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[roubai]

I don't know anything about this situation.

But Clark's "Life Story" is...fascinating.

Do read some of his theories here: http://www.gregoryclark.net/lifestory/page13/page13.html

(This is the same guy, right?)

People with history, anthropology, sociology, and poli sci backgrounds should find it entertaining reading.

[concernedinakita]

A long while ago Asa29 asked for the link to the article on the AIU "situation" in the Asahi Shimbun.

I just ran across this link with the Asahi Shimbun article (2006.12.17) and an article from the Sankei Shimbun (2006.12.26) for those still interested.

http://university.main.jp/blog3/archives/2007/01/post_2559.html

Also, I think in the coming months we'll be seeing more news in the papers. As heiwa said, "the drama has just begun......."

[concernedinakita]

For more interesting reading (in Japanese) on the net regarding Akita International University (AIU) check out the "zen koku kokkou shiritsu daigaku no jiken jouhou" website:

http://university.main.jp/blog3/archives/cat84/index.html

[yoshidashoin]

For a detailed expose in the English language on AIU and other select Japanese universities,  detailing these institutions' bad management and ill treatment of non-Japanese faculty, see the article "Rising Sun, Sinking Spirits" in the February 12th, 2007 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (see http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i24/24a04701.htm -- password required).

[floating]

>Clark was also the interview committee EXPERT in all subjects, most >inclined to bring up research or publications from 20 years back, ill >testing his AIU colleagues in their respective fields

My friend, who is a US citizen wuth Ph.D., had an interview, and got a position at AIU, told me that he encountered Clark's "mean" questions. After the interview, he heard from one of the administration staff, that not only he but also many others had the same experience with Clark. 

The candidate whose reserach was praised by Clark my be him.

He also said that he got very positive impresion with Pres. Nakajimamin the interview and that Yoshio appeared to be a gentleman.

I hope my friend will enjoy beeing there from April.

[disappointed]

Much of what David McNeill reports in his recent article in the Chronicle about universities in Japan and their “strange” treatment of non-Japanese (and Japanese) faculty seems to be true. Some seems inaccurate though , especially when he lets Gregory Clark do the talking regarding Akita International University. The situation in Akita is more depressing than McNeill contends and AIU’s failure to rehire me and other faculty members is less honest than Clark admits. 

Aside from working this winter term, I'm here busy packing many years worth of stuff, from clothes, books and teaching materials to furniture, family heirlooms and my child's toys. My family is preparing to leave Akita, after 17 years, by March 31st. It's extremely expensive to do this (with no help from AIU, of course), time consuming and disheartening. The same opinion is probably held by the other teachers in my situation.

Added to the expense of the move out has been the expense of the move in, 3 years ago. At that time, when I was given what I believed would be the first of my renewable 3-year contracts (based on merit, I was told), I invested in upgrading a lovely older house that I had found in the area. With the expectation to stay for some time, I spent nearly a million yen (8ooo US$) for renovations.

My expectation was to contribute to "AIU success story" as much as possible. After all, I have dedicated many years of my professional life to creating a viable institution of higher education in Akita, and I sincerely wanted to see that through to the next stage.

The major disappointment now is that when I applied to work at AIU 4 years ago, I was led by the AIU management to believe that my work and effort would be truly valued.

I was told by the president that if I taught well, contributed to student and university development, and made contributions in my field, I would be recognized as an asset to AIU and that I could continue to live in Akita and work here. I was even told that an annual administrative evaluation of my work would determine my future AIU employment.

This is the point that Clark wants many of us to ignore now.

While I worked for the Akita prefecture government in 2003-2004 as a university development team member preparing AIU for opening, I was even told by the AIU president that if I were “loyal” to him, he would be loyal to me.  As things have turned out, I am now being told that I misunderstood him. However, I believe the facts show that he didn’t really mean what he had said to me and others.

To wit: By the end of 2006, the president had decided that I was no longer qualified to teach at AIU, despite two straight years worth of positive feedback from him and the AIu management about my work. (Positively evaluated, I was even given a pay raise during this period.)

