next »

[concerned8]

zatroof is right.

The previous Minnesota operation did extremely well in Japan. It survived much longer than most other US universities that moved into Japan in the bubble or pre-bubble years,  largely because of the quality of its administration and many of its teachers. 

But facts are facts. Like most of the other US operations in Japan it eventually went under (a) because the Japanese bureaucracy refused to recognise its degrees (despite the calls in those days for 'international' education, and (b)  a lot of Japanese students who might also have liked the talk about international education, shied away when it came to the reality (two final years, in difficult English, to finish a degree at a US university with higher standards than most Japanese universities) .

Where Akita differed from most others is that when the Minnesota operation went under,  the prefecture moved in to try to keep it alive as a Japanese university (largely because the good work done earlier by Minnesota was appreciated). Part of that move was offering three year contracts to as many of the previous foreign staff as possible.

Those contracts as now expiring, and clearly there is some unhappiness among those who fear their contract will not be renewed.

But renewed or not renewed, and fairly or not fairly, would they have preferred what happened at all the other failed US operations in Japan?  Instant dismissal? 
   

[yoshidashoin]

Just for curiosity's sake, have the media in Akita or elsewhere in japan been apprized of this university's affairs?

A bit wasteful, isn't it?

a new uni, with 2 VPs, an oft traveling president (and a salary to match the local governor I'm told), then millions of yen to burn for calling up dozens of prospective faculty interviewees....400 and counting

Where I'm from, we'd be alerting our local political leaders, at least those in the opposition party.... 

[11113567]

AIU is just another, typical, protected Japanese university. Without a "man bites dog" you don't have a story. The people of Akita Prefecture think they have a real university now. An AIU VP defends what is going on at Akita International university on the grounds that other universities in Japan are even worse.

What kind of childish defense is that, even if true? Everyone else is doing it too, and they're worse? So what? No one with an ounce of self-respect would apply to work at AIU, much less boast about it. No one who wants to return to a job in the US would want such a university on their academic CV.

AAMOF Concerned8 doesn't even know the situation with Minnesota State University in Akita. The Ministry did recognize  degrees from Minnesota State, because they were all earned on campuses in Minnesota, and treaties require them to recognize US degrees. It is the campus in Akita that they refused to recognize as a "daigaku" (university). Therefore most people in the prefecture thought it was an inferior institution. Japanese assume that universities are less serious than high schools, and they know that American high schools are less serious than Japanese. When the Ministry refused to accredit the Minnesota university as a "daigaku" Japanese drew the conclusion that it was less serious than even an American high school. Many students were shocked that they didn't get degrees automatically after warming a seat for four years (the standard at most Japanese universities) and the school then had trouble recruiting. That's why the school failed. Concerned8 wasn't there. And he never even pretends to defend the academic standard of Akita International University. It has none, and doesn't want any.

[zatroof]

Concerned8:

But facts are facts.

Yes, concerned8, facts are facts, so let’s continue to straighten out some of yours. Actually, Minnesota State University – Akita (MSUA) was surviving – though not prospering- despite the fact that, as 11113567 points out, the education ministry refused to recognize it as a university.

Finally, it was the State of Minnesota, USA that pulled the plug because of local Minnesota state politics: the Board of Trustees couldn’t justify closing a couple Minnesota community campuses for low enrollment and at the same time support a campus in Japan that served only 60 Minnesotan students.

By the way, after the decision to close the campus, a large group of MSUA students chartered a bus to intercept in Tokyo then-MN governor Jesse Ventura to demand that the campus remain open. Ventura met with them, was extremely impressed with their presentation and, in fact, did intervene to extend Minnesota’s commitment to the school an addition three years to facilitate the transition of the school to Akita International University. The MSUA and AIU programs were both strongly supported by Akita Governor Sukeshiro Terata at the time, and rightly so – Minnesota had handed Akita a ‘peach’.

But renewed or not renewed, and fairly or not fairly, would they have preferred what happened at all the other failed US operations in Japan?  Instant dismissal? 
   

