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[heiwa]

Hot off ye ole press back in Akita:





Professional “Life Expectancy” in EAP at AIU, April 2004-March 2007, in a "nut"shell:

         Renewal     Resignation   Non-renewal  Mid-contract
4 profs         3      1(2005)
6 assoc. profs         1(2005)         3 (2007)      2
7 assist. profs   1      1(2006)         4 (2007)        1   
1 part time      1

2 of the 3 resignations were “forced,” meaning the decision was not made voluntarily.

More teachers (10) have been ousted (7) and resigned (3) than have been renewed(4).

All the nonrenewed faculty (7) except 1 = (6)  had experience at MSUA.

All nonrenewed faculty (7) are Americans. 2 of 3 resignations are Americans.

Of the 7 nonrenewed, 1 is female, 6 are male.

2 Ph.D.s are American, 1 Canadian.  All are white males. All were renewed.

The 2 non-Ph.D.s who were renewed are both Japanese.

The 7 non-renewed were told, among other things, that they lacked a Ph.D., and therefore were offered contracts.

[heiwa]

Correction to previous post:

The 7 non-renewed were told, among other things, that they lacked a Ph.D., and therefore, could NOT NOT NOT NOT BE offered contracts.

[concernedinakita]

EAP faculty need a Ph.D.? Experience and proven teaching ability are much more important. Check out the degrees of the staff at respected graduate schools like Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota. The Graduate School of Education Faculty for Second Language/Teaching and Learning has 7 faculty members. Only the director has a Ph.D. 6 have MA’s and much experience (one of the 6 is a Ph.D. candidate). These are Graduate School associate and assistant professors, who "only" have M.A. degrees, yet are highly respected in their field. A Ph.D. alone does not make one an outstanding teacher or even a “good” teacher.

[crypto]

Look at Donald Keene's bio at http://www.donaldkeenecenter.org/content/view/13/30/.
"Professor Keene began teaching at Columbia University in 1955, and was named Columbia University Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature in 1981 and University Professor in 1989; he is currently a University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus."

According go the AIU web page (http://www.aiu.ac.jp/cms/index.php?id=58),
"Dr. Donald KEENE
Honorary Professor, Columbia University
Honorary Member, Nippon Gakushiin
Scholar of Japanese Literature and Culture"

This is another good example of how "un-international" this university really is.  Anyone who is part of international academia should know not to address a person of this caliber as a mere "Dr.".  And what is with the title of "Honorary Professor"?  There is no such title given at the Columbia University.

By the way, the AIU web page said,
"Turn up your volume.  Music, courtesy of AIU Professor Reiko Watanabe & Warner Music Japan Inc."
I wonder if the dismissed EAP faculty had anything to say about these sentences...

[outsideadvisor]

By the looks of things, it would have been more cost effective (and more suitable for personnel relations?) for AIU to dismiss the EAP program director and keep its 7 non-renewed faculty.

[concernedinakita]

Yes, the ones who were "let go" are the ones with the real ties to this community (Akita).

[concernedinakita]

FYI: The AIU English website is not only quite incomplete but also out of date.
To find the current faculty listing you must go to the Japanese website. http://www.aiu.ac.jp/cms/index.php?id=238

No "news" is listed on the English side. Only a link to the Japanese site. Not very helpful fr those who aren't Japanese and are interested in AIU: http://www.aiu.ac.jp/cms/index.php?id=709

There is probably no budget or time for the English website, as so much money and energy is being spent to replace the current faculty.

[11113567]

"Honorary Professor" is not what Donald Keene is at Columbia University, as has already been pointed out. In this case it is an overly literal translation of the closest Japanese equivalent of Professor Emeritus, not what is called "honourary professor" at other universities. In other words, someone who didn't understand University governance translated the Japanese website into English, and it wasn't checked by anyone who did understand either English, international university governance, or most probably both.

If you knew anything about Japanese or university governance you would not have embarrassed yourself by making that gaffe, but then again, if you knew anything about either university governance or Japanese you wouldn't be here defending this university.

For the record, a Master's is the terminal degree for TESOL, as it is for fine arts. That teachers of proven ability are being terminated for lack of a Ph.D. by a university whose vice presidents lack not only Ph.D.s but competence is simply outrageous and incredible.

[asa29]

I would like to know what asa29 meant by:

I'm not sure what you mean by endorsing the school - I think I already have. If you want people to put their names to that then I should ask Nanking, Oslo, Aberdeen, Taiwan National...

Just that those are pretty serious schools to be endorsing AIU. I think I was feeding the troll though.

[asa29]

If you knew anything about Japanese or university governance you would not have embarrassed yourself

...whoah whoah whoah, steady! I just misread you, that you were saying that it was incorrect English. These things are often ambiguous on message boards, but now you've clarified it. My mistake. And I already apologised for being pedantic - the translator in me.

