Notes from the President's Office No. 8: The Return of Campus Life
April 14, 2022
Kohei Itoh
Keio students have returned to our university campuses. Please take a look at these photos of Hiyoshi Campus and SFC, which have welcomed our new students. With over 90% of classes being held in person, even in my own class of about 280 students, the large lecture hall is filled with Keio students with bright, shining eyes. It's the return of live performances by faculty—of live classes. Please see the photos below. How happy the Keio students look, chatting in the Hiyoshi courtyard or around SFC's Gulliver Pond (Kamoike) during their lunch break!
Some members of the local community may be concerned about the sudden wave of Keio students, but please rest assured. The decisions on Keio University's policies are made in compliance with the latest laws, regulations, and municipal guidelines. Keio University will continue its efforts to lead the way in coexisting with COVID-19.
With the start of the new academic year, a new initiative for Keio is beginning at Hiyoshi Campus. It is the " 2022 Keio University Student Conference ."
Here, Keio students selected from all faculties will aim to propose a vision, goals, and targets for Keio University to achieve the SDGs. At the call of Akio Okuda, Vice-President for Student Life, the Keio University Research and Education Center for Natural Sciences will be responsible for planning and managing the project as the implementing body. As shown on the project website, a wide range of faculty members will participate, and Norichika Kanie and Hiroko Kuniya of the Graduate School of Media and Governance, who are leading experts on the SDGs, will provide advice as supervisors. This will be the first program to implement with Keio students the basic concept of "the pursuit of ideals as pioneers of the future and global citizens," which I reported on in the November Notes from the President's Office No. 2 . I look forward to the proposals from the "2022 Keio University Student Conference."
We were also able to welcome new students full of anticipation and their joyful families at the entrance ceremonies of our affiliated schools. My congratulatory address to the new students is included at the end of this message.
On the weekend after the series of entrance ceremonies, I paid a private visit to Yukichi Fukuzawa's hometown of Nakatsu City in Oita Prefecture. At his former residence, I was delighted to be able to report on various positive developments, including the revival of campus life, as a result of the efforts of all Keio faculty and staff.
Finally, here is the President's congratulatory address for the 2022 entrance ceremonies of the affiliated schools.
To all new students, welcome to Keio University. I would also like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to your families.
First, I would like to read "The Mission of Keio University," as stated by our founder, Yukichi Fukuzawa.
"Keio University is not to be satisfied with being a mere institute of learning. Its mission is to be a constant source of honorable character and a paragon of intellect and morals for the entire nation and for each member to apply this spirit to the family, society, and nation. They will not only articulate this purpose but will also demonstrate it in their actions, and so become leaders of society."
I imagine you all had various reasons for choosing Keio University from among the many schools available, but "The Mission of Keio University" that I just introduced is a goal that all new students should share. To aim for the heights of being a source of honorable character and a paragon of intellect and morals for the entire nation, and to lead all of society—that is, the entire world—in the right direction, you will devote yourselves to your studies, engage in extracurricular activities, and meet lifelong friends during your time at Keio University. The "Gijuku" in Keio Gijuku is a translation of the British "public school," and it means a Juku where students with the high aspiration of dedicating themselves to public development gather. So, together, let's aim to become leaders of all society and devote ourselves to public development.
To help you pursue your ideals as leaders, I would like to introduce three points that I believe are essential.
The first is to always take on challenges. Yukichi Fukuzawa taught that a society where we citizens are content with the status quo and pursue only our own happiness will regress. We must challenge ourselves with new things and, in doing so, be conscious of leading society. What supports this challenge is the constant power of learning—precisely the spirit of "Gakumon no susume (An Encouragement of Learning)." Challenges do not always go as planned. But if we fear failure, we can only maintain the status quo. And maintaining the status quo is, in fact, a relative decline. Therefore, please start this virtuous cycle during your life as Keio students: continue to take on challenges throughout your life, devote yourselves to learning for that purpose, and connect this learning to new challenges. The word "challenge" may sound daunting, but let's start by "stretching ourselves." Engaging in assigned studies or extracurricular activities is not stretching yourself. Studying and extracurricular activities are what build your abilities to become a leader; to use an analogy of height, they are what make you physically taller. The school will provide a solid framework for this. What is needed in addition is "stretching yourself" of your own volition. Stretching yourself is like standing on your tiptoes—it's something you can do easily. So, every day, try to stretch yourself by thinking, "Let me try this today," or "Let me improve this today." This habit will naturally lead to bigger challenges.
The second point, and perhaps the most important for a leader, is to aim to be a "blessed leader." Improving society is not something one can do alone. Therefore, let's strive to be the kind of person who makes others think, "With this person, I can enjoy taking on new challenges naturally," or "With this person, we can build a bright home, school, company, community, country, and world." Live your life with sincerity, with high aspirations and vows, while always being positive and, in a good sense, optimistic. It is important to have the support of your family and friends, but what is even more important is to be supported by people you don't even know. To give a simple example, being blessed means that even as you commute to school normally, chatting happily with your friends, you spread a natural sense of freshness around you, making people feel that Keio students are truly pleasant. Naturally acquiring this kind of demeanor is the key to earning the trust of others. This freshness, this conduct that naturally earns support from people, is universal, so it transcends the barriers of race and language. It is an essential condition for succeeding as a global citizen. Be someone people want to work with, to be active with. To put it grandly, it means aiming to be a person who has even heaven on their side. This is the spirit that Keio University aims for, and this is what I call a "blessed leader."
The third point is to go out into the world. How will your judgments and actions affect all of society in the future? To imagine both the positive and negative impacts, you must know the wider world. Let's step out into the wider world and aim to become leaders with world-class knowledge and networks. Thirty-three years ago, I enrolled in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States. My specialty was semiconductor physics. One day, during a lecture by a famous professor from Germany, I was shocked when he was severely criticized for saying, "Today I will talk about diamond and silicon as semiconductors. Since there are ladies in the audience, let's start with diamonds." It was not the slip of the tongue that was condemned, but the way of thinking behind it. By interacting with people from all over the world at Berkeley, I was able to think about human dignity, human rights—that is, independence and self-respect—with a depth that would have been impossible in Japan. To become a blessed leader, you need world-class integrity and a sense of justice, a world-class sense of independence and self-respect. Regarding the crisis in Ukraine, as a physicist, I have important research colleagues in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and other countries. I have been invited to these countries and have built relationships, and as scholars, we have gotten along well regardless of nationality. That is why the current situation hits so close to home for me. In the February Notes from the President's Office , a photo of me holding the Ukrainian flag was posted on the Keio University website. I posted it on the fourth day of Putin's invasion, and at first, there were some opinions that it was not appropriate for the President to show a political stance. However, it was Yukichi Fukuzawa who was the first to take such action. To be precise, it was Yukichi Fukuzawa who set aside political stances and spoke the truth directly.
Today, I am truly delighted to see all you new students standing together at the starting line of your journey to become leaders. From now on, "stretch yourselves" every day, strive to conduct yourselves as blessed leaders, prepare to venture out into the world, and aim to become people of world-class independence and self-respect. My heartfelt congratulations to you all today.