Despite the inclusion of staff events for the first time in six years, the National University of Singapore’s annual Inter-Faculty Games Swimming Meet 2007-2008 failed to attract more participants due to the untimely event timing.

The swim meet was held on Sept. 15 at the NUS Sports and Recreation Centre. Faculties across NUS were invited to nominate students and staff to compete in various categories.

A total of 41 events were held at the event, including events on life-saving skills.

Participant Pang Yang Jun, a third-year engineering student, said the inclusion of staff events made the swim meet a “more interesting event.”

“Students and staff are able to choose and participate in different events and that is a good thing,” Pang said. “It also allows students to get to know their professors better.”

However, Pang said this year’s swim meet “seems to have fewer participants as compared to previous years.”

“There are many events but only a limited number of participants,” he said.

Event organizer Zhang Yi Yang from the Faculty of Engineering said the participation was low because of the timing of this year’s swim meet. The event coincided with the part of the academic year where many student bodies are undergoing the “handing-taking over part.”

“Many student representative bodies are still in the process of having their internal elections, and there is a tendency for a breakdown in communication,” Zhang said.

Zhang also said the Faculty of Law “almost didn’t manage to send in their applications” because their sports representative was overseas for an exchange programme.

Carson Goh, a sports officer from Sports and Recreation Centre, said the response from students was “OK,” but because the event was held early in the term, it was “hard for some to register.”

He added that the “people who are present are very sporting” and “the main thing is as long as they have fun.”

Associate Professor David Young from the Faculty of Science was smiling when The Observer approached him.

“I’m enjoying it,” Young said. “The event is very well-organized and the standards are very high.”

Associate Professor Anthony O’Brien from the Alice Lee Centre of Nursing Studies agreed.

“We just had the dean of science, Professor Andrew Wee, breaking the record for 100 meters breaststroke,” he said. “But it would have been more interesting if more members of the staff had participated.”

Young offered a possible explanation for the lack of participation by staff members.

“They simply work too hard,” he said.