By Ng Jing Yng, TODAY, 12 Jun 2012
There is no "backroom" deal in the National University of Singapore's partnership with Yale University to set up the Yale-NUS College, and the American university is not being given special access to investment opportunities in Singapore as a quid pro quo - as suggested in a commentary by a Yale political science lecturer published on US news website The Huffington Post last week.
In his article - published on June 5 - which was largely critical of the Yale-NUS partnership, Dr Sleeper, a former journalist at the New York Daily News, wrote that the source whom he met "at a dinner in Germany" said that there was "US$300 million for Yale in its deal with NUS".
Dr Sleeper quoted the source describing the financial gains for Yale as "what you call insider trading: Yale will be cut in on prime investments that Singapore controls and restricts through its sovereign wealth fund. These will be only investments, not payments, so there's some risk. But ... Yale's endowment will swell by several hundred million in consequence of its getting in on these ventures".
Dr Sleeper also likened Yale University to a "business corporation" and claimed that some members of Yale Corporation - the governing board and policymaking body for Yale University - have business and investment links to Singapore, including Dr Charles Ellis.
Dr Ellis is currently an adviser emeritus to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation's Investment Strategies Committee.
Dr Sleeper's claims were rebuked by Yale University Press Secretary Tom Conroy. He said: "Jim Sleeper has written repeatedly in recent months about his opposition to Yale-NUS College. He was a political journalist for a daily newspaper before he came to teach at Yale, and thus it is particularly disappointing that his most recent commentary in the Huffington Post once again contains errors of fact."
"Yale is not, as Sleeper asserts, a business corporation. It is a not-for-profit organisation recognised around the globe as one of the world's great research and teaching institutions."
Mr Conroy also reiterated that Yale is not getting any financial gain from the partnership with NUS, apart from reimbursement of expenses.
He said: "Sleeper makes the claim - based on the conversational speculation of an unnamed European - that Yale is receiving special access to investment opportunities in Singapore as a quid pro quo for pursuing a partnership with NUS to create Yale-NUS College. This claim is false."
He added: "Sleeper also makes the claim that former Yale trustee Charles Ellis 'maintains an investment business in Singapore'. This is false."
In a separate response, an NUS spokesperson said there "is no 'backroom' deal as alleged". She added: "Yale University is reimbursed only for work done in connection with Yale-NUS College."
According to the spokesperson, the reimbursement to Yale is for teaching replacements for Yale faculty members who had been involved in the joint planning processes for the college.
The Government has said that it is funding the college. According to its budget book this year, the infrastructure cost for the Yale-NUS college campus is S$114 million.
Contacted by TODAY, Dr Sleeper claimed in an email response that he did not make the allegations.
He said: "My post does not say - in fact, it denies - that there is any payment or quid pro quo from Singapore or any of its government affiliates to Yale. My post does not say - in fact, it denies - that there is anything illegal about what the person I quoted suggested will be arranged."
He added: "My post does not say that there has been any agreement to allow Yale to participate in restricted investment opportunities. It merely quotes someone saying that he is convinced that that is a possibility."
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