By most global standards, I am still qualified to teach at AIU (my future employers will corroborate this). My contributions at AIU have been such that, in any fair work environment, where faculty members are not DISENFRANCHISED AND DISPOSABLE, I could have been offered a new contract. Only in Japan, one might conclude....

Judge for yourself.

In the last three years, my student, peer and program director evaluations have been very positive. Students see my work as stellar, in fact, with 95% of 250 of them from 6 semesters rating me as “excellent” to “outstanding” on a Likert rating scale in ALL areas of the official AIU course evaluation (demonstrating that I understand the needs of Japanese students).

My other contributions to AIU, like those of many of my non-renewed colleagues, have been numerous. For example:
- I was a founding member of the EAP faculty at AIU (as I was at the predecessor university, MSUA), and contributed to the development of the various grading heavy courses that I taught and to whatever program policies and curriculum I was allowed to comment on.

- In the last three years at AIU, I have given three presentations of findings from my original and action research at two internationally recognized conferences, in Japan and in Southeast Asia. I also presented locally, regionally and nationally, nearly a dozen times, on topics in my research as well as on teacher training issues and cultural themes. In addition, I published an article based on one of my projects in an internationally recognized professional journal and have another article pending.

- I taught a popular course for AIU in one of the annual, two-week summer teacher training programs.

-In these years I was a member of THREE inetrdepartmental faculty teams that received major external grant funding, two of those for student-centered study abroad grants, and one for an education ministry-recognized community based research project. (The total value of these three grants was in excess of 10 million yen.)

- I have been funded by AIU for my own individual research in the neighborhood of 2 million yen over the course of these three years. (Now I will take my knowledge and skills to another university, where I trust my contributions will be appreciated more.)

- In three years I co-developed and taught in a community education English conversation program; I initiated a student-directed community-based charity-concert for international tsunami relief in Akita, and did two similar projects in a Southeast Asian nation affected by the 2004 Boxer day Tsunami.

-Aside from teaching my university classes, I also taught English, on a weekly basis, to a group of local health practitioners;

-I also served as the club advisor for three AIU student clubs (and for one of these clubs, set up numerous events for students to have performance opportunities), and I co-coordinated/edited a student-writing based newsletter.

These are simply some of the highlights of my last three years at AIU, (though I am now to be remembered as one of the AIU faculty members seen by Mr. Clark as having been hired by AIU in 2004 merely thanks to administrative goodwill).
 
In fact, for all my efforts at AIU in the period April 2004-December 2006, I was actually offered a 40% pay cut and then told that, while I was not qualified to teach again in the EAP program, even with my Masters Degree AND many years of significant university teaching experience (most of that in Japan), I WAS worthy of a contract at AIU, for one year only, as a lecturer in the "intercultural communication center," working under Mr. Clark. (The “intercultural communication center” is, as of February 2007, an empty room on the AIU campus.)

("Scr** you for your effort" seemed to be the message.)

If we multiply my contributions by 10 or 12 (for the number of colleagues who have been sent packing), we see how devastating the *innovative* hiring/renewal policy of AIU has been: A true nightmare for me personally, and of questionable value to the AIU students, to this new university and to the entire Akita community.

[11113567]

so should everyone else, I guess. I should have read consernedinakita earlier.

Concernd8 continues to ignore the many excellent questions that have been asked on this forum--including those that go all the way back to page one:

As a possible future applicant for a job at the university in question, I have a few queries for your management ( concerned 8) that many viewers in this forum might ask:

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? <snip>

Are we to assume that he can't answer them? ...or maybe he's been told to keep quiet?

Concerned8 obviously either doesn't think these questions are worth answering, or thinks they already have been, and probably stopped reading after the first one. He's been back but has continued to ignore these questions.

Let me try to explain. Universities in Japan are not ranked by the accomplishments of their faculty, either in research or in educating their students. They are ranked by the difficulty of their entrance exams. The faculty are irrelevant. AIU could hire lobotomized Down's Syndrome sufferers to drool in front of a classroom for 90 minutes at a stretch and it wouldn't affect their ranking. They could hire all Nobel Prize winners and that wouldn't affect their ranking either. (I think I already pointed out that Kyoto University has more Nobel Prize winners than Tokyo University.) ... [edited by moderator because of personal attack]. So how do they claim success? Let me quote from the "scroll message" on the front page of the University's website:

Data published in the February 2006 issue of 'Sunday Asahi' reveal that again AIU ranked third among more than 160 public universities in Japan in terms of selectivity/difficulty of entrance in non-science fields. Tokyo University ranked first. Kyoto University second.

