New Haven Independent

posted by: Threefifths on September 13, 2010  9:06am

Will it have Skull and Bones.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/02/60minutes/main576332.shtml

posted by: really on September 13, 2010  11:22am

Sadly, this is what I think of when someone says “Singapore” (Other than Anna and the King…) 

Corporal punishment
Main article: Caning in Singapore
Singapore also employs corporal punishment in the form of severe caning on the bare buttocks for numerous criminal offences if committed by males under 50, and this is a mandatory sentence for some 30 offences. Some international observers, including Amnesty International, maintain that corporal punishment is in itself contrary to human rights, but this is disputed. Caning is never ordered on its own in Singapore, only in combination with imprisonment. There is mandatory caning of at least three strokes, combined with a minimum of three months’ imprisonment, for foreign workers who overstay by more than 3 months. The government argues that this is necessary to deter would-be immigration offenders, as Singapore remains an attractive destination for illegal immigrants; experience prior to 1989 had shown that imprisonment was not alone a sufficient deterrent. It feels that long-term overstayers who are not able to work legitimately pose social problems and may turn to crime.[7]

Corporal punishment may also be ordered for various sexual offences, rioting, the possession of weapons, violence of all kinds, drug abuse, and vandalism of public property. Male members of the armed forces are liable to a less severe form of caning for breaches of miitary discipline.

Wikipedia used as “source”

posted by: Alphonse Credenza on September 14, 2010  2:05pm

Full-fare foreigners are big bucks for this cash cow.  I’m not surprised another Yale-related outpost has been established—should stimulate the market and vacuum up a LOT of prestige-seeker cash out that way.  Yale—what an incredible for-profit business model!  THEY SHOULD BE TAXED LIKE ANY CORPORATION.

posted by: The Professor on September 14, 2010  5:55pm

Really,

I’m not condoning corporal punishment, but get real.  Until the early 2000s, many states in our country criminalized physical expressions of love between consenting adults on the basis of homosexuality.  Prison rape is still tolerated to an appalling degree in American society.  The United States still hasn’t ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, putting us in the same league as Somalia, but even Somalia, which lacks a functional government, is likely to ratify it soon. I could go on here.

The point is that no country is perfect.  Most societies unfortunately have regressive traits.  I fail to see how the solution is LESS education.  If someone is ignorant, you educate them.  Similarly, if a society is unacceptably prone to regressive treatment, what better way to encourage progress than to help it establish the first liberal arts college in the country?  Liberal arts colleges teach people how to think critically about the world around them, and it sounds exactly like that’s what Singapore needs.

Also, if you bothered to read the prospectus, which this article conveniently links to, you’d see a discussion about Singapore’s legal system and its impact on academic freedom and other related considerations on page 7.  Believe it or not, Yale’s administration actually considered this issue before coming out with this proposal.

Alphonse Credenza,

You might want to figure out what exactly is going on before you start trashing Yale.  If you knew the first thing about Yale’s tuition practices, you’d know that Yale’s financial aid is equally as generous for foreigners as it is for Americans. 

Furthermore, if you bothered to read the prospectus for the program, which this article conveniently links to, you’d see that it appears that it in no way suggests that Yale will make money from this. In fact, Yale loses money on most of its educational endeavors.  For example, the actual cost of educating an undergraduate is somewhere in the $80,000/year neighborhood, but full tuition is only around $45,000 per year.  I don’t think that any profit-maximizing business that charged nearly 50% below cost for its product would remain in business very long. 

Threefifths,

Seeing as Skull and Bones is basically a group of 15 relatively high-achieving college seniors who get together, drink, and talk about themselves every weekend, I think Singapore’s relatively stringent laws on alcohol might prevent the establishment of a Skull and Bones chapter.  But you never know, they might go dry.

posted by: M. Table on September 15, 2010  7:24am

Be thankful. There is far less concern in Singapore over corporal punishment than the antiquated death penalty which is still in place for a multitude of offenses.

Besides, with a regime like that of the ruling party, a Skull and Bones has been rendered redundant. The high-achievers are all concentrated in the single party and have no need of such groupings to mingle and network. Besides, these would have furthermore been packed off to study in universities overseas under government-funded ‘scholarships’ and will invariably be accelerated to cushy jobs as bureaucrats and politicians under the single-party system. None of them will be around in the local varsities for a Singaporean Skull and Bones. In fact, it just makes the Skull and Bones look like a junior high clique in comparison.

And anyway, Yale has no financial obligations in the venture. This will be entirely footed by the government.

posted by: Alphonse Credenza on September 15, 2010  8:58am

Professor

I find your assertion that Yale is a loss-making institution the most disingenuous comment I have ever read!

Where full professors make 150k plus substantial benefits, associates 100k, assistant 90k—all the while highly subsidized—this is one of the most lucrative businesses around for everyone involved.

posted by: Threefifths on September 15, 2010  12:20pm

posted by: M. Table on September 15, 2010 7:24am

Besides, with a regime like that of the ruling party, a Skull and Bones has been rendered redundant

I don’t think so.Skull and Bones is just one.How about this list,Take you pick.

http://www.crystalinks.com/mysteryschools.html

P.S. don’t forget about the Bilderberg Group.

http://www.crystalinks.com/bilderberg.html

posted by: The Professor on September 15, 2010  8:46pm

Alphonse Credenza,

I find your assertion that any business that pays any employees well must necessarily be a for-profit business one of the most ill-informed things I’ve ever read.  Why don’t you go take a look at how much the Rockefeller Foundation pays its employees.  Or how much the top level people at the United Way make.  Or how much the top level people at any other major nonprofit organization make.  The fact of the matter is that when there is a competition for talent, that drives up the cost of retaining talent.

Now, I never said that Yale was a loss-making institution.  It is, as you could probably infer from my use of the term in the prior paragraph, a “nonprofit.”  That means that when Yale takes in more money than it spends, it hangs onto that money so that it can reinvest it on things like understanding global economic trends or curing cancer or building the buildings that house those intellectual endeavors.

... Yale actually LOSES money on educating full time students.  You know where it makes the money it uses to pay those salaries?  Donations and investments.  Again, tell me how many for-profit, profit-maximizing firms can reasonably rely on people giving them money in exchange for nothing as an integral part of their business model. 

Threefifths,

I somehow get the feeling that you consider “Angels and Demons” and “The Da Vinci Code” to be documentaries.

posted by: sandy sanchez on September 28, 2010  7:51am

Unbelievable and shameful that a US college is even thinking about one of their universities in Singapore. This Barbaric government is responsible for thousands of human rights abuses yearly with it’s 17th century perverted sexual assaults upon male law offenders. This place stands for everything that America is not: Dictatorship, Mandatory Floggings, Mandatory Death penalty, Freedoms restricted, Censorship. The United States needs to stop doing business with these criminals. SHAME ON YALE!