Rafflesian Times TEST Issue 1 | Page 42

Subheader Black Holes and Revelations
Word From Above : An Interview
To find out more about the school ’ s take on the confessions fad , our journalists spoke to Mr Dominic Chua and Ms Chelsia Ho from the Department of Communications , Alumni Relations and Advancement where Mr Chua is the Head of Creative Direction and Ms Ho is the Head of Communications . As it turns out , members of the school staff actually do read the confessions page ! Most interestingly , we discovered that staff do review the more pressing issues discussed , adding a new dimension to the confession pages as a feedback channel , and a view into the mind of the student body .
interviewees
How did you first hear about the confession pages ?
So , why do you actually read it ? Do you read it for fun ?
Rafflesian Times
Ms Ho
Mr Chua
I heard about the confessions when I was in the States , but in Singapore , I only found out from a Straits Times article about universities setting up their confession pages . I never really thought it would catch on here .
So what do you think of the posts ?
When it first started , we liked some of the posts — like if you went to a certain floor , you ’ d see a really nice sunrise or sunset , or posts about the RJ cat !
It ’ s quite cute , I ’ ve seen people apologising for various things , like , ‘ I ’ m so sorry I took your space on this bench !’
What was really quite heart-warming for me to see was when there were posts about the emotions of certain people — like , deep down , they were depressed , and others jumped in to counsel and encourage them . That was really nice to see .
Similar to that , you get posts about depression — which I guess is that darker side of being in RI , that people face self-esteem issues , like , “ Oh my gosh ! Everyone ’ s so much smarter than me !” “ I can ’ t keep up with my studies !”
I would say that 80 percent of why we read is because we want to understand what ’ s going on in the hearts and minds of students . With the other 20 percent , it was out of the corner of our eyes — is there something that we might need to forward to a school colleague ? Say , if we see that there are multiple posts regarding a certain issue , for example , the closure of CCAs , we would take that as feedback and direct it to a relevant department in the school . We don ’ t want all that feedback to be wasted , it should be given due consideration and weight .
You mentioned closure of CCAs - how much is actually done ?
We can ’ t guarantee action in that sense ; it ’ s a little bit beyond us . We forward it on , and say , “ Hey ! You guys might just want to take note of this as we ’ re seeing a number of similar posts in the last week or so .” We leave it at that , because they ’ re getting hit pretty hard for this as well !
42