The Anniversary Special: 20 Years Of Chronicle

Opinions Editor Andrew Toh speaks to alumni of The Chronicle to find out how much has changed and remained for the 20-year-old newspaper.

Change is a natural part of the newsroom. Every day, new stories are run on the newspaper’s pages. World trends and popular opinions of the day come and go, influenced by breaking events happening around the globe.

One thing however, remains the same. Newspaper editors, the core group of individuals who decide on the stories that make it to the pages every day, continue to be the main driving force behind every paper.

For the Nanyang Chronicle, it’s no exception.

Ever since its creation in 1994, the Chronicle has aimed to provide timely and relevant news to our readers, and to serve as  the voice of the student population.

Editors play a crucial role to its operations, overseeing the reporting of a wide variety of issues, from major events such as the staging of the Youth Olympic Games, to more perennial concerns such as tuition fee hikes.

The first dean of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI), Dr Eddie Kuo, recognised the need for a campus newspaper to serve the students and faculty back when the idea was first mooted in 1994.

“The Chronicle will be able to serve as a focal point of shared knowledge and shared understanding for the whole university,” he said in an interview published in the first issue of the Chronicle.

He added that the paper would help to “increase awareness of campus issues only for staff and students, but also for peripheral members of the university, like canteen operators”.

He said: “In this way, the Chronicle will help NTU to establish a unique identity.”

The Chronicle editors have tried as much as possible to stay true to this vision. As part of the Chronicle’s 20th Anniversary, we celebrate the paper’s history by speaking to former editors of the Chronicle and asking them what some of the most trending topics of their day were.

Many different paths have been tracked by our alumni, ranging from a Communications Director based in Seattle, to a News Editor of Singapore’s main tabloid, The New Paper. With respondents from as early as the pioneer group of editors, to the more recent 2010 batch, it is surprising to see how much has changed in the Chronicle, and at the same time, how much has stayed the same.

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Dorothy Ho
Managing Editor, 1994
Director of Communications, Acumatica (Seattle, Washington)

What were some of the biggest stories The Chronicle covered during your time?

I remember we covered the opening of the big Lecture Hall, called LT1, at the time. We also did a story on how students were gaming the points system to stay in Residence Halls, and I think the Student Affairs Office was quite angry.

What was it like working for The Chronicle at that time? Any memorable moments?

The Chronicle’s first office was in the top floor of the old Museum Building on campus. It didn’t have the best ventilation — or any windows. I think it might have been the attic. And on those late off-stone nights, we’d be eating our takeout food and working, and the smell of our dinners would permeate the entire space. I remember the office always had a funky smell.

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Eugene Wee
Chief Editor, 1998
News Editor, The New Paper

What were some of the biggest stories the Chronicle covered during your time?

I remember doing a story about NTU undergraduates who were running their own businesses. It wasn’t a big story but I remember thinking ” Wow. These guys can run a company and study at the same time.” And there I was, complaining about having trouble getting out of bed just so I wouldn’t be late for lectures.

What was it like working for the Chronicle at that time? Any memorable moments?

During my time, we did something quite ambitious. Instead of just NTU news, we extended our coverage to community news in Jurong extension as well. That took us out of our comfort zone in the campus to try our hand at being a heartland community paper

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Lim Wui Liang
Photo Editor, 2002
Southeast Asia Photo Editor, Microsoft’s news apps on Windows 8

What were some of the biggest stories The Chronicle covered during your time?

The MTV Asia Awards held in Singapore in 2002. That was quite a fun event to photograph. And a few car accidents on campus.

What was it like working for The Chronicle at that time? Any memorable moments?

The long and crazy nights before every fortnightly offstone. To destress, we would take out chairs with wheels and race around the corridor on them.

Also, looking at contact sheets of photographers’ assignments — we were still shooting on film then — and scanning the negatives into the computer. We had only one digital SLR then as the Chronicle was short of equipment — the Nikon D1. Getting to use it was a big deal.

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