Did you catch that? "Selectivity/difficulty of entrance" to the university is how universities are ranked in Japan. You won't learn anything if you go to one, but you have to pass the "examination hell" to get in. The faculty are irrelevant. That's how Japanese universities are ranked and the people running this university don't understand any other way to rank universities. They think you are an idiot (or a gaijin, same thing) because you obviously don't/can't understand Japan.

Never mind that the people running this university, including (or especially?) Gregory Clark, don't understand the outside world and don't even know that they don't. This is Japan, it's economy is protected, and Americans will never be allowed to compete fairly, in higher education, agriculture or any other sector of the economy. The new education law requires that "Patriotism" be taught to students. My advice to anyone considering teaching there is to get out. Anyone who's already there should get out, too, if you can. And both groups should read Ivan Hall's Cartels of the Mind.

[floating]

"AIU could hire lobotomized Down's Syndrome sufferers."

I don't believe that someone who makes this kind of remarks deserves teaching at college (not juts at AIU) and any kind of school. If she/he were a(n) (ex-)AIU faculty member whose contract was not renewed, I would say that AIU or Pres. Nakajima made a good decision.

No matter what kind of criticism and accusation we make against AIU and any school in any country, we should avoid insulting and humiliating someone.

[outsideadvisor]

Floating seems very sensitive to the human emotions involved here. He makes a clear, well-justified point: University-level teachers (and adminsitrators) should refrain, if possible, from unduly humiliating or hurting others.

In a recent phone conversation with a former Akita colleague, one of those teachers recently ousted at AIU despite glowing annual evaluations, I learned more of the personal tragedy that the Akita leadership has inflicted on the faculty at AIU and their family members.

Imagine this, Ms. Floating: You are the spouse of a hard working teacher at AIU. Your husband (or wife) has been unjustifiably fired (for all practical purpuses, that is what nonrenewal is). We can say "fired unjustifiably" because even though he/she did an immense amount of work on behalf of the institution, though he/she was given an annual mark by the president himself in the category of A for in the first year and another passing evaluation the second year, he/she was not even given an interview in the suddenly announced " healthy competition" (or so the president has called it) for "new" faculty.

This is not fiction, or the hypothetical. It is a very real situation!

What would be the impact of that administrative decision on the mind of this faculty member? Think about all the parameters, Floating. Consider that teacher's self-esteem, motivation, interpersonal relations.

You are very sensitive, maybe even empathetic, Floating. Consider how the dismissal of a highly evaluated teacher affects his or her students' perceptions, relations with students whose image of that faculty member have now been tainted, and consider the overall professional situation, the academic program needs, the school image as held by community members wondering what has happened.

Most of the teachers at AIU who were not renewed, though they had been given clear previous indication by the president that their work was valued, have spouses. At least half of them have childern who are infants or who are in school. These people's spouses, now forced to sort through, throw away and pack up years' worth of all the materials that make a house a home, have been sorely affected. These teachers' children, now told to leave their schools and to say goodbye to their friends, have been sorely affected.

Almost all of these teachers are non-Japanese, and many of them came to Akita from far away. They came (or in some cases, stayed) with the promise that they would be judged on their work and on the contributions that they would make to AIU students and the academic program. They were told, and they believed that they could assume that hard work, commitment + talent = renewal.

Now they are devastated, as Disappointed tells us in his/her post above. These teachers are feeling depressed (ask them), have been physically sick, and are, at the same time, professionally challenged to go through the warying job search process. They are forced -- by what they see as an unjust system --  to leave jobs for positions elsewhere that they have loved and students for whom they have demonstrated great respect.

I have even heard that before these teachers have even vacated their offices at AIU, their "replacements" have come aboard and are now walking the halls.

Does that sound like humiliation to you?

