WHAT ARE YOUR FONDEST MEMORIES OF YOUR DAYS AT THE BUKIT TIMAH CAMPUS, AND WHAT DO YOU THINK BONDED THE MEMBERS OF DIFFERENT SCHOOLS TO BECOME ONE UNITED COHORT?

Juliana Patricia Lim: For me, the memories largely centred around music. By the time I joined NUS, there was already a very established tradition of a weekly folk song session held in one of the lecture theatres, when our batchmates Archie Ong and Andrew Liew would pick up a guitar, and all of us would join in singing folk songs like the melodious ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘If I Had A Hammer’ that were made popular by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. This was the era of the Vietnam War and these were American protest songs, but for us they were just nice songs of the time. We first bonded over music, and never stopped singing since — well, except during the pandemic.

Roy Higgs: You can say that the whole thing started off with friendship and links that we established on the Bukit Timah campus. While Hong Sai, as a Dentistry student, would have been at the Sepoy Lines, the Architecture school was at Lady Hill, and Engineering where Singapore Polytechnic was, at Shenton Way, the Bukit Timah campus was the central core of multiple faculties, and where students would go to for cross-faculty classes. It was also where Eusoff College, Raffles Hall and the Dunearn Road Hostels were located, so while it was a small campus, it was a gathering ground for students across faculties.

The central meeting places were where the food and drinks were. We had a few canteens: one behind the academic staff canteen; one at Union House, which was a focal meeting point; and another at the Guild House at Dalvey Road. At the former Guild House, we, the students, might go for lunch and end up being kindly treated to drinks by the members there. I still remember one of the past presidents buying us beer and lunch. That was the culture then: anybody could go in and be welcomed. And these friendships then grew into professional ties as we went out into the workforce.

Loh Hong Sai: Dentistry students did our first year at Bukit Timah campus, before we joined our seniors at the Sepoy Lines campus in Singapore General Hospital. Even when we were at the Sepoy Lines, some of us would return to Bukit Timah campus occasionally to visit classmates still staying at Raffles Hall, listen to rallies and feel the nostalgic atmosphere again. Bukit Timah campus was where there were carnivals and festivals, and a more holistic campus life. The students then were politically sensitive and activated, and there would be many speeches made. Whenever we had time, we at the Sepoy Lines would say: “Let’s go to Bukit Timah, have a beer and listen to the students there!”

There were good memories — such as studying in the Law Library, which was cool, spacious and where the pretty girls were. There were also frightening episodes: freshmen would have to wear a green tie during Orientation Week and we were constantly picked on by the Arts students. There was a popular senior who was a king ragger and I was caught by him at Newton Circus, where I was hoping to have a quiet lunch by myself. He bought me lunch, but I had to eat it sitting on the floor, being fed by two girls who were with him! Subsequently I lost a day of dental class because I had to take lecture notes for him. I guess this is the humility you need to have to become a doctor! (Laughs) But it was all in good fun, and he would look out for me later on, too. The academic side of our dentistry course was very tough but it is the friendship that sticks in our minds. Our generation largely came from humble beginnings, and we worked our way up — our mentality and the way we bonded with our peers were very different from students today. We also had a lot of Malaysians within our cohort, and they had very strong bonds, looking after one another, being away from home. They also extended their friendship to us and to this day, some of my best friends are the Malaysians I met at NUS.

Victor Roger Savage: Bukit Timah was the citadel of the spirit of the Class of ’72. Those from the Science, Law and Arts schools formed the central core of the Student Union, but the halls of residence — Raffles, Eusoff and Dunearn — were where you would find the true cross-faculty bonds. Sixty per cent of the residents at Raffles Hall were Malaysians, and that was — as Hong Sai said — very important. But it was also due to the spirit of the generation. The post-war generation was highly creative. If you just look at the pop scene in Britain and America, we had bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Beatles... we were part of this generation. Among our cohort, you would find a lot of interesting and creative people: good writers, cartoonists and photographers.

There were pranks and anti-war demonstrations which bonded us. We were also brought together by studying late into the night and going to the sarabat stall at 3am. There was also ragging, which wasn’t condoned by the University, but it bonded seniors and freshies — and many a senior-freshette pairing would go on to get married! Orientation was also a time when we organised many amazing things. I was involved in putting together big concerts at the National Theatre, featuring artistes from all the nightclubs in town, from Filipino to American bands. We even had a revolving stage which allowed the seamless changing of sets. While the freshmen were given tickets to the concerts, the rest were sold to the public, with the proceeds going to charity.