The Singapore Management University (SMU) celebrated its 20^th anniversary of its founding on its Patron’s Day (PD20), on Friday, 17 January. This year’s PD kick starts a year-long celebration as SMU commemorates its 20^th birthday in the year 2020.

Themed “Celebrate Better”, the festivities for the day celebrate 20 years of making good even better and cement SMU’s commitment towards making meaningful impact. The launch of the first-ever PD Pasar where the entire SMU community was involved, is a pre-loved emporium with cherished apparel and merchandise donated for sale. Funds raised go to SMU bursaries, to provide tuition fee assistance to needy Singaporean students.

PD20 also advocated environmental sustainability through a BYOT movement where all were invited to reduce waste by bringing their own things – be it cups, containers or cutlery, to lessen reliance on the use of disposable plastic. This was also the first event in SMU where there are no event T-shirts; all crew and helpers upcycled their own T-shirts with a silkscreened PD20 logo. All others could also get such a ‘limited edition’ tee for $2.  All proceeds go to the SMU Bursaries.

SMU Patron, President Halimah Yacob graced the event and toured the Festival Grounds on Campus Green. She met with SMU students, performers, makers and merchants, as well as toured the new SMU Connexion, located between the Schools of Accountancy and Law.

After the tour, SMU Patron viewed an exhibition showcasing the University’s journey and milestones over the past 20 years and how SMU has made meaningful impact on the community. She also attended the Patron’s Day dinner at the SMU Hall together with some 300 guests comprising SMU trustees, advisory board members, donors, senior management, students, faculty and alumni.

In his welcome remarks, SMU Chairman Mr Ho Kwon Ping shared how SMU was formulated some 23 years ago which began with a private conversation between then Deputy Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan and his ideas on how to shake up the tertiary sector. He spoke on how SMU has evolved since then and how it has matured, and attributed its remarkable success in such a short period to the collective determination of the pioneer faculty, trustees, students and management. He added that “having come this far is perhaps the easy part. Building upon success, challenging the past and rejecting hubris, is now the task of the next two decades. To summarise the vision, we created a slogan – Imagine Better – as a call to action. We want to imagine a better university, a better Singapore, a better world, where we are proud of, but not satisfied by, nor complacent about, our collective success as a society or an institution.”

SMU President Professor Lily Kong spoke on why heritage matters at SMU and the strong efforts to keep heritage alive and well. She cited several examples, which included SMU’s interactive seminar-style pedagogy and engagement with the community where the whole University has embraced the ethos of making meaningful impact on the community, and how this has extended to its activities be it in the areas of community service or research. She emphasised how SMU’s 20th anniversary was a time to celebrate our collective heritage and, importantly, the values that underpin – of innovation, of breaking new bounds, of engagement with the community, and of making meaningful impact on the community.

Guests at the dinner were entertained by award-winning digital magician and SMU business undergrad TK Jiang who also helped launch SMU’s colourful 20^th Anniversary Logo, together with SMU Chairman and SMU President. The dinner ended with a finale performance by SMU Eluminix (alumni hip hop dance club).

Over at the Campus Green, some 5000 members of the  SMU community and general public enjoyed family-friendly carnival games, artisanal F&B delights, Makers’ Market filled with hand-crafted goodies made by the SMU Community and celebrity appearances by SMU alumni Pornsak, Jade Seah and Joshua Lim, and popular local singer-songwriters Benjamin Kheng, Jasmine Sokko, LEW and more on stage.

20 seconds prior to 2020 hours, host and alumnus Pornsak led a countdown with 20 representatives from the 20 matriculated SMU batches on stage. These representatives have, in their own ways, made significant impact at SMU or in the society.  At the precise, special moment, Campus Green lit up with moving lights and pyrotechnics and the audience joined in the singing of a birthday song for SMU.

The university would like to extend a big thank you to students, staff, faculty, alumni and the SMU Patron's Day organising committee for making the event SMU’s best birthday bash ever.

Said the PD20 Student Organising Committee (PDOC) Co-Chairperson, Fan Yi Xi from the School of Information Systems said, “I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to return to serve as the Co-chairperson for SMU Patron’s Day 2020 after being involved last year. Leading the Patron’s Day 2020 student executive committee was a totally different and eye-opening experience! It exposed me to many steep learning curves and new challenges which I managed to overcome with the help of my supportive team and Office of Student Life (OSL) managers. I am glad that the SMU community has enjoyed what we put up to celebrate better on our 20th birthday and will continue to look forward to Patron’s Day every year!”

In addition, PDOC Co-Chairperson, Claudia Nio from the School of Business said, “Being the Co-Chairperson for Patron’s Day 2020 is one of the key highlights of my SMU experience thus far and I am very honoured and thankful for this opportunity. Aside from getting a rare glimpse into the planning and execution of SMU’s 20th Birthday celebration, this was also a really humbling and fulfilling journey for me as I saw the amount of hard work and rigour put into this event. Nothing would have been possible without the tireless efforts and dedication of everyone in the organising committee. Thank you everyone for making Patron’s Day 2020 a massive success!”

More pictures from SMU Patron’s Day can be found here:

- Photos of Patron's visit & dinner celebrations: http://bit.ly/37bWMAU

- Photos of Campus Green activities and performances: http://bit.ly/3aonAjg

The two speeches made at the dinner are enclosed:

• Remarks by SMU Chairman Ho Kwon Ping
• Remarks by SMU President Lily Kong