be dumbfounded. My own mailbox is tucked away in a corner of the 5th level. Someone else in the same class as me could have theirs on the 4th level, in a position as diametrically-opposed to mine as is possible in a confined 3-dimensional rectangular space… that is to say, some 50 metres and 1 level away.
I pity the staffmember who delivers the mail.
There’s lots more! The library is on the opposite end of the facility from the main study block (it used to be just a level down from the main study areas). The co-op / bookshop / stationery shop is only open until 2pm (the one we used to have was open until 6pm. Or was it 6.30?). I haven’t tried the canteen food yet, but my expectations are not high.
But the worst thing of all is the feeling of being cut off from the rest of NUS. Of being separate. I enjoy seeing friends in other faculties. Now it’s as if we’re not part of the University, we’re Law School, man, we’re special, deserving, unique. Ladies and gentlemen, I assure you there is nothing special about Law School. Half of us are only here because we had the grades but couldn’t didn’t want to become doctors, and the other half would sue the panties off their grandmother.
In any case, the move is done, and that’s that. It’s wait-and-see time.