Written by Wei En, Eleanor, Ryan How and Jun Yi
For most freshmen, Batch Project sounds like an enduring fixture on USP’s calendar. However, Batch Project actually has a surprisingly short history, with Batch Project 2020 as its third iteration. This article is a summary of Batch Project’s origins. We hope that a deeper understanding of Batch Project’s history can inspire freshmen to be more committed towards its success.
NUSSU Rag and Flag
Photo of Rag Day 2018, taken from “Rag Day 2019” (National University of Singapore).
Up till 2018, the NUS Students’ Union (NUSSU) Rag and Flag, termed by the USP community as “Batch Project”, was a significant part of the USP freshmen orientation experience. It was started in 1958 as an annual charity project and was incorporated into the NUSSU Freshmen Orientation Programme (FOP) in 1976. Faculties would compete against each other and aim to garner the highest amount of donations, collectively raising hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.
Rag and Flag consists of two parts. The first part is Flag Day, in which students sell flags in exchange for donations. The second part is Receiving and Giving Day (Rag Day), where dance performances are staged on intricate floats that are constructed by students. It is the second part that incites much controversy, as students are known to adopt environmentally unfriendly and extravagant practices to gain an edge over other faculties. In particular, a documentary named ‘Rag to Riches’ was created by a group of NUS students to bring attention to the issues plaguing Rag Day. In the documentary, the NUSSU President of the 31st Executive Committee, Ho Jun Yi, admits that there is an “ugly side” to Rag and Flag whereby students waste “very expensive materials” to win a ‘rather cheap trophy”. NUSSU claims that they have “always actively tried to stop” these actions but “cannot control” what the participating bodies do “behind [their] backs”. Moreover, while the President stated that most floats only cost several hundred dollars, some students claim that their faculties spent thousands of dollars building their floats. The exorbitant cost needed for faculties to remain competitive caused many students to question whether the budget for the float should be given to the charities instead.
Even before the establishment of USP in 2001, various faculties have made the decision to withdraw from Rag (though many subsequently returned in future iterations). In 1991, the six Halls of Residence pulled out from Rag to “reduce unhealthy interhall rivalry.” In 1999, Law Club also pulled out from Rag, citing that it has become a "waste of money, time, resources, manpower and effort", and used the funds to build a garden for Pertapis Children’s Home.
Photo of the 2017 USP Rag team taken from “Rag Day 2017” (University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore). (Permission was sought from Tham Jun Han ‘18 for this photo to be included in the article.)
In 2017, the team clinched the Mighty Mouse Award for bringing in the highest per capita contribution per participant, as well as the Bronze award for their performance.
Rag Referendum
The rumblings of change were first heard on 16 Jan 2017, at the 16th University Scholars Club (USC) Management Committee’s (MC) Town Hall Meeting where the issue of continuing with Rag and Flag was debated. The next salvo that was fired came after the school term. On the morning of 7 May 2017, a letter signed by Soon Hao Jing ‘19 and 20 other USC members was sent to the MC requesting an online poll to decide if USC should withdraw from Rag Day and instead “organise an alternative public engagement performance that future incoming USP freshmen may participate in” from 2018 onwards. The matter was heavily debated in various channels, including USP Life! and Chatterbox, with no definitive conclusion. A key benefit of Rag was bonding freshmen together, which discussants thought boiled down to freshmen spending time and overcoming various challenges together. It was agreed that an ideal Rag should culminate in a meaningful objective, serve a meaningful cause and offer freshmen opportunities to try new things while ensuring that they still form bonds with each other.
However, there was contention over the environmental unsustainability of Rag, despite the attempts of the USP community to cut down waste in previous iterations. Some discussants also argued that Rag was unable to achieve social bonding within the USP community, which other discussants thought could be said of any other alternative. Also, there was a general consensus that Rag did not achieve meaningful engagement with the public, since the performances had little to do with community service and not many of its beneficiaries attended the event.
Returning to the central issue of the purpose of Rag, it was argued that Rag had evolved into a public relations stunt for NUS, while USP envisioned Rag as a way to orientate freshmen and strengthen their roots to USP. While the approach of settling for incremental changes within Rag (or even a bold statement such as performing without a float) was considered by the discussants, there was still the question of how the rest of NUS would perceive this act of isolation. Furthermore, with no fleshed-out alternative to Rag, many discussants were hesitant to support the withdrawal.
The points raised above, while valid, do not address the elephant in the room: the contentious issue of Rag forming part of USP’s identity. Hao Jing, who signed off the letter calling for the referendum, brings it up during our interview. “USP never really did too well at Rag [in terms of awards], leading some seniors to feel it wasn’t part of USP’s identity... never really got too much from Rag, so maybe USP was more ready to… move on.” With only a minority of USP freshmen participating in USP Rag year after year, as some chose to join their faculties’ Rag instead, many were left wondering if Rag was still an integral part of USP FOP.
