The NUS Students’ Union is not the organization that some students think does nothing.

“It’s just that we don’t go around broadcasting. It’s just that we have not been doing much publicity about what we are doing,” said Tay E Teng, current president of NUSSU.

Tay was speaking to The Observer in a one-on-one, face-to-face interview held earlier today at the Grinning Gecko café, just metres away from the Central Forum where the inaugural Union Week, a NUSSU outreach programme, is being held.

The 28th president of NUSSU was not being oblivious to the irony of her statement, which she made in response to students she called “sceptical” towards the union and its activities.

Instead, she was referring to progress made on the union’s projects to benefit students..

“We will only inform students of major developments,” Tay said, adding that she was unsure if students would be interested in constantly receiving emails about every single action the union takes.

For the present NUSSU committee, “major developments” have included the extension of the Central Library’s opening hours during the examination period to 24 hours and consultation sessions with the university administration on issues such as the instability of the Centralized Online Registration System.

Do not get Tay wrong. The fourth-year University Scholars Programme business student wants the NUS student population to know that NUSSU is “constantly” doing its part in representing the student body and ensuring its welfare.

For one, she revealed that NUSSU has been “particularly vocal” in its attempt to get the Office of Estate and Development to erect sheltered walkways linking Sheares Hall and Kent Ridge Hall to the bus stop outside Ho Sui Sen Memorial Library. Another has been planned for the distance between the Central Forum and the bus stop closest to it.

And while previous NUSSU committees had also been pushing for these infrastructural improvements, Tay said, the 28th NUSSU committee is finally making some headway.

What is trying about the whole process is getting students to become more aware of NUSSU’s efforts and to support the students’ union.

Tay said certain initiatives take a longer time to be approved by the administration and to be implemented, leading students to think that the union is not doing anything.

Not denying that there are students who are appreciative of NUSSU’s efforts, Tay said there are also people “who take things for granted when things are going well.”

She said she thinks such an attitude might have some something to do with the “Asian mindset,” which does not encourage one to praise others for their achievements.

“People only criticize you when things are not doing well,” Tay said.

Then there are students who do not seem to know what the union is or does.

According to Tay, members of NUSSU who approached students in the past week at the Union Week event were often met with questions about what the union does.

“(Students) will ask, ‘What do you do?’” Tay said. “Unions are not very vocal in Singapore. Maybe that’s why students may not know what a union is.”

Tay and her committee organized Union Week with the aim of changing this.

“We hope all students will get a chance to learn what the union is,” Tay said. “Before we even build the (NUSSU) brand, there is a need for students to know the existence of the union.”

So determined is the 28th NUSSU committee to establish its presence in school as a representative of the students that “10 plus” members of NUSSU embarked on a five-day trip, which was subsidized by the Office of Student Affairs, in early January.

Their destination – Hong Kong and Shanghai. The purpose of their trip – to learn about how unions in foreign universities operate.

Tay said, following visits from unions of other universities to NUS, NUSSU realized it was time to “actually go out and see” for itself.

What the NUSSU committee members brought back with them was the idea to provide a feedback wall on which students can leave comments on issues that affect campus life.

Tay said a friend had told her that in the Hong Kong universities during the school term, the feedback walls set up by the student unions would be filled.

“The students would actually leave constructive comments,” Tay said.

What The Observer saw on the feedback wall NUSSU set up at Union Week was not quite so. Apart from a handful of responses about the alternative tuition fees models suggested by NUSSU, messages included declarations of love and hand-written advertisements by co-curricular activities groups.

When The Observer raised this to Tay during the interview, the NUSSU president replied with a half-smile.

“Students don’t realize that when we have stronger backing from the students, it puts us in a better position to get things done for the students.”