I’m not sure what concerned8’s point is here. What outcome other than “instant dismissal” usually occurs when a school (or factory, for that matter) closes? The point is that AIU is not closing, but …

I wonder if concerned8’s knowledge of “US operations in Japan” extends to Southern Illinois University – Niigata (SIUC-N). By  1997, it too was struggling under the Japanese bureaucracy’s policy of non-recognition of foreign universities. However, unlike MSUA, but apparently like the current AIU, it also suffered from gross internal administrative mismanagement. To cut costs, SIUC-N fired about 80% of its faculty. Part of the blowback from this idiotic move was a 50% drop in new student enrollment the following year followed by a 100% turnover of the new faculty hires at the end of that year. (They didn’t wait to be fired, they quit. Some didn’t even make it a year. Oh yes, and the three administrators who orchestrated the masse canning of their colleagues were gone within another year- never to work in higher education again.) The hemorrhaging never stopped, and although long brain-dead and nearly deserted, the school wasn’t taken off all life support until last year.

__________________________________________________

I see your university is claiming a success. Could you explain by what standards?  if that success is the case, why were all faculty and staff recently asked to reapply for their positions as stated in the initial post?

Mavirgi's excellent question remains unanswered. AIU has been given every advantage and has every reason to be and remain a robust institution. Ethical questions aside, what possible benefit is it to the institution for AIU to fire its faculty? What is the motivation behind the move? This entire thread just hints at the likely blowback awaiting AIU and its administrators. If no benefit for the institution, whose interests does this sabotage of a seemingly successful program serve?

a new uni, with 2 VPs, an oft traveling president (and a salary to match the local governor I'm told), then millions of yen to burn for calling up dozens of prospective faculty interviewees....400 and counting

Where I'm from, we'd be alerting our local political leaders, at least those in the opposition party.... 

Yoshidashoin’s post just turned me into an amateur wild conspiracy theorist. Here goes: Rightist Nakajima is out to reform/deform the institution into something much further to the right. Massive blowback is expected and desirable. It will prove that a such a "liberal" model can't work in Japan. The governor will bear the brunt of the political fallout. Of course, this is all wild speculation, but on the other hand it's the only (admittedly weak, baseless?) attempt to answer mavgiri's most excellent question on this thread.

Akita International University’s major supporter was (is?) Akita Gov. Sukeshiro Terata. Terata is a popular progressive independent who is backed by the Social Democrats, an anomaly in a country nearly completely controlled by the rightist (don’t let the name fool you) Liberal Democratic Party. Terata was the primary reason Akita International University exists today. He pushed its creation through to completion despite a great deal of political opposition.

President Mineo Nakajima each year talks with incoming students and recommends a reading to them.  This book is I. Nitobe's Bushido. Many copies of this book are in the AIU library and AIU students must also write a paper on this book in their final year so to graduate.  This book was banned for several years after WWII because it had been used to indoctrinate the young in the Japanese fighting spirit in the lead-up to WWII.  It dwells on feudal ideas like absolute loyalty to the overlord (maybe why Nakajima likes it so much) even to the point of committing Seppuku (ritual suicide).  It also has a feudal mentality towards women. 
 

Nabotapeur‘s disclosure that Bushido is required reading (and mindset?) for graduation seems to indicate that AIU President Nakajima’s politics and vision of an international liberal arts education are far removed from those of Gov. Terata. As Terata is ultimately accountable, any scandal or degree of failure at AIU would hit the governor harder than anybody (with the possible exception of the former faculty in the breadline.)

Are both Governor Terata and the Board of Trustees aware of the apparent corruption and sabotage of the program being committed by its own top administrators?


______________________________________________________

from concerned8.
All suggestions for improvement would I am sure be greatly welcomed by the people in charge. 

Thanks for asking, concerned8. Could you or another concerned party pass this entire thread on to Akita Governor Sukeshiro Terata and the Board of Trustees?

Thank you.

Now my suggestions for Gov. Terata and the Board:

1. Immediately fire President Nakajima, the two vice-presidents and any program director or administrator who collaborated in corruption or sabotage of the integrity of the global liberal arts program.

