The last two days I’ve been attending class at the Singapore Management University’s downtown campus. It’s actually my first visit to the SMU campus, so during the breaks I went around exploring the place a little. I always thought it would be nice to be studying in such a central downtown location. All the shopping, movies, and other entertainment just a stone’s throw from studying.
My class was in the Administration Building. It drizzled and rained the last two days. We realized that while all the rest of the SMU buildings were interconnected by an underground concourse, the Administration Building was isolated. In fact, if it rains really heavily, it isn’t even possible to get from the MRT to any SMU buildings without getting drenched. The MRT is so near, yet so out of reach. At least not until the new Circle Line station opens. A Circle Line station opens into the underground concourse.
The SMU buildings look really nice on the outside, but they are not extravagant on the inside. The campus is still quite new, so everything does look nice and modern. I had half expected the place to be “posh”, because of the publicity over their Herman Miller Aeron chairs (which I did get to sit on). But no, they weren’t wasting taxpayers money.
They have plenty of escalators. My colleagues and I were just musing over the complete lack of escalators in NUS. Yes, NUS campus is so much bigger, but there is not a single escalator. In fact, you’d have thought that the Kent Ridge terrain that NUS sits on, where just about everywhere is a slope, would have deserved plenty of escalators. (I’m fine with no escalators, but one thing I wish is for NUS to make their lifts go faster. I wonder if they realize that the time wasted waiting for the lift over the lifespan of the lift might actually be much more costly than the money saved from installing a cheaper lift.)
I like their underground concourse: food court and retail shops. It is just like a scaled down City Link Mall. We’re talking about real retail… Kou Fu food court, Settler’s Cafe, that sort; Not like “The Frontier” canteen in NUS.
What was I doing at SMU? Well, IDA organized this Hadoop Training class. Considering that NUS and IHPC seem to make up most of the people in attendance, I wondered why the class was held at SMU. In fact, what has SMU got to do with Hadoop?
SMU is really a named University to be in with. It is really a matter of pride for those studding in this university as well as managed to get in and selected there.
you might want to do a reality check on the pride issue. media and school administration accounts for one side of the story. there’s the other side of SMU that you have not seen yet. one that is filled with resentment, hopelessness and disappointment.