[Feature: 30 Years of SFC] SFC as a "Community of Creation" — Beyond 30 Years

2020/10/05

Image: Taken by drone in 2019 (Provided by Keishi Takeda Laboratory)

It was December 1987 when I was asked if I would like to join the new faculty scheduled to open in Fujisawa. At the time, I was teaching at the Mita Campus as a part-time lecturer, but from the following year, I began attending preparatory meetings for the new faculty. Meetings called "Agora" were held in a two-story prefabricated building located behind what is now the South Annex. Prospective faculty members presented their research and spoke of their educational aspirations and dreams for the new faculty. Foreign language teachers worked on developing automated learning materials. In my notes from July 26, 1988—perhaps from a briefing for foreign language faculty—it says: "The basic philosophy of the new faculty is to move from a knowledge-transmission-oriented university to a method-discovery-oriented (knowing) university, from the triangle formed by Aristotle's theoria, praxis, and poiesis to a fusion of the world of knowledge." Then came the entrance examinations for the first class of students. Perhaps because there were not enough staff transferring from Mita or Hiyoshi, even I, who was a full-time faculty member at another university at the time, was called in to help.

Meanwhile, construction of the new campus was progressing. To catch a glimpse of the construction site, I visited Endo, Fujisawa City, for the first time in the autumn of the previous year. Walking up the slope from the road on the south side of what is now the Junior and Senior High School, I saw buildings under construction that looked as if they could not possibly be completed by the following spring. I instinctively asked the site foreman if they would be ready by April, only to be dismissed with a sharp "We can do it!" However, it seems my blunt question was not entirely off the mark. I heard that the installation of chairs in Lecture Hall Ω was only finished before dawn on the day of the opening ceremony.

Construction continued after that. By the end of the first year, the only buildings completed were the four buildings κ, ε, ι, and ο, which served as both classrooms and faculty offices; the administration building Α; Ω; and Σ (the Co-op store), which housed the library and an indoor gymnasium on the first floor. The center of the campus was a massive construction site for the Media Center Μ and the Large Lecture Hall Θ. The east side, where Α and Ω were located, and the west side, where κ, ε, ι, and ο were located, were connected by a temporary path about one meter wide along the edge of Gulliver Pond (Kamoike). Faculty, staff, and students had no choice but to use that path to get back and forth. Because we passed each other many times a day, we naturally learned each other's faces. It was a daily life of close contact.

Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) is blessed with abundant nature. The vast grounds where the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies opened in 1990, followed by the Junior and Senior High School two years later, are characterized by an impressive expanse of blue sky. The Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care, established in 2001, features a compact school building nestled in the woods. The Graduate School of Media and Governance is located at the former, while the Graduate School of Health Management is at the latter. The sight of young people gathering in small groups by Gulliver Pond (Kamoike) when the campus trees sprout young buds, the fireworks that mark the end of the festival, the autumn leaves of Tallow Slope dyed in various colors, and above all, the majestic view of Mt. Fuji seen directly ahead from the road leading to the campus past the golf driving range or from the bottom of the slope at the Junior and Senior High School on a clear winter day are irreplaceable.

The campus site was originally satoyama (woodland near a village), and some parts were places where even locals did not set foot. I heard that a student from the countryside, who had rejoiced upon seeing the announcement of passing results at Mita, came to see the campus the next day and cried when they realized it was more rural than their hometown. It was a treasure trove of wildlife; the guards at the North Gate security office used to feed a raccoon dog named Kei-chan. Around the same time I spotted a pheasant near the guest house, I was astonished to find pheasant bowl being served at the Faculty Club, wondering if local production for local consumption had reached its extreme. Although not wild, there were many farmers with cowsheds in the vicinity, and I heard stories that the cows' milk production decreased because the nights became brighter after the campus was built. No doubt many graduates feel a sense of nostalgia for the unique smell that arises during the rainy season or when clouds hang low.

Looking back, the birth of the new campus occurred just before the collapse of the bubble economy, a time when the Japanese economy was emitting its final glow. "If you think you can see the light from the Enoshima lighthouse, you can (though in reality, no matter how hard you strain your eyes, you can't); a guided bus with a dedicated bus lane will run from Shonandai to Tsujido via SFC; a new Tokaido Shinkansen station planned between Shin-Yokohama and Odawara will be built nearby; if Atsugi Airfield is sold to the private sector, the world will be just a stone's throw away." These were the humorous remarks of the late Hiroshi Kato, then Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, but none of them have been realized yet. In 1999, the Sotetsu Izumino Line and the Yokohama Municipal Subway were extended to Shonandai Station on the Odakyu Line, where previously only local trains stopped, and an underground passage connecting the east and west exits was built. Initially, the route bus from Shonandai Station to the campus had no choice but to turn right at Endo and go via Sasakubo, but the forest beyond the golf driving range was cleared, and a road stretching straight toward the campus was built. In 2005, articulated buses were introduced, somewhat alleviating the congestion of buses used by junior high, high school, and university students along with local residents.

