Yale-NUS College (YNC) alumni and netizens have expressed dismay after learning that DVDs containing classic films were destroyed prior to the closure of the university.
Student associates working at the YNC Library were asked by staff to destroy over 100 DVDs back in April before the college shuts down in June, reported The Straits Times.
Many YNC alumni have taken to social media to show their disappointment in the way National University of Singapore (NUS) has handled the matter.
Speaking to AsiaOne, a 26-year-old graduate from YNC who wanted to be known only as Adam, said that “it feels like a gut punch” and that there has been an obvious “loss of transparency and collaboration” as a result of NUS’ recent management of the library.
“Prior to staff movements following the 2021 YNC closure announcement, the Yale-NUS Library’s staff worked consultatively with the Yale-NUS community, often seeking opinions from student associates on community-focused events and initiatives,” he said, adding that the new leadership seems to have ignored all requests for clarity regarding the attempted disposal of books on May 20.
Chloe, a 25-year-old YNC alumni, also found the incident “absolutely shocking”, given that NUS had ample time to plan for the transition considering how the announcement to shut down YNC came in 2021.
“Out of context, the treatment of the books and DVDs was so rushed, it could almost seem like the college closed down last-minute,” she said.
“The labour that was channelled into scratching out the DVDs could have been redirected into rehoming the books, or even taking out the RFID tags on the books,” said Chloe, expressing that it has been “incredibly disappointing” especially as YNC’s last batch of students graduated last week.
‘A loss to the learning experience of all students’
In a digital age where most laptops no longer come with built-in DVD readers and popular streaming platforms like YouTube exist, some would question the impact of such a loss.
Speaking to AsiaOne, Dave Lim, a 31-year-old filmmaker and YNC alumni, begged to differ, saying that “streaming and finding films in a library are significantly different experiences”, given that DVDs in an academic library are curated.
Some of the DVDs destroyed were from The Criterion Collection, and also represent films that “people would not have ready access to, even with streaming”.
The Criterion Collection is an American home-video distribution company that restores and distributes classic and contemporary films.
“It is a loss to the learning experience of all students, especially in NUS. Much less to be said of the greater community if it had been donated to public libraries,” added Lim.
A Literature student from NUS, who requested to remain anonymous, also echoed similar sentiments and said that streaming services “carry such a limited number of actual older content”.
“Some of the DVDs might have films that in a few years may never exist in good condition anywhere else,” he said.
The value in physical media was also raised, as Adam emphasised the risks of censorship and how entire bodies of work could be eliminated from streaming platforms.
“Physical media is a safeguard against those issues, especially for an academic institute like NUS,” he said.
Restricted by licensing and copyright regulations: NUS
In response to AsiaOne’s queries, Associate Professor Natalie Pang, university librarian at NUS, said the rehoming of DVDs is subject to different considerations to that of books.
“Audiovisual materials are governed by licensing and copyright regulations, which restrict redistribution. We have integrated the DVDs we need into our collection. The DVDs which we were unable to rehome were those which could not be redistributed,” said Assoc Prof Pang.
No other details were shared regarding the actual number of DVDs and content destroyed.
A majority of the DVDs destroyed were films, including DVDs from The Criterion Collection. Films from The Criterion Collection are also known to include scholarly essays and documentary content about the respective films and filmmakers.
The incident happened on April 24 and 25, according to a student associate who spoke anonymously to The Straits Times.
During that time, she was instructed to make four cuts on each disc to render them unreadable.
Prior to this incident, NUS sparked public outrage when videos and photos of some 9,000 Yale-NUS books being collected by a recycling company had circulated online.
It was only after feedback and a petition by students that NUS managed to salvage 8,500 books and apologised for the “operational lapse”, promising to hold a book donation drive to rehome the books.
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Arden Mote
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