The*Asterisk

Reader David Goh raised his disapproval of INTI's awarding of postgraduate scholarships to American students over Asian students in his comment here.

David's suggestion of biased behaviour has prompted a response from Associate Vice President of Student Services and Alumni Division, Dr. Sia Ah Hiok.

Dr. Sia contacted The Asterisk to clear the air regarding this issue and set the record straight.

"Thank you (to David) for writing to us on your concerns over the selection of candidates for the Clinton Riley Initiative Award.

(Right) Dr. Sia awarding an undergraduate scholarship to a student at Youth Empowerment Camp 2010

Photograph by Di Sheng Chow

The Asterisk will be bringing you new original stories next week, despite the holidays, as we strive towards bringing freedom of speech to our campus.

We will also have an exclusive interview with the Associate Vice President of Student Services and Alumni Division, Dr. Sia Ah Hiok, on the newly installed fences which have caused uproar among the students.

Among the issues that will be addressed are:

• How the installation came about
• Reaction from the student population
• What INTIMA can do

Be sure to bookmark this address and return next week for this exclusive story.

The Fourth Estate (the publishers of The Asterisk) would like to take this opportunity to wish our readers a Happy Chinese New Year and enjoy the week-long holiday ahead!

By Sandheep Nair
sandheep90@msn.com

By Chris Yong
Chris-yongmh@hotmail.com


Being at the top of the student hierarchy is not easy, especially when the student population didn’t get to elect them. I’m sure back when the 15th INTIMA executive committee was announced, we all ran similar thoughts in our head – Who are these people? What are their qualifications? How would they fare as the new student government? And then before you know it, everyone wants a piece of them – criticisms, doubts, rants – even before the team assumes their places in the office.

Being the typical Malaysian I am, I jumped onto the bandwagon as well; the new INTIMA team became a staple conversation topic in my “teh tarik sessions” for a few weeks. Then – also another typical Malaysian trait – I conveniently forgot about them, shifting my focus to things at hand that are more important.

But having worked closely with the INTIMA EXCO over the past few months, I can’t help but to feel that some earlier notions I had about them, good or bad, were premature and unjustified. In the following I shall talk about my opinion of the 15th INTIMA EXCO– a mid-term review – the good and the bad.

The good:

• Team Cohesion – Surprisingly, the INTIMA exco is a very cohesive team for a ragtag group of students. It’s not something that can be achieved easily, just take a look at any club committee out there, especially a big committee formed from people who do not share common previous experiences, it’s difficult to find a tight-knit group working as well and having great fun at the same time as the 15th INTIMA EXCO.

• Attitude – Generally, the 15th INTIMA EXCO are a very approachable bunch. Their friendliness can actually make you forget that you are talking to a student government member; it feels more like dealing with a friend you’ve known for years. They are very helpful to other students and clubs alike, providing assistance if need be. I’ve never felt a tinge of arrogance from them, only camaraderie.

• Media – I do feel like they have a better internet presence compared to the last term. The utilization of Facebook had allowed them to reach a larger audience, although I still think they are not using the Facebook mail function enough. The launch of their new independent forum (http://intimaforum.co.cc/) was also a good move, the overall layout of the forum was neatly designed and the forum is definitely superior to its counterpart at INTIonline; I would suggest INTIMA to stop using the public forum at INTIonline and move all student discussions to the new forum so that it’s easier for both parties.

The bad:

• Sense of Authority – The 15th INTIMA still does not command the respect from all the clubs. Having tried to display authority with a series of new stringent regulations, it served only to cause a sense of oppression among the affiliate clubs. A good government does not force people to obey rules, they try to have rational conversation, and make compromise for a mutually agreed decision. INTIMA EXCOs needs to have better justifications for the regulations they pass, because there are a couple of them that, frankly speaking, made little sense.

• Professionalism – This is a problem plaguing the office since their installment. Being at the top of the student hierarchy, we expect them to have a personal display on par with their position. If you are a member of the student government, you better start acting like one. Sometimes, one feels there is a lack of maturity in the way the INTIMA EXCOs display themselves – behavior, tone of speaking, handling matters. I do not mean that this is a perennial problem, but it happens enough to be noticeable by the INTI community.

• Identity Crisis – INTIMA has a dilemma, and they don’t know it. They are stuck between being the awesome friend and the elite student government. A government is supposed to be exclusive and unbiased; a government is not supposed to be swayed by someone into making a biased decision because that someone is a dear friend. I’m not suggesting that INTIMA is biased, but it’s hard not to imagine when their friends give them visit at the office so often. An office is called an office for a reason; it is a place where work is meant to be done. I’m not restricting the EXCO members from interacting with their friends – by all means, please do – but take it out of the office; it doesn’t do well for INTIMA’s credibility when friendship and official work gets tangled together.