2. Fill those open administrative positions temporarily with AIU faculty chosen by the AIU faculty at large. Require those temporary administrators, along with Board members, to begin searches for qualified competent permanent administrators (that are willing to live in Akita) as soon as possible.

3. Halt all current searches for faculty positions. Ask the faculty to form a committee to write letters of apology to those who were inconvenienced by applying to AIU.

4. Issue a statement declaring all previous evaluations of faculty severely flawed; therefore null and void; and therefore all faculty contracts will be renewed upon request this time.

5. Ask the AIU faculty to form a committee to develop legitimate objective evaluation instruments with which to evaluate faculty members, administrators and institutional programs.

[11113567]

If you think you can get this story into the media, more power to you. I wish people were outraged about this, but the unvarnished truth is, nobody cares. The Japan Times features Gregory Clark as a regular columnist and identifies him as Vice President of AIU. Clark makes as big a fool of himself in The Japan Timesas he does here, but I wouldn't bet money they were about to fire him. Do you think they care about this? Do you think they will write it up? Go ahead and write an article for them. See if they print it.

AAMOF, The Chronicle of Higher Education itself carries articles about Japan. With thousands of views to this forum site, have they sent anyone to AIU to even check out the situation? Have they interviewed anyone there, even by phone? Do you think they are going to do a feature about it? The situation at AIU is not news. There is another university in Akita prefecture that is probably even worse. They're not about to lose their Japanese Ministry accreditation either.

Let me quote John Norris, a former president of AIU's predecessor school, Minnesota State University (Akita), from his recent letter to the Chronicle, in the October 20 edition <http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i09/09a05501.htm>:

To anyone having knowledge of the two systems, a degree from a U.S.-accredited institution is far superior to one from an equivalent Japanese institution.

But he's not writing about AIU there, just Japanese universities in general. And he's right.

Nabot A. Peur's headlines are dog bites man, not news in Japan. That's the way it is there.

Please prove me wrong. All you have to do to prove me wrong is to get it into the press, whether Japanese language, English language in Japan or English language in the States. Maybe you can work the angle of Japanese protectionism to get some coverage in the States, but I doubt it. I would love to be wrong about this. But I don't think I am. Please prove me wrong about it.

[devon]

If you think you can get this story into the media, more power to you. I wish people were outraged about this, but the unvarnished truth is, nobody cares.

There has never been as much discussion of a topical thread as there has been with this one on AIU by myself and some of the colleagues here. It covers so much terrain and is so multilayered as it speaks to unprofessional behaviours at a university abroad and political intrigues of academics (intrigues as in ass-kissing). Personally, I have known 2 professors to come out of AIU and NOT unscathed! Why they choose not to wirte of their experiences here and now I would imagine is a choice of their own, and I respect that.

Threads such as this one is essential for it alerts potential foreign staffers of the abuse awaiting them and the cool, ultra silence from those staffers who are accomplices (not in this case) to the abuse.

Correct this if incorrect:  However, Concerned8 is the only "defender" of AIU?  There are more critics of AIU than supporters.  I find this odd.  If there are other foreign staffers at AIU why have they not spoken out against it or in support of it?  Can anyone explain why? It is rather tempting to write glowing reports of a flawed university in order to secure one's post there. But as someone of this thread suggested: what is  the reality at these corrupt institutions?  The question begs...

[Off-topic material deleted by moderator.]

If individuals fear signing there names to the support of an institution for fear of action taken against them, perhaps I can understand that.  As relates 11113567, there is a certain apathy pervasive concerning certain unis which might explain why nobody cares.

Nontheless, this is a very informative topic for it should warn us all of what could happen if one is overseas working.  This topic like many of them are not going unnoticed which suggests that the word is making itself known.

Good job....

