Transcript

Hi, I’m Neil Clarke. I had the pleasure of living in Cendana for five years, first as a residential faculty member the very first year the campus was open, and then twice as Rector from 2016 to 2019 and again for one year in 2022 – 23.

I want to be careful how I talk about Cendana because I knew literally hundreds of amazing, inspiring students in Elm and Saga, and I had wonderful friends and colleagues at the other RC [Residential College] offices. So, it is with all due affection and respect to all of you that I will still say it loud that I am Pulau Proud!

I am a cheerleader for all things Cendol, and a Cendana chauvinist to the end. I loved the fact that we were seen as something apart from the rest of the College, and I loved the fact that we were really central to the College. By any reasonable measure, it was Elm and Saga that were on the outskirts. The Dance Studio, and the Gym, MPH [Multi Purpose Hall], the Art Studios, the Fab Lab [Fabrication Workshops], the bus stops, Cendana field… all of those were very very close to Cendana. Sure, our courtyard was small, and our buttery—The Nest—was hidden away, but to my way of thinking they were also the coziest and most intimate such spaces on campus. And our Dining Hall was surely the most beautiful on campus.

Cendana, of course, was as much a spirit as a place. I don’t know that Cendana was distinctive or special in that respect, I’ll leave it to the Elmighty and Sagacious ones to make cases for Elm and Saga, but I do believe that Cendana and the Cendana spirit exemplified everything that was great about Yale-NUS College as a whole. So, to all Kingfishers, I hope that the memories of your RC, and of Yale-NUS College, are as fond as mine.