Students at Yale-NUS College, the start-up liberal-arts institution in Singapore, will not be able to hold political protests or form partisan political societies, The Wall Street Journal reports. According to Singapore’s Ministry of Education, the new institution, the result of a partnership between Yale University and the University of Singapore, will have to abide by local laws, which forbid demonstrations and protests on campus unless approved by university administration. Pericles Lewis, a Yale professor who was recently named the college’s first president, said that while political societies and protests will not be allowed, students and faculty members “are going to be totally free to express their views.”

Still, the restriction is likely to give further ammunition to critics, who argue that Yale should not be helping set up a campus in a country with limits on political and civic freedoms. The new college will enroll its first students in the fall of 2013.