[ikwydls]

Hi all,

As a prospective applicant to this university, who knows nothing about Japanese higher education, I was Googling for more info on AIU. I found this document which may be useful for those of you who are considering applying (or not applying for that matter). It is a conference paper written by Ronald F. Movrich (apparently a professor at Akita International University). Whether you are for or against this university, I find this article useful as it includes basic info on where this school stands within the overall landscape of Japanese higher education reform. The title of the paper is: "A New International University for the Global Age: Akita International University, Japan, A Case Study." (Isn't the title intriguing given the heated discussion in this thread...)

Here's the link:

http://www.eracon.info/2005/content/ERACON_Proceedings_2005.pdf

The document is long (223 pages!), but the paper by Ronald Movrich is on pp. 128-136.

cheers,
ikwydls

[nabotapeur]

Nakajima reacting to criticism?

There is some indication that Mineo Nakajima is feeling some heat from these discussions.  Within the past few days, he sent out, for the first time, an email to all faculty updating them on his activities. 

Mineo Nakajima:  how about spending more time at the university that is paying you?  Perhaps, it would not be a bad idea to have you punch in on the kind of clock most industrial workers use and pay you by the hour!

Reply to Devon

You ask why more faculty members at this institution do not speak out?  That's obvious.  If you speak out, you are seen as a troublemaker and  your comments are taken into consideration in your "evaluation".  Since the university administration is right now interviewing people for 90% of the faculty positions, that means a good chance of a forced departure. 

Nabot A. Peur

[heiwa]

   Outstanding leaders go out of the way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel.  If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.
--Sam Walton (founder of WalMart)

   A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people must obey and acclaim him, and worse when his subordinates despise him.
   And of a good leader's mission, when the work is done, the aim fulfilled, his workers will say, "We did it ourselves.”
--Lao Tzu

   Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.
--Jesse Jackson

….the Sage, wishing to be above the people, must by his words put himself below them; wishing to be before the people, he must put himself behind them.
   In this way, though he has his place above them, the people do not feel his weight; though he has his place before them, they do not feel it as an injury. Therefore, all men delight to exalt him, and weary not of him.
--Lao Tzu

[maggit]

Intelligence report on AIU (from unnamed and unnameable sources, so handle with caution):

1) Designation of academic rank – and thus pay level – is ultimately determined by the top brass of the administration. It may or may not have anything to do with the accumulated experience and/or the track record of the faculty person in question; the criteria the top brass use to assign rank are neither transparent nor consistently applied. In those particular cases where the designation of rank departs from the expected practice, this might be the result of awarding cronies a sinecure, it might be poor judgment stemming from lack of time to carefully review information or outright incompetence, it might be something else. Who knows? And in that comment – "who knows?" – lies the manifestation if not the root of the problem. More on that below.
 
2) Within the avowed range of 10-15 classroom hours per week, faculty teaching load is putatively driven by student demand for assigned courses, but seems equally to be shaped by opaque factors (there those opaque factors go again!). What is more, eyewitnesses describe faculty on the "good side" of administrative tops frequently canceling classes with impunity (often to head off on paid research junkets, legit or otherwise), while those who suspect they may be on the "bad side" – at least those who care about hanging on to their jobs – religiously stage classes as scheduled (as ALL faculty should, barring illness, extenuating circumstances, the occasional bona fide academic commitment away from campus, etc.).

The combined result of 1) and 2), alluded to by others in this thread: a coterie of professors with favorable connections to top university administration, receiving up to nearly three times the pay and down to half the classroom obligations of their "inferiors" – moreover enjoying _de facto_ if not _de jure_ job security, unlike their "inferiors" who labor under the threat of contract non-renewal. (In terms of differential privileges, quite similar to the great tenured/adjunct divide in the US, it seems, but not honestly advertised as such!) Imagine what that does to morale and motivation! Why bother going the extra yard/meter time and again for your students if the administration actively rewards mediocrity (fat salaries and easy posts for those of dubious merit) and punishes excellence (unless one keeps mum about such apparent indignities)?

Hardly earth-shattering revelations for those following this thread, I guess.

