My Favorite Place at SFC | Tomoyuki Kojima (Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management)
2005.08.19
Even at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), which is usually bustling with students, it is predictably quiet during the summer vacation in August. The only sounds are from facility renovation work and the chirping of cicadas, which is certainly calming. However, silence just doesn't seem to suit SFC.
When I was an undergraduate student, my impression of the research building at Mita Campus was that it was lined with faculty offices, and even on a normal day, students were few and far between, with silence enveloping the hallways. Compared to the quiet research building at Mita, SFC gives a completely different impression. Partly because laboratories and classrooms are intermingled, students are far more visible than faculty, and the entire area is filled with a sense of dynamism. Some visitors, taken aback, sarcastically remark, "It must be impossible to get any research done with all this noise." This is likely because they believe research presupposes quiet, solitary contemplation. While that is also necessary, what is even more essential for research is brainstorming, where different perspectives and diverse opinions collide. Even during the summer vacation, it is characteristic of SFC that students remain in several joint research labs, engaging in discussions and collaborative work.
My own lab is no different; being adjacent to a joint research lab, it is overflowing with students. Some of those who come and go are graduate students, as graduate classes and projects are held in the joint research lab. The rest are undergraduates who are here around the clock for group work in their research projects (kenkyukai) or to work on their graduation projects. They bring sleeping bags, and desks are turned into makeshift beds. There are quite a few "stayers" who spend the night in the lab rather than at home or in their lodgings. Even pigeons are among the "stayers." Once, a pigeon that had entered through an open window took up residence in the lab and even built a nest.
We have already had 12 graduating classes from the kenkyukai, totaling over 200 alumni. They are all close and often get together after graduation, mainly with their classmates and without their former professor. There are indeed many who "love to flock together." It seems that this habit of "flocking together" was formed by "staying" in the joint research lab. For many of these alumni, it is this bustling "Kojima Lab" that gives them their sense of SFC identity.
The same is true for me. I have already spent four years in the Dean's Office as dean and will remain here for another two, but my favorite place at SFC will undoubtedly continue to be the "Kojima Lab."
(Posted: 2005/08/19)