Company cuts off ties with NUS, students express 'deep concern' as fallout from peeping tom incident widens

SINGAPORE — The fallout over the National University of Singapore's (NUS) handling of a peeping tom incident has widened, with a company declaring that it will cease all dealings with the university while the mother of the victim lashed out at NUS for letting the perpetrator off "so lightly".

Meanwhile, almost 500 students put up a statement addressed to NUS' senior management, including president Tan Eng Chye, provost Ho Teck Hua and dean Peter Pang, calling on the university to take a "stronger stance against sexual harassment and set a positive example for other universities around the world".

The victim, 23-year-old NUS undergraduate Monica Baey, had taken to Instagram to publicise an incident in which she was filmed by a fellow student while she was showering in her hostel bathroom at NUS' Eusoff Hall last November.

She said that the police handed the perpetrator a 12-month conditional warning, while NUS got him to write a letter of apology to her, suspended him for a semester, barred him from entering halls and residences, and made him attend counselling.

She said in her posts that she wanted “real consequences for perpetrators that commit such acts”.

On Sunday (April 21), OnHand Agrarian, an urban farm that has taken in NUS students for internships, said in a Facebook post that it has made "the monumentally stupid decision" to compromise its product and clients by "allowing a criminal" to continue to use its facilities.

Therefore, the company said that it will "suspend all dealings" with NUS until the perpetrator is expelled.

"No talks, no internships, no site visits, no use of our company when you need industry partners to be Co-PIs (co-Principal Investigator) for government grant submissions," it said.

The firm has taken in, on average, two interns from NUS each year since 2016, founder Shannon Lim told TODAY.

He has also been invited to give talks to graduating classes of NUS in recent years.

NUS had said on Saturday that it will set up a committee to review its current disciplinary and support frameworks.

The executive committee of the NUS' students’ union then said in a statement on Sunday that it condemns any form of sexual harassment at the institution, but urged fellow students not to harass the perpetrator.

Ms Baey herself was one of 489 signatories in a statement addressed to the NUS' heads on Sunday, expressing deep concerns about the university’s "approach towards sexual harassment".

The statement said: "While we understand the University’s need to maintain a balanced position on the matter and to keep in line with precedence, we find the punishment meted out in this case problematic because it signals to the NUS community at large that i) our University does not credibly enforce its stance against sexual voyeurism as a serious offence; ii) those who commit such an offence can arguably expect to receive a relatively light sentence; and iii) survivors of sexual violence and harassment will not receive adequate institutional and social support even if they voice their concerns to the relevant authorities."

The group of signatories made four recommendations, including suggesting that NUS make a "stronger statement against sexual harassment on campus" than the one dean Pang had issued, and publicly committing to a "zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment".

"As one of the world’s top universities, we hope that NUS would take a stronger stance against sexual harassment and set a positive example for other universities around the world," the statement said.

Meanwhile, the victim's mother has called the 12-month conditional warning issued by the police to the perpetrator as "completely ridiculous".

"What this means is, the police are giving him a slap on his hand and say don't do it again within 12 months," Mrs Mary Baey commented on Facebook.

"How can we know this is not going to happen again and how can there be no serious consequences for such action?"

She also criticised NUS for letting the peeping tom off "so lightly with an absurd and pathetic apology, and a suspension of a semester", describing the punishment meted out as "completely unacceptable".

"I was given to understand that this is not the first case, there have been many cases, some reported to NUS and some that went unreported," Mrs Baey said.

"How can we place our trust in NUS, a national and international institution? This trust is now broken."