The point is, without an open and rule-bound process in which faculty oversight – not to speak of faculty _governance_ (apparently a non-starter with AIU top brass, so I won't overreach) – plays _some_ kind of binding role in institutional decision-making, who knows just how Mickey Mouse AIU is? Under present conditions, even veteran faculty (i.e. those with two-and-a-half years of service) cannot tell if AIU is or is not at its core a fraudulent racket, where some students accidentally receive bits and pieces of the hyped "international liberal arts education" thanks to the efforts of a tireless staff and (some) conscientious and talented faculty. Under present conditions, it is completely predictable that rumors, some off the wall and others totally substantial, will fly. Regardless of how “well-meaning” arbitrary dictators may or may not be, arbitrary dictatorships shrouded in secrecy will reap what they sow, including assumptions of malevolent intent.

P.S. All this said, contacts on the ground also indicate that one's teaching experience at AIU will differ sharply on the basis of which program one is in and hence to whose immediate authority one is subjected. Where there is no participatory democracy one relies upon luck and the kindness of strangers for one's well-being!

P.P.S. And the spectacular natural landscape surrounding AIU is the one aspect of AIU which is as good -- even better! -- than broadcast. No smoke and mirrors, no p.r. dexterity, required on this score!

[11113567]

President Nakajima was appointed by the Japanese Ministry of Education to replace the real, if weak, American university with a Japanese propaganda mill and uyoku factory in the name of "internationalization". Unfortunately for this idea, the American university was very popular with the people of the prefecture, so Nakajima and his stooges made a pretense of continuing it, all the while biding their time until they could gut it and stuff its shell with intellectually weak "yes men" (and in Japan they will be men.)

This also explains the article by Professor Movrich, which is little more than a press release for AIU. It contains no criticism of the university, not even constructive criticism. An honest discussion of where and how it might fall short of its alleged "lofty goals" is apparently not tolerated when Nakajima drags you along to a conference. I find it very interesting that Professor Movrich, who claims to be an expert in cyber law, won't appear here to defend Akita International University.

Since the original faculty of the university is being replaced with people who will be as intellectually weak and unchallenging as possible, the only way the current faculty can save their jobs, and their university, would be to form or join a union and walk out. This wouldn't save the university by itself, but it might make the people of the prefecture understand what is happening. And it certainly coudn't hurt. They are going to be gotten rid of anyway, and they might as well go down fighting.

I understand Japanese university professors have a strong union, Zendaikyou or something. Why don't the teachers at AIU get in touch with it and see how if they can fight this?

p.s. Yes, the natural beauty of Akita Prefecture is worth visiting. However, if one wants to be taken seriously as a scholar one would best avoid places like AIU. I suspect they will soon see a falloff in student applications and exchange programs when word gets around. Right now they are arousing interest because people are desperate to find a real university in Japan.

[heiwa]

   "The US, France and Japan have been criticised in a report by a leading media rights group that measures press freedoms around the world. The World Press Freedom Index 2006, published by the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), showed that  "the steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is extremely alarming".
RSF said George Bush, the US president, had used national security as a pretext to regard journalists who questioned the "war on terror" as suspicious.
   Japan fell 14 places to 51st place...."

   Any person or group who questions the actions of the administration at AIU is suspect, on the pretext that doing so is uncooperative and harms group harmony.

[nabob]

Anyone else notice just about everyone who posted on this thread has no more than 3 or 4posts to hus credit? (By the way, that is the firts time I have used "hu."

[zatroof]

I still think Gov. Terata should be informed of this mess. I’m sure his politics are not those of Nakajima’s and that Terata has a great personal stake in the success of a truly global liberal arts university in Akita.

I’ve recently been told that Terata is a friend of Nakajima’s. If this is true, so what? Friends shouldn’t let friends drive drunk, and friends should let friends run a university into the dirt. That said, maybe Terata has been informed and can’t or won’t do anything.