I am sure that your heart is in the right place, Floating. But maybe when you consider
the depths of human nastiness, and the total disregard for common courtesy, you should look more squarely at the facts of this situation:

The management at your school has done a great deservice to the high ideals of education.  These  "educational leaders," who have acted without any regard for the professional standards and contributions of the dismissed teachers, have also and more emphatically dismissed the personal lives of those colleagues.

They have "disenfranchised" and "disposed of" an entire group of people. And perhaps even worse, they now seem to ignore the consequences of their actions.

Who should be most embarassed by this? And to whom should you be lecturing about correct human values?

[floating]

Mr./Ms. or Dr. Outsideadvi,

I never think that your sympathy with those who were fired by Dr. N would justify your use of phrase, "AIU could hire lobotomized Down's Syndrome sufferers."

No matter how much justice you saying about the miserable fired ex-AIU faculty members and their family members carrys, you had better be careful of yor use of phrases & terms.

You might say again that I am sensitive. Yes, I am sensitive in a sense. As a college teacher, like you, I am sensitive to how I should behave and what kind of language I shold (not) use.

It would be awful and painful experience, if I were fired like they were actually. I would be furious and feel so miserable.
In other words, I would also like to share some sympathy with them with you, but I hence believe we had better speak in a more proper (or less emotional) way. I also have a kind of bitter experience caused by unfairness (or injustice) in employment in the past.

By the way, I am NOT an AIU faculty member. I am an outsider, like you, who is very curious about what's going on inside the "unique" school in a small local city.

[11113567]

to any Down's Syndrome patient or lobotomy victim who was upset because they thought they were being compared to a Japanese university professor. In fact I did not say that any actual Japanese university professors suffered from Down's Syndrome, or that they had been subject to a lobotomy. Some of my best friends are Japanese university professors, and they complain about the Japanese university system and the Education Ministry as much as I do, sometimes even more so. You can confirm that by reading some of Takamitsu Sawa's columns in The Japan Times.

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 "'Soviet-style' reforms won't improve national universities"
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20030610ts.html

Monday, Nov. 1, 2004 "Universities lack will to reform" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20041101ts.html

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 "University gap set to widen" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20050503ts.html

Monday, Oct. 31, 2005 "Students need analytical skills" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20051031ts.html

Monday, Dec. 5, 2005 "Japan's education disability" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20051205ts.html

Monday, June 5, 2006 "Japan's college gap growing" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20060605ts.html

Monday, Jan. 1, 2007 "Unwise gantlet for teachers" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20070101ts.html


Whoever "floating" is, they should try to understand that my remarks are not personal to anyone, but are rather intended to point out, if in a rather extreme way, the failings of a system in which the qualifications of the faculty, indeed education and research themselves, are irrelevant to the rankings of universities. If "floating" (who boasts a friend among newly hired AIU faculty) considers this insulting to his or her friend, I'm sorry. "floating" should stop trying to censor those who disagree with him or her, but should instead work to create a system in which university administrators have an incentive to hire the most qualified people. If his or her friend would be out of a job, well, I'm sorry for his or her friend, but why his or her friend thinks he or she deserves to be hired in the place of someone more qualified I do not understand. Why his or her friend would be desperate enough to apply to AIU I don't understand either. It does not speak well of his or her qualifications.

AIU was supposed to be part of the Education Ministry's solution to what everyone recognizes are weak universities, but without creating incentives to either attract or hire qualified people the problem can't be solved. The Ministry seems to think that sending circular memos around, ordering universities to improve, will somehow automatically improve the universities, absent real incentives to improve. The Soviet Union at least had gulags for an incentive. Slavery had whips. The Ministry doesn't even have those incentives. The Ministry is trying to end tenure, and thinks that they will somehow attract more qualified people to apply for jobs. Whatever happened to the "market revolution" of the 1980s? You get what you pay for. Throwing money at broken universities won't solve the problem, but the Ministry will not attract better professors without giving them tenure and the other perks, many of which cost money.

Most of all, the Ministry has to give those doing the hiring an incentive to hire the most qualified people.

[floating]

Mr/Ms. 11113567,

No matter what intention or purpose you have, it would not justify the disgusting use of terms. The problem is not "comaprison" to Japanese niversity profs.