The 15th INTIMA EXCO, while faring quite well so far, still has some room for improvements. That being said, INTIMA EXCO should really try a different approach in gaining more respect from the affiliate clubs, because whatever it is that they are doing right now, it’s not going too well. Also, if INTIMA is doing anything significant to contribute to the student population at all, the students have not seen it.

The ongoing issue with the fences at the hostel blocks will be a good litmus test for INTIMA’s credibility as the student representative, all eyes will be on them as we fight for our student rights. The outcome of this issue will greatly determine how we judge the 15th INTIMA EXCO, whether they are really a revolutionary student government or not.

Chris Yong is The Asterisk’s resident political writer. His thoughts and views are of his own volition and do not reflects the views of the general INTI population.

INTIMA has welcomed its newest affiliate to the circle of socialisation, the INTI Punjabi Society (IPS). The new affiliate is reported to be under “the umbrella of the Indian Cultural Society” according to Asterisk sources in INTIMA.

The decision to allow this club to run is seen as an aberration on the part of INTIMA and the Students Affairs Office (SAO). IPS has just created an opportunity for students to take advantage of what appears to be a new loophole in the system to create clubs of differing heritage.

Will we be seeing Hakka or Hokkien cultural clubs fall under the umbrella of Chinese Cultural Society in the future? Should we expect to see a Javanese subdivision of the Malay Cultural Society sometime soon?

Only time will tell if INTIMA and SAO regret their decision.

By Sandheep Nair
sandheep90@msn.com

By Naheeda Suddoo
dragon_241291@hotmail.com

Part of the responsibility of being a student, we need to be well aware of our tuition fee structures. It is to my surprise that many of the engineering students have failed to notice a glaring error in this semester’s fees.

A fee schedule is given to every enrolled engineering student, with it mentioning the assessment fee, the resource fee and the tuition fee. Slight fee changes are expected throughout a 4-year degree program such as a raise in resource fee.

However, in the most recent fee schedule, the fees were changed to reflect a two semester system; longer semesters naturally mean higher fees. The semesters were proposed as such: January until July, and July until December.

According to the current Head of Program, the two semester system had been discussed and the Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FOEAT) were not in favour of the system. Despite this, INTI printed a fee schedule implementing this system.

Then a problem arose concerning those who enrolled in the UK degree transfer program. A two-semester system would cause them miss their transfer to UK for the September semester. It was a big a problem for INTI to neglect, so engineering returned to its three-semester system.

Come enrolment day, many students failed to notice that they were in fact paying fees based on the two-semester system. Faculty members and finance office staff were left equally baffled by the mistake.

Unfortunately, the students are the ones paying the price for INTI’s mistake. The Asterisk will follow up with FOEAT on this matter.

By Seth Borges
seth_borges@live.com

A rather common topic of conversation amongst INTI students is comparing INTI’s two main campuses: INTI International University (IIU) against INTI International College Subang (IICS).

I recently transferred to the IICS campus, and have found that the more compact, urbanized school has some traits that are definitely better as opposed to the much larger, more rural campus in Nilai. One of them being the way students dress.

Everyone knows about the “No Flip Flop” campaign going around all the INTI campuses in Malaysia, but the students in Subang Jaya take it a step further on their own: They dress appropriately for both classes and daily wear.

Around Nilai, students tend to not put in effort on how they dress for the most part. You do see the occasionally well-dressed student, but not too often.

Students make it a point, in fact, to make sure they have the whole flip-flop, “chilling at the beach” look going on. Around Subang Jaya, however, it’s a whole different story.

Wherever you are on campus, most students dress up as if they are at a mall or even borderline “clubbing”, and somehow manage to pull it off in an appropriate manner. The most impressive of all, there doesn’t seem to be anyone forcing the students to dress nicely.

If there’s anything that INTI Nilai students could learn from them, it’s that it does matter how you look no matter where you are. Let’s face it, people do judge books by their covers.

Seth Borges is a columnist for The Asterisk. The former IIU student has been writing the column “Behind Enemy Lines” ever since he transferred to IICS in 2011.

By Sandheep Nair
sandheep90@msn.com

When I first joined INTI in 2008, I joined the Editorial Board hoping to bring a new brand of journalism to this university. I rose through the ranks at the club and was soon editor of one of INTI’s oldest clubs. Before the days of INTI Vybes, IMPAC or even Adventure Club, Editorial Board (under the stewardship of the English Language Society) was writing stories for the INTI population.

I went on to other ventures after my tenure as Editor but my love of journalism never eroded. The long life of Editorial Board recently came to an end, the club slowly faded away into the depths of history when the newly elected 15th INTIMA announced that the club was officially declared inactive. In other words, the club I had grown to love is now dead.

Upon returning from my internship, I started a student based newspaper focused on online material to cater to the students. With help from a small but helpful interim committee, we created the Fourth Estate.
Now the fourth estate is a literary term for the press, a societal or political force. That is what this paper promises to deliver. We will strive to provide students of INTI all the information you need on what’s happening in and around INTI.

We are always on the lookout for more writers and if you would like to contribute, we’d love to have you.