On 11 Jun 2017, the Rag Referendum (catchily termed “RAGxit” after Brexit) concluded with a narrow majority of 69 votes out of 129 votes supporting a withdrawal from Rag. (The 2017 AGM Report by the 16th USC Management Committee explains the referendum in greater detail, and also lists a couple of links to the discussions among the USP community.)
Batch Project 2018
While the referendum results meant that USP would withdraw from Rag 2018, there were still numerous obstacles that needed resolving. Tham Jun Han ‘18, who was also heavily involved in the referendum, explained that the USP community “moved on quite quickly” after “a period of grief” and sought to ensure that freshmen would still enjoy themselves in Rag 2017. With the compilation of a 19-page document chock-full of ideas and feedback for Batch Project, the community was assured that Batch Project would be able to provide freshmen with something similar to what previous batches experienced at Rag, if not better.
Since this was the first iteration of Batch Project, the committee had to plan every part of the project from scratch. We also spoke to Jadyn Teo ‘21 and Tan Li Lin ‘21, the Project Directors of Batch Project 2018, who had written an article on The Cinnamon Roll about the merits and failures of their Batch Project.
As Li Lin puts it: “A large part of planning was figuring out what we wanted to do for Batch Project. That was very hard because we started with nothing.” With the USP community still split over the decision to withdraw from Rag 2018, the Batch Project committee wanted to ensure that their decisions reflected the community’s general will. To achieve that goal, the committee held multiple discussion sessions in Chatterbox where they aggregated ideas and feedback from the community. “By the end of 2018, we haven’t fixed on an idea of what we wanted to do. That’s because we went through four iterations of what we wanted to do for Batch Project.” (Jadyn)
Eventually, the committee decided that Batch Project would consist of two different components based around the theme of “Art in the Heartlands”. The first group of freshmen participated in a dance performance that was held in Ulu Pandan, while the second group painted the void deck of an Ulu Pandan HDB.
An exceptionally successful aspect of Rag was the intimate bonding it achieved among freshmen dancers, who would spend numerous hours of practice preparing for performances. The potential for USP freshmen to forge strong friendships undergirded the committee’s decision to include a dancing portion to Batch Project. After teaming up with Telok Blangah CC and Clementi CC, the dancers prepared performances for separate National Day celebrations. To ensure the performance had a Singaporean flavour, the committee decided on an overarching theme of “Music through the Generations”. An older song and a newer song were chosen to honour Singapore’s history.
Photo of a National Day Performance by Batch Project 2018, taken from “USP Batch Project: A Heart for the Community” (University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore).
On the other hand, the committee sought to address one of the most serious criticisms of Rag, namely that it failed to adhere to the needs and wishes of the community. As Li Lin points out, “[we] didn’t want to impose ourselves on the community.” That attitude guided the committee’s approach toward the artwork component of Batch Project. Before a sample painting was produced, freshmen spent one month surveying Ghim Moh to intimately understand the local community and ensure that the final artwork accurately reflected their lives. Li Lin stated that “We better understood the key community players, such as an ice cream man and people playing chess in the local hawker centre.” These figures were incorporated into the final artwork, alongside prominent features of Ghim Moh such as the Ghim Moh Market.
After the surveying was completed, the committee decided that the main mural would be supported by four pillar paintings, with the purpose of involving the community in the artwork creation. Residents could take part in the artwork creations by leaving their handprints on the columns. Inviting the community to participate in the painting also generated a few surprises. Li Lin recalled that “There was an aunty that wanted to help draw trees, and she was really good at it!”
Photo of the artwork creation process during Batch Project 2018, taken from “USP Batch Project: A Heart for the Community” (University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore).
Photo of one of the four pillar paintings during Batch Project 2018, taken from “USP Batch Project: A Heart for the Community” (University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore).
It could be said that USP’s support of Rag in recent years was only lukewarm at best, as Rag’s failure to address its shortcomings indubitably depressed the willingness of students to participate earnestly. In stark contrast, Batch Project 2018 had stimulated the entire USP community into action, with many seniors enthusiastically supporting the freshmen’s efforts. With the assurance that their efforts could contribute to a meaningful cause, the community was eager to participate in whatever ways they could.
When we asked the seniors for advice that they wanted to give to future batches, Li Lin stated that “Be sure about what the USP community wants to achieve for Batch Project. Make sure that it is meaningful in whatever they conceive to be meaningful.” Hao Jing and Jun Han also emphasised that the community should move away from doing things because of “tradition” and seek to “challenge the status quo”, so that USP could explore new ways to bond freshmen while making meaningful contributions as society evolves.
However, they have also underscored that the quest for meaning has not necessarily ended. As Jadyn says, “For the future batches, they need to find out what the new batch of USP students want and what they would conceive as a meaningful Batch Project”. This meaning can only be properly defined if the USP community provides feedback to the Batch Project committee. “Even if you are a freshman, you probably should have a stake in saying what Batch Project should look like.” (Li Lin)
Batch Project is special because it is our project. Attempting to withdraw from RAG and conceiving an independent project was an exacting endeavour. However, the efforts of our seniors mean that we have a project that we can mould to our liking. That should strongly motivate us in ensuring that Batch Project continues to be an enduring success.