A Delicate Balancing Act

Meet the man in charge of food, housing and security for NTU’s population of over 30,000 people.

By Cynthia Choo, News Editor

DIFFICULT TASK: Mr Jimmy Lee tries to meet students’ demands with the resources the school has.
PHOTO: LIM MU YAO

If it seems impossible for anyone to manage the needs of 30,000 students and faculty staff, think again.

NTU’s Chief Housing and Auxiliary Services (HAS) officer Jimmy Lee does that on a daily basis. In fact, he is also responsible for  the safety of students and staff in the university — ensuring that they have a roof over their heads, that they are given sufficient  food and beverage choices, and have efficient transportation in and around school.

But Mr Lee is rarely daunted, given his experience back at MapleTree Investments, where he was similarly in charge of commercial and residential properties.

There was one new jobscope that Mr Lee had to learn though. And it was that his job often entailed bearing the the brunt of student grouses — be it expensive canteen food, long shuttle bus waiting times or late-night hall checks.

So much so that the 59-year-old admitted that “dealing with students and faculty was tougher than dealing with investors”.

Mr Lee recounted the widespread student dissatisfaction after the internal shuttle bus routes were changed in August. He said HAS and NTUSU had jointly decided to reduce the number of bus stops so that buses can cover more ground faster, thus increasing bus frequencies.

But students complained the distance between bus stops was too long. “If students want the convenience of being able to walk to a nearby bus stop, then they would have to put up with the long waiting times, but if they want better bus frequencies, they have to make the sacrifice and walk a little further,” he said.

Mr Lee has accepted criticism is inevitable: “Students being students, they will complain.”

But this was not his attitude when he started work. Solving the housing crunch was the first item on Mr Lee’s agenda when he first assumed his position as Chief HAS Officer in January.

“I spent a good year trying to understand and solve the insufficient housing space in NTU,” he said.

But he soon learnt that land sources were finite, and said the real challenge was not to keep building new halls, but trying to balance between meeting students’ demands with the amount of resources the university could afford.

Despite starting construction work on a total of eight new halls in January, some housing demands still go unfulfilled. “This is why we cannot afford to have people misusing the privilege to stay in hall,” he said.

He responded to the recent unhappiness among residences over hall checks, saying that the checks were done to weed out tenants that allowed unauthorise persons to stay in their rooms, or even worse, renting their rooms out at a higher price.

“The rooms could have been given to students who desperately needed a room to stay in. HAS wants to send a clear message to students that there are rules to follow,” he said.

Even though Mr Lee clamps down on students for violating hall rules, he still puts the students in priority when deciding on changes around the school. He revealed that students can look forward to a retail hub at the North Spine Canopy K area and a new medical centre in 2014.

“The entire Canopy K area would be reconstructed to include more commercial eateries, banks, and most importantly, a post office,” he said.

The post office will benefit foreign students who will need to do money transfers between Singapore their home countries.

NTU students can also expect a refurbished medical centre. The centre, which is currently beside the Lee Kong Chian Lecture Theatre, will have more consultation rooms to reduce waiting time. X-ray services will also be available at the medical centre after the revamp.

“By bringing services  that are mostly situated outside of NTU  into the school, it would mean errands like banking and postage will be made more convenient for NTU students,” he said.

Despite having already started construction on eight new halls, deciding that Koufu would take over operations in the South Spine canteen in August, and changing the internal shuttle bus routes, it seems Mr Lee is not planning to slow down.

“Improvements should never end,” he said.