> If "floating" (who boasts a friend among newly hired AIU >
>faculty) considers this insulting to his or her friend, I'm >
>sorry. "floating" should stop trying to censor those who >disagree with him or her, but should instead work to create a >
>system in which university administrators have an incentive
  to  hire the most qualified people.

First, why do you need to refer to me like "floating" (who boasts a friend among newly hired AIU faculty)"?  I am not "boasting."
I mentioned previosly that one whose research topic was admired by VP. Clark must be my friend. Please do not distort wahat someone said. Is this "boasting"?

Second, am I censoring?  No, I am not!  I am just trying to say, Let's discuss in a proper manner!"  Is this still censoring? 

Third, Mr./Ms. 11113567, do you mean to say that in order to work on creating an ideal or good college administration system, one can be allowed to use any kind of word, by picking up some specific syndrome which some are actually suffering or struggling with in this world?  I would personally not do your way. In other words, I do not buy your or other's "inconsiderate" way of discussion.

I've never imagined that "apology" is such a cheap or sharrow word or action.

[11113567]

If "floating" wants to "discuss in a proper manner" the first thing he or she needs to do is calm down. I have not insulted anyone who is suffering from any syndrome. I simply pointed out that the qualifications of the faculty make no difference in the ranking system of Japanese universities. This is the reality, whether "floating", I, Gregory Clark, or anyone else likes it.

If "floating" doesn't like criticism of Japanese universities, s/he should work to reform them, instead of defending their excesses. As Japanese universities are more and more exposed to the outside world, more and more people are becoming aware of just how bad they are. The Chronicle itself once compared Japanese professors to Japanese rice farmers.

From the issue dated February 24, 1993:

Even in the face of globalization, university professors, especially at the national institutions, have, like rice farmers, mostly defended an old and local way of life.

I think this is abusive of Japanese rice farmers, who perform a useful (if overpriced) service to society, who do have to work for a living, and who are bright enough to realize they are being protected. Most Japanese professors have no clue. But I never complained to the Chronicle.

Let's look at the reality of AIU. The Ministry refused to accredit a foreign university, but set up a new university, designed by bureaucrats who had no experience in either teaching or research. This university has now set about destroying the good that the American university was able to do, replacing it with an experimental system that has no chance of succeeding.

What is "floating"'s defense? That Gregory Clark praised the research topic of "floating"'s friend? How is Gregory Clark qualified to pass judgement on anyone's research? AIU just fired several people, including Ph.D.s, allegedly for not having Ph.D.s! Where is Gregory Clark's Ph.D.? An excellent program of EAP was dismantled, fluent Japanese speakers were dismissed, all in the name of what? Hiring fluent Japanese speakers with Ph.D.s? Do you defend this?

Please "floating", stop feeling insulted by hyperbolic comparisons. Instead, let's talk about the real problems of Japanese universities, and the real problems of AIU in particular. If you can't understand that there is a problem, at least leave this forum alone. If you have something concrete to discuss about these problems, please demonstrate it by letting us read it.

[floating]

Mr./Ms. or Dr. 1113567, are you misunderstanding, intentionally or not, what I am trying to say?

First, I have never defended the Japanese university system. I actually   
        find little reason to defend or praise it.

Second, I do not believe that you would need to refer to specific   
        syndrome in order to criticize the AIU management or the
        japanese  university system. You should be aware that onece you
        refer to any specific syndrome which some suffer from, they
       would  feel offended or insulted. That's why I am asking you to be   
       more considerate. Just imagine how your action and words would 
       make someone else feel. Isn't this kind of sensitivity necessary to
       treat studenst as a teacher?

Third, I've never defended VP. Clark. Someone here said previously that 
       one condidate's research topic was spoken well of by Clark in   
       his/her interview. Then I said that she/he must be my American
        friend who was hired by AIU thsi time. This is all I said.

Mr./Ms. 111113567, what you are doing is now to me is action like "itakumonai hara o saguru" in Japanese, if I avoid using the term, distortion.

[heiwa]

Whoa! Sounds like someone's having a sissy fit.

And Rome (or is it AIU?) burns.