I believe the faculty and staff in the early days took pride in leading—or rather, running at the very front of—university reform. We introduced many new things, both in terms of systems such as AO admissions, course evaluations, April and September enrollment, TAs (Teaching Assistants), and SAs (Student Assistants), and in terms of educational methods such as artificial languages using workstations, expressive natural language education, a registration system for compulsory physical education, and the introduction of group work. Doing new things naturally increased the workload. We debated thoroughly. Meetings increased and became longer. There were not just heated arguments, but even shouting matches. Curriculum reform, graduate school concepts, external interim evaluations, and so on. We had no choice but to keep running while tackling difficult challenges. The administrative staff, who used the cutting-edge campus network system to keep the new systems running smoothly, were dizzyingly busy. Despite their small numbers, each person handled multiple roles. This has not changed even today.

We were often featured in the media and evaluated as the standard-bearers of university reform. Since there were only first-year students, all faculty and staff could devote their heart and soul to student education. Because there were no research seminars or graduate schools, it was more about education than research. This is not to say that the early faculty members were not doing research; rather, they were placed in an environment where they could concentrate on undergraduate education. We put great effort into education, not only in classes but also in student life. Even though there was no system for "supplementary classes," we voluntarily gathered students for extra lessons. We stayed up all night creating teaching materials and writing programs. When students came, we listened to them until late at night. Not a few faculty members stayed overnight in their offices, and the term "SFC widow" began to be whispered.

There was a constant stream of visitors—not only from universities but also from companies, local governments, ministries, and overseas—it was literally a flood of guests. Because the intensive foreign language courses were groundbreaking, some people stayed overnight to observe all four days of classes a week. The students were also used to having visitors in class. One student used a newly learned expression to ask an elderly female head of a German language school, "Wie alt sind Sie?" (How old are you?). Her comment, "I had heard that Japanese university students were quiet, but they are quite proactive," was likely irony rather than a compliment. It was a lack of consideration on the part of those who taught such a sentence to a student who had only just begun learning.

The first-year students, who had neither seniors nor juniors, had only their peers or faculty and staff to consult. With no clubs or school festivals, they built everything themselves from scratch. Both the Tanabata Festival and the Autumn Festival. At that time, private chatter in classrooms was rampant not only at SFC but at universities everywhere. The students themselves stood up to stop the chatter. Perhaps because there were many classes involving group work, after a while, a research group of students emerged to do group work about group work. At the suggestion of students who were supporting children with international roots at nearby elementary schools, a project was born to help Japanese children learn about different languages and cultures. The creative spirit, the spirit of SFC as a "Community of Creation," likely grew from such things. This is inherited today, for example, in the Student Built Campus designed and built by students on the site of the Miraisozojuku (Institute for Designing the Future).

The distance between students and faculty/staff was close. Not only TAs and SAs, but students were in and out of the shared research offices at all hours. Naturally, undergraduate students also joined industry-government-academia collaborative research projects. Project-based research and education progressed, and there was mutual learning between faculty and students. This was a time when there were still many research funds that did not cover travel expenses for undergraduates, and academic societies where undergraduates did not have the right to present research. It was clearly ahead of its time, but the Juku had the spirit of "learning while teaching, teaching while learning."

When job hunting began, people said, "What company would hire a student who doesn't even know how to interact with seniors?" There were also bold statements like, "Job hunting is unnecessary. Companies will eventually come to us to recruit." In reality, it was neither, but there were successive cases of "international students from the future" changing jobs in just one or two years or quitting companies they had entered through university recommendation, which often drew criticism. However, we are now in an era where one in three people leaves their job within three years. It has become normal to look for jobs where one can use one's skills for career advancement or to start one's own business, rather than obtaining a stable, lifelong job.

The 30 years of SFC roughly overlap with the 30 years of the Heisei era. During these 30 years, Japanese society has undergone a major transformation. The Japanese economy, which peaked at the time the campus opened, lost its momentum as if rolling down a slope. Conversely, the Internet, born around the same time, has infinitely expanded the possibilities of communication, and now online classes and telework are conducted everywhere. To the early students who rushed to special classrooms during breaks to compete for workstations and read emails, the environment where communication is possible anywhere with smartphones and laptops must feel like a different world. I hear that most of the fixed computers in those special classrooms have been removed. Furthermore, coexistence with nature has become an issue due to two major earthquakes and torrential rains that cause significant damage every year, and volunteer activities have spread.