And I think that you're misunderstanding me - I haven't defended AIU's actions or even claimed to have any knowledge about the current "situation" - in fact I've made it quite clear that I believe they'll get what they deserve if they are mucking about. I'm just trying to introduce a bit of neutral perspective into the discussion. It's not in your favour at all if it gets OTT, or indeed if you try to paint everyone here black or white.

[asa29]

It's nothing to do with understanding university governance or not by the way, just lazy translation - the person has back-translated the title instead of looking it up at Columbia as they should. Common error - translation does not equal word substitution. Unfortunately 95% of translators wouldn't bother to check.

[heiwa]

Let's take this back to the recent dismissal of SEVEN full-time members of the AIU EAP program of THIRTEEN, or more than half. That axing was 100% pure vindicativeness,  as anyone who spent anytime at AIU can tell you, pure vindicativeness on the part of the infamous EAP program director. Not enough kowtowing from the faculty to suit him.

Here's another stat to toot your horn with. Of those seven ousted teachers, four still have children living with them in Akita, most born in Akita, all schooling in Akita, part of ther community. (---There are no more than one or two other faculty members at AIU who even have children. None of the remaining EAP faculty have children living with them. Only one even has, I think.---)

These children all (6 or 7 in total) are out on the street. Their highly qualified parents not qualified to teach at AIU anymore.

Conclusion: AIU IS NOT THE PLACE TO BE IF YOU HAVE FAMILY VALUES!!!

[crypto]

Incompetence seems to be the word to summarize the current administration at AIU.

It's nothing to do with understanding university governance or not by the way, just lazy translation - the person has back-translated the title instead of looking it up at Columbia as they should. Common error - translation does not equal word substitution. Unfortunately 95% of translators wouldn't bother to check.

I am simply appalled by this statement.  Hiring an untrained translator who know no better than backtranslating names and titles, failing to proofread the translation, publishing it on an official university web page, and blaming any mistakes on the poor translator?  Whose web page is it?

I consider this nothing but a hallmark of sloppy administration.  Or does AIU not have any experience working with REAL translators?

[concernedinakita]

Let's take this back to the recent dismissal of SEVEN full-time members of the AIU EAP program of THIRTEEN, or more than half.

Needed: An Open Letter to Governor Terata

I believe what we need is an open letter to Governor Terata, given to him in English and translated into Japanese.

This letter needs to well written, with accurate details of the situation currently going on at AIU (which, by the way, is wider than the EAP department).

The letter needs to be widely distributed to the media outlets in Akita.
I believe it would be best for the letters to be hand delivered. (Newspapers: Sakigake Shimpo, Hokoroku Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun Akita Branch; Television and/or Radio: AKT, ABS, AAB, NHK & FM Akita)

As a concerned person living in Akita, I would be willing to help with getting the document into Japanese and with the dissemination to the media.

I believe that all faculty whose contracts have not been renewed should, as a group, visit Governor Terata and present the letter to him. Media should be invited to presentation.

Heiwa, you seem to have the details of the situation and are an excellent writer. Would you be willing to write this document?


Another thing that concerned people living in Akita could do is to call the Akita International Association Hotline for help: Tel. 018-864-1183. Thursdays 1:00 pm ~ 3:00 pm & 6:00 pm ~ 8:00 pm.  (Calls may be made in English, Chinese, Korean or Japanese.)

The news needs to get out. This is the best kept secret in Akita city.

[freshair]

The Emperor has spoken to his subjects again by email.  Here are a few of the highlights from his email of 06/12/2006 to faculty:


*** He writes that because of a revision of Japan's School Education law that AIU will in future classify teaching positions in 4 ranks.  "In view of the future reform of our curriculum and the possibility of the introduction of a tenure system, our faculty members must be in principle Ph.D. holders or Ph.D. candidates."

Note as indicated above by others, that many of the faculty who were not rehired were told the reason for this was they did not have Ph.D.'s.  If that is the overall university policy, that is fine (but stupid when applied to the P.E. teacher and to EAP instructors).  But if this is the policy, why is it that several people who do not have Ph.D.'s, and in fact do not even have M.A.'s are still at the university:  like the librarian/professor of Global Studies who only has a B.A; or the 2 Vice-Presidents who only have B.A.'s?  If there is a policy, shouldn't it be uniformly enforced?   Maybe one of the administrative trolls can answer us (cue for you, Asa). 

***Again tooting his own horn, Mineo Nakajima writes (as he has written in the past about his wonderful experience and knowledge in English language teaching) about his work on the Education Rebuilding Council advising the Japanese Prime Minister.  Here are his own words (the errors are his too):

"As reported in the media, the Education Rebuilding Council, since is first meeting on October 18, has been actively engaged on the behalf of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  With bullying and high school negligence in teaching required courses becoming increasingly serious issues, the Council has announced that the problems need immediate attention."   Perhaps Asa, who is so good at translating the intentions of the leaders of the AIU while pretending to be unaffiliated, can translate this for us?

All I can say is, God help Japan and AIU with such a leader.