A lecturer who taught philosophy-related courses at Tembusu College, which is a part of the National University of Singapore (NUS), was fired by the university following an investigation of two allegations against him of sexual misconduct.

[Tembusu College, National University of Singapore]

The allegations and firing were reported by The Straits Times:

A NUS spokesman said: “An internal investigation was carried out and Dr Fernando’s conduct was found to have fallen short of the standards of professionalism that the university expects of a teaching staff. Based on the findings of the internal investigation, Dr Fernando, a non-residential teaching staff, was dismissed by the university.”…

The two undergraduate victims, who did not wish to be named, gave details of what Dr Fernando allegedly did to them.

The first victim, a student in the residential college, said the advances from Dr Fernando began in Oct 2019 and lasted till the circuit breaker [campus pandemic lock-down] period this year.

She alleged that Dr Fernando made non-consensual sexual advances, such as kissing and groping her, and performed oral sex while she was drunk.

She said: “Throughout these months, he made increasingly informal contact that grew in intensity and frequency.

“He also sent many gifts to my house even after I had requested him to stop. He pressured me into various sexual acts and discouraged me from telling my friends.”

The second victim said first, Dr Fernando approached her during online classes this year and privately messaged her on Zoom.

A week after that, they met another male student for drinks at a restaurant and went back to her apartment.

She alleged that while there, Dr Fernando tried touching her and kissed her when the male student was in the toilet. After she pulled away, he told her not to tell anyone, and if she did not keep it a secret, he would lose his job, she said.

Dr. Fernando did not have any formal connections to the Department of Philosophy at NUS.

He has a PhD in philosophy from the European Graduate School (EGS) and is or was (it’s unclear) the Jean Baudrillard Fellow there. He has taught philosophy and literature courses at Tembusu College since 2011, and has supervised doctoral dissertations, masters theses, and served on dissertation committees at EGS since 2012.

His own dissertation advisor was Avital Ronell (New York University and EGS) who, two years ago, was was found by NYU to have sexually harassed one of her students.