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Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my paths. ( Psalm 119:121)
[edit] Introduction
Douglas Tan is a graduate of the University of Nottingham graduating with a Bachelor's of Laws with Honours. He has been known to be extremely active within the Students' Union especially with his outspoken persona on university policies and anything which annoys him in general, which often give rise to controversial circumstances. He is nonetheless an approachable character, with a candid sense of humour and sometimes irritating aura of a person who knows too much for his own good.
[edit] Presidency
He is the current president of the Nightingale Hall Junior Common Room (JCR), having been elected in the summer of 2005. As of Spring 2006, he is on course to be the longest serving international student president of a hall of residence, since he was re-elected in the 2006 Junior Common Room Committee elections. Serving at the helm, he has brought about changes to the Hall's status by pioneering the move towards being an association of the Students' Union to increase accountability and transparency of the activities of the Hall. He has also brought radical and yet necessary changes to the Hall's Constitution as it had not been updated since November 1999 when Nightingale was still an all-girls hall. Tan has also been resposible for events such as the very successful trips to Alton Towers and Amsterdam and the numerous bar quizzess and pool competition which was seen as a move to increase student involvement in the hall, and also boost bar revenue which had in previous years been suffering.
[edit] Controvesy
It has not been smooth sailing entirely for Tan. He had been accused of rigging a poll to ban smoking in the hall bar when the vote was conducted carelessly through the hall JCR's Annual General Meeting. The controversy began when it was let slip during the counting process that the 'no' vote to the ban had prevailed, only for the next day when all the votes had been counted to reveal that the 'yes' vote had prevailed by the smallest of margins. In the ensuing outrage, Tan had to declare that the results of the poll were null and void after several members of the JCR had admitted to submitting more than one vote. Although there was a brief enquiry launched by the Students' Union General Secretary, Ms. Chrystyna Chymera after rumours of the incident had been circulating around The Ark bar, the matter was resolved as quickly as it started.
Known to ruffle people's feathers when not in agreement, one infamous feud which stands out is his vocal working relationship with the Hall's former warden, Dr. Glenn McDowell in the Spring of 2006. Though the warden had not been immensely popular with past hall presidents and students due to his disciplinarian antics, it almost spun out of hand when a confidential e-mail of a vindictive nature which was directed to Tan was displayed in the public realm. Though details of the e-mail vary depending on who recounts the story, it led Tan to postpone the JCR Committee elections for 2006 for a week. The e-mail found its way up from Presidents' Committee to the Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Diane Birch regarding the personal nature of the e-mail and how it was addressed to Tan.
It did not stop there as subsequent to his re-election as Hall President, Dr. McDowell informed him that the traditional Hall President's accommodation, known simply as the President's Flat, would no longer be available as he would favour a tutor to live there from Autumn 2006 onwards. This did not go down too well with Tan and the feud continues unresolved at the moment, although Tan has adopted a very formal attitude with any necessary interaction with the warden so as not to jepordise the relationship any further.
The only known internal disagreement with his own JCR committee, was in Spring 2006 where it was revealed that the payment for the design of the hall website was excessive and the invoice appeared to be nonsensical although specific details are not entirely certain. This has caused a bit of friction between the vice-president, Mr. James Phillips but has seemed to have been resolved although banter does occassionally arise from it. Tan has already apologised several times with his lack of consultation of the Committee regarding the website, as he genuinely felt that it was a necessary purchase at the time of it's proposal.
[edit] Athletic Union Involvement
Although he was not officially on the Athletic Union as far as committees are concerned in 2004 and 2005, he still played an active role in Intra-Mural sport, specifically in Intra-Mural football serving as a match referee. Although there were severe teething problems during his first few weeks as a referee in 2004, he has become one of the most experienced match referees currently in Intra-mural Sport at the University of Nottingham racking up in excess of 50 matches experience at the time of writing. Alongside with former Intra-Mural Football Officer Dave Winter (who is now Intra-Mural Chair for 2006 and 2007) he refereed the Deloitte Football Cup and Plate Finals. In April 2006, Tan was elected as Intra-Mural Football Officer for the academic year spanning from 2006 to 2007. His refereed his 75th match in the all competitions in the Intra-Mural League Division One tie between Lenton and Wortley and Raleigh Park which finished 3-1. He is also the Manager of the 2006/2007 Nightingale Hall Football team who managed to reach the Semi-Final of the Deloitte Football Cup, which goes down as the highest achievement of any previous Nightingale Hall team.
Elsewhere he is also a member of the University of Nottingham Badminton Team, although he does not compete competitively. He is also know to give a little coaching. He has also mooted the possibility of an University Australian Football team, but unfortunately it did not take off. Nevertheless, he plays with the Nottingham Scorpions Aussie Rules Football team who are based at the Forest Recreational Rounds just outside the Nottingham City Centre.
[edit] Background
Douglas Tan was born on the 12th September 1986 in Singapore but immediately moved back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after birth. After completing his Kindergarten and Primary 1 education at the Garden International School ,he made a move to the Alice Smith School which was also under the British Curriculum. He excelled in most of his classes, his best being Music and worst being Physical Education. In January 2000, he moved back to Singapore for his first taste of Boarding School at The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) which is ranked consistently in the top 10 schools in Singapore. His extra-curricular activities involved the Chamber Orchestra which won a Gold award at a national competition in 2001 and also Scouts where he spent more time doing drill than tying knots.
In January 2002, he made the radical shift to the Geelong Grammar School which is a premier boarding school in Geelong city, which is located 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Melbourne, Australia. In this environment, Tan developed his love for sport, namely Aussie Rules although he did not actually play it at school. Instead he favoured soccer and badmiton as both could accommodate glasses far better than Aussie Rules. He completed his International Baccalaureate Diploma in November 2003. He also received full colours for music, for his contributions to the award winning Senior School Choir and School Orchestra and various ensembles. He also was a student organist, violin soloist and piano soloist. Most notably was his involment in two Boarding House music competitions, where in 2002 he performed a piano solo and in 2003 was the House Music captain.
In February 2004, at the age of 17 and 5 months, he entered the University of Melbourne to do a Commerce degree. Unfortunately, partially due an unconditional offer and mostly due to severe dislike for the course, he ceased his enrollment and in September 2004, arrived at the University of Nottingham having just turned 18.
Tan is able to speak four languages to different degrees of fluency. He speaks English with a slight Australian twang but has been obviously marred by Southern influence. He also speaks French, having studied it as a second language and spent six weeks on exchange in Rennes, France. His mother tongue is the chinese dialect Hokkien and speaks it sparingly at home. He also speaks Bahasa Malaysia to varying degrees of fluency depending on his mood and environment.