At any rate, time for Akita International University faculty and students is running out.  Akita International University faculty-having been where you are (in a couple of senses), I offer the following points and cheap (it admittedly costs me nothing, so handle with caution) advice for your consideration:

1. The chances that you will lose your job at Akita International University at the end of this contract period are 9:1. I understand that it’s natural to think your personal chances are better, that they are only firing the MSUA people, or only firing the Assistant Professors, or only firing the trouble makers or only the outspoken or only the high-salaried or only the gaijin or only the smart ones or the dumb ones, or posters on the CHE website, etc. Likewise it’s natural to believe that you will probably be able to keep your job because you are an excellent teacher, or wrote tons of materials, published a dozen articles last week, informed on your colleagues to your superiors, were smiled at by the president, bent over forwards (so to speak) for your department director, or have a Ph.d, and outstanding evaluations, have selflessly given three years of your life to the institution, read kanji backwards, or wear a tie, wingtips and a jacket with leather patches even in the stifling heat of August. Wake up, folks, it’s nearly November. If you have a job at Akita International University next year, the chances are much much higher than 9:1 that you already (think you) know it -no ifs ands or buts.

For those of you who understand that you are going to lose your job in April (and for those of you are averse to working in a climate of fear and loathing): Form a union through RENGO now. You have absolutely nothing to lose. Go to the RENGO office, fill out the forms and in three weeks you are a RENGO affiliated union. Even if you is only you-one person can form a union. (I would strongly suggest, though, at least two- one to hand President Nakajima the document that establishes that you represent a bona fide faculty union, and another to photograph the look on the great man’s face for posterity.) This won’t keep your job, but it will make it extremely costly to fire you and every other union member. Union membership is confidential and the administration won’t know who (except one) or how many people are actual union members. Only one member/representative has to show up at negotiations. The RENGO lawyer will do the rest. Now, for one, or even bunch of foreigners with no political clout (message: try to get as many Japanese colleagues to join you as possible), RENGO won’t be giving you their finest legal minds, but they are bound to give you someone to represent you and AIU is legally bound to deal with its faculty union. AIU will probably fire you anyway, but the cost of firing you will be many times that of firing a non-union teacher. Take that cost times say, 10 or 15, or more faculty, and you start getting into the kind of wasted money taxpayers and newspapers are interested in. (Maybe this paragraph alone just saved a couple positions.) Anyway, check it out:

 
RENGO Local of  AKITA
Address
FORUM AKITA, 6-7-36 Naka-dori, Akita-shi, AKITA 010-0001
Telephone
+81-188-33-0505
Facsimile
+81-188-33-0506

But for reasons discussed above, it’s probably a good idea to get a private lawyer that specializes in these cases, too-all the better for individual and class action lawsuits.


2.  Your leverage as a faculty to do anything about this administrative debacle runs out the moment classes finish and you turn in your grades- in about seven weeks, I guess. Shortly after that day, you will be thanked for your hard work and politely informed that sorry, but the search / hiring committee has filled all the advertised positions and therefore, regrettably, you cannot be offered a position at Akita International University at this time.

So strike now. Start slowly, maybe five minutes of silent meditation at the beginning of each class tomorrow. Ten minutes the next day. Maybe 20% of the faculty will catch a cold some crisp early-November Friday and take a sick-day to nurse themselves at an onsen. Maybe 40% the following Friday. Tell the media of the strange rolling 24-hour bug epidemic. Use your imagination. Have fun. You only have five months to live, why cut back on smoking and drinking?

3. Akita International University students have every right to know immediately that the vast majority of their teachers will not be returning to teach them in the spring.  High faculty turnover of faculty has an incalculable negative effect on the integrity of the AIU program and the quality of education being delivered. Students chose AIU because of the program and the faculty. In fact, you are doing your students a major disservice by not discussing this with them. You are professors at an international liberal arts institution with a Global Business department. Discussion of this abuse of (foreign) employees is an ethical imperative. This is a true “teaching moment” if ever there was one. I quote from the Akita International University website:

Mission Statement
In today's globalized world (sic), peaceful solutions to a wide range of serious problems require unusual capacities to understand and respect diverse values and to assume world perspectives. AIU aims to contribute to world peace by educating young people through a unique, liberal arts education and a heavy international focus.