Universities have also undergone major changes. The university enrollment rate, which was about 25% in the first year of Heisei, has exceeded 50%. The year after the campus opened, the deregulation of the Standards for Establishment of Universities was announced. An SFC pamphlet with "Approval Pending (Scheduled to open in April 1990)" on the cover emphasizes "Humans and the Environment," "Information and Information Processing Ability," "Comprehensive Judgment," "Global Perspective and Vision," and "Creativity" as the "Five Pillars Supporting the New Campus," and states, "We will conduct research and education in 'Policy Management' and 'Environment and Information,' and attempt the organization of knowledge through practice and synthesis." This stance of emphasizing these "Five Pillars" remains unchanged 30 years later. And graduates who embody these philosophies are active as leaders in various fields, from administration to education, and from IT business to art. If I were to mention just one characteristic, it would be that many people have started non-profit organizations to fulfill social contributions. The treasures of a university are neither the faculty and staff nor the facilities. They are the students and the graduates.

The Faculty of Policy Management is considered the first policy-related faculty established in Japan. Initially, Policy Management was understood as the cross-disciplinary reorganization of knowledge and consensus building beyond existing academic frameworks, and the comprehensive formulation and execution of policies. For a while from the 2003 academic year, when we were working on the 21st Century COE Program "Policy Management (Glocal COE) — Through Basic Research on Human Security," the slogan became "the science of practical wisdom." I think both capture one aspect. As generations change and times shift, the interpretation of Policy Management will also change. Let's look forward to seeing what kind of coloring it takes on in the future.

In 1999, alumni of the Juku collected funds to establish the "SFC Policy Research Support Organization." This made it possible to formulate policies focused on domestic issues in the near future, verify them through fieldwork, and make recommendations. Many recommendations, such as regional revitalization and internal internationalization, have actually been adopted by the government. We cannot forget the support of these seniors.

At the end of the last century, the term "environment" was probably still generally perceived as pollution or environmental problems. In that era, Environment and Information Studies positioned it as "a general term for the external world recognized or perceived by systems with information processing capabilities, such as organisms and machines" (from the aforementioned pamphlet) and found a close relationship between it and information as the foundation of all fields. The Faculty of Environment and Information Studies continues to nurture people who design a new society in fields such as ICT, spatial information, biotechnology, media art, and architecture.

In Japanese society, which has seen a declining birthrate, turned into a population-declining society, and become the world's most aged society, health is the most important keyword for everyone. The Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care, established in 2001, produces people who are active in various fields such as medical education, clinical research, health policy, and health business, not just in nursing settings like hospitals and elderly care facilities. The role of the faculty, which celebrated the Keio Nursing Centenary in 2018, will become increasingly important in the future.

To deal with the challenges of each era, we go beyond existing academic fields and proceed with the reorganization of knowledge. And we make it the core of education to nurture people who have the ability to discover and solve problems themselves. This point is shared by all three faculties.

There are two phrases that caught my attention during the busy early days. Visitors often said, "You could do it because it's a newly established faculty." At the time, I didn't want to agree. I thought—or rather, I wanted to think—that it should be possible even in existing faculties or graduate schools. SFC is no longer a newly established faculty. So, what will we do in the future? Will we continue to run at the front of Japanese higher education by launching even newer experiments? Or will we stop here and take a moment to look back at our feet?

The other is a "theory of a certain sharp-tongued critic" cited by the late Kazuji Nagasu, then Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, at the opening ceremony, while reserving that he was "not necessarily swallowing it whole." According to it, one of the four "structurally depressed industries in Japan" at the time was the university. This is because quality control becomes lax because market mechanisms do not work.*1 We do conduct course evaluations. We have also asked for external evaluations. But is quality control really okay? Perhaps we should question that once more.

There are now only six full-time faculty members remaining from the time of opening in 1990. Soon, there will be no one left who knows those days. This is unavoidable, as it is the work of the passage of time. Whether it is necessary to know about the early days or not is a matter of debate. However, the aforementioned pamphlet states, "While inheriting the tradition as a pioneer of the times, it was conceived to respond directly to the demands of the future society." Social demands change with the times. The form of the university and the form of SFC may change according to the demands of the moment. Much time has passed since graduates began returning as faculty and staff. The deans of both the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies in this 30th year are also graduates. There is certainly something that has been built up over the past 30 years. However, I want them to go beyond that, as a "Community of Creation."