Previously titled "Questioning the renovation and subsequent vendor departure in CresPion canteen."  This petition has been updated following further interviews with stakeholders. Thank you to all who have signed our petition thus far!

Nanyang Technological University’s Office of Commercial and Auxiliary Services (OCAS) is changing the operators of CresPion Canteen, and has scheduled a renovation starting on 11 December 2026. Every single stall in CresPion is pending a decision to leave for good, due to the 2-3x increase in rental costs and a steep renovation fee of 20k imposed by the new operator, Food Paradise.

The table below consists of a breakdown of the rental increase each canteen vendor is facing. These numbers are obtained from interviews with various stakeholders, who all wished to remain anonymous.  

In practice, this acts as a 2–3x increase in monthly costs.

On top of this, Canteen Vendors are required to pay a 20k renovation fee, which is more than 5 months’ worth of their previous rent.

* "GTO refers to the percentage of monthly sales that the landlord takes, on top of the vendor's base rent. It also gives the landlord visibility into the vendor's sales performance." (Source)

These vendors are the heartbeat of CresPion, providing relatively affordable meals to students who reside here and in neighboring halls. We believe that each vendor should not have to fork out a whopping $20k and face a 2–3x increase in rent, just to stay serving food in NTU. This would also cause them to be replaced by more expensive stalls, further limiting access to affordable meals on campus. 

As students who care about our canteen and its vendors, as well as the availability of affordable food to students, here are our demands for NTU OCAS: 

Demands

1. Protect CresPion Canteen Vendors – ensure they can stay without needing to increase their prices or losing their livelihoods. 

• Many have served for a long time and have built personal relationships with NTU’s students and workers on campus, and their food is deeply beloved by members of the NTU community in and out of Crescent and Pioneer Halls.
• CresPion Canteen offers some of the most affordable meal options in NTU. Currently, there are no other alternatives as cheap as what CresPion Canteen offers. 
   

             2. Keep Food and Rental Costs Low

• NTU should ensure that food on campus stays affordable — the welfare of students and workers on campus should come before profit. 
• Increased rental costs directly correlate with increased food prices. To keep food affordable, NTU OCAS should keep canteen lease prices manageable as well. 
  As canteen vendors already face 4 months of lowered income due to low student traffic during school holidays, it is not fair to increase their rental costs even further. 

             3. Stop Profit-Maximising: NTU as a Public Institution, not for Profit

• NTU should stop profit-maximising and bringing corporate logic into management practices, as it is a public institution with a duty of care for its students and workers.

             4. Listen to Students and Workers on Campus.

• Students and workers on campus should have a greater role and direct involvement in decision-making that impacts us. 
• Instead of quietly implementing changes, OCAS must take the initiative to engage the students and workers on campus utilising campus spaces and services, in order to understand their needs.
  OCAS’s outreach efforts to the NTU community should go beyond looking for students’ and workers’ feedback after changes made by OCAS are already implemented and irreversible. These outreach efforts should also be more open-door, extensive, and accessible to NTU’s students and workers. 

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