Students at AIU learn to:
-effectively express opinions.
-communicate in a number of foreign languages with cross-cultural understanding.
-understand global issues and successfully join with others to meet the challenges of today's complex world.
-acquire the practical skills needed to play an active role in the international community.

Discuss strike activities with student government leaders, and invite students to join faculty in dissent activities. Remember, the students were instrumental in getting MSUA the three year extension from Minnesota. If students act en masse, even politely, media will pay attention. If the students don’t support you, their teachers, call the whole thing off, pack up, go home and start applying for admin. positions.

4. Akita International University is not an accredited university until it is off Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) probation, which won’t be for another two years or so.  Until then, AIU should watch its step. One can’t fathom why it’s operating like this while it’s still on probation, just an incorrigible juvenile delinquent, I guess. Anyway …) MEXT is interested in a number of things regarding new institutions, including program quality and continuity through low faculty turnover. For starters, send your lawyers to the documents at these sites:

http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/18/03/06030112.htm

http://www.obunsha.co.jp/information/topic/0501/05015.pdf#search='%E6%96%B0%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6%20%E8%A8%AD%E7%BD%AE%20%E5%9F%BA%E6%BA%96'

Here are a couple examples from the first site which discusses new universities on probation:
????????????????????????????????????
?????
?????????????????????17??? ??????????????????????????????????????????????

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Regarding the results of the research/assessment of the situation of the progress/fulfillment/procedure of a yearly plan

There are many issues which require careful consideration/attention. However, for example,  the following issues require care/attention.


3???17?????????

?    ????????????????????????????????????????????????

There have been many changes of full-time employees, and therefore, it is necessary to ensure/secure enough full-time teaching members to proceed on the basis of the original curriculum.

?    ??????????????????????????????????????????

By having moved (transferred) teaching faculty members to a newly established institution course/department, it is necessary to ensure the quality of teaching is not damaged/worsened.

?    ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

It is necessary to introduce and implement student evaluation forms, self-evaluation/assessment, and faculty development (i.e., a systematic study and analysis to the content and method of teaching ).

????????????????????????????????????

If there is no fuss about the masse canning, AIU will probably sneak through the accreditation process. However, if there is media attention or court cases, it will force MEXT to ask questions about the evaluations process, the effect of a 90% turnover on the quality of teaching and integrity of the curriculum. The result could be an extension of the probation period or (more unlikely) denial of accreditation.

Great men that have lunch with Nobel Prize winners just hate when that happens.

In a nutshell, it is in the interest of the administration alone to keep this hushed up. It is in the interests of the liberal arts program, its teaching faculty, students and Akita taxpayers to blow the cover off this corruption and sabotage. But it’s not so simple. We educators think in terms of quality of education and fair treatment for faculty. These aren’t issues that interest the general public and the media won’t bother with them. A faculty strike, however, will get attention: working people can understand issues of worker oppression. Student actions will get even more attention because more people can identify: everybody has been a student at one time or another. Moreover the voting taxpayer will understand: the taxpaying public has a financial stake in the possibility of hundreds of millions of yen of their hard – earned money being paid out in senseless lawsuits and legal fees that should and could have been easily avoided.  And then, finally, the politicians wake up late one night in a cold sweat.

And once you have the public’s attention and the ball starts rolling, …the overworked underpaid salary man will get interested in the story of the nearly mute octogenarian paid ¥20 million to … (what?) … exist on campus for a year. (One could argue, though, that at least he existed on campus.) And I’m betting that the media will continue to gain more and more interest in this and all the other bits of dirt and mud that splash up as Nakajima drives AIU deep into the well-irrigated rice paddies of Akita prefecture… (c.f., the media interest in Keihodai's body piercing policy)

…unless, of course, the current Akita International University faculty decide that the professional thing to do is merely to leave quietly after thanking President Nakajima for the opportunity to work for a truly great man.






 

[zatroof]

I pasted Japanese text from the MEXT documents inti my previous post. It showed up perfectly in the preview, but now the kanji and kana appear as question marks... Dang. The rather strange English posted below the question marks is a translation of the Japanese text. Anyway, if you read Japanese, just follow the links.