"Thoughts on the 25th Anniversary of SFC's Founding" | Hitoshi Takano (Administrative Director, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC))

2015.04.01

SFC was established in April 1990. This is the 26th year since we welcomed our inaugural class. However, since an anniversary marks the completion of a full year, this fiscal year is our commemorative 25th anniversary.

The idea is to celebrate throughout the fiscal year by adding the "25th Anniversary" title to various SFC events and activities. Therefore, if student organizations wish to use this title for their own events, I encourage them to discuss their plans with the student life section of the administrative office.

Such anniversary initiatives serve as an opportunity to aim for the organization's development, formulate strategies for the future, and build the foundations necessary for those strategies.

This foundation building has various aspects, but in this article, I would like to touch upon the initiative that I consider particularly important.

That is, the historical reflection of the organization celebrating its anniversary and the project of collecting materials for that purpose.

Evaluating the path an organization has taken is a crucial task in charting its future course. It is only by having an attitude of learning from the past that we can look to the future.

And for that, collecting materials that tend to become scattered as the years go by becomes an important undertaking.

I believe many of you also consult past materials in your research activities, and you can probably appreciate how inconvenient it would be if these materials were not properly archived and organized for research use.

That is why I believe it is our mission, as members of an institution like a university, to properly collect, organize, and archive these materials to make them available for the next generation.

During my student years, I studied the political and legal systems of the Nara period. The extant materials from the Nara period are limited, but wooden tablets excavated from archaeological sites are precious materials that vividly convey the era.

Sometimes, discoveries are made that support theories regarding official histories, and at other times, discoveries are made that require us to reconsider those theories.

I believe that because these wooden tablets were not intentionally preserved, they possess a unique value.

We, too, hope to collect materials as impartially as possible.

Now, with that in mind, I would like to introduce a task I was previously involved in, which I undertook with the conscious intention of creating a resource for posterity.

At SFC, there was a newsletter called "Pantheon," which was published with the purpose of "promoting communication within SFC, recording SFC's activities, and informing other campuses of SFC's activities."

I wrote "was" in the past tense, but it still continues today in the form of an email newsletter for SFC faculty and staff. The print version ran for 12 years from its establishment in 1990, with 36 issues published.

Leafing through the first issue, there is an article in which Hideo Aiso, the first Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, predicted that this "Pantheon" would become "a short history of SFC" and that it would eventually be published on new information media.

This prediction has come true, in that it is now an email newsletter.

I was in charge of editing this "Pantheon" from 1995 to 1997. It was a three-year period during which I strove to revitalize its publication, which had become infrequent when I took over the task.

What I was particular about was the desire to give it the role and value as a resource, as "a short history of SFC" that Dean Aiso had mentioned. However, around that time, the work of the General Affairs section in the administrative office was extremely busy, with few staff members and a wide range of responsibilities. Therefore, I considered outsourcing the editing and publishing work to Keio University Press, while still being involved in the planning. The idea was that by using appropriate paper, even if it was a bit expensive, it would be easy to preserve as a resource, and Keio University Press could make it commercially viable. The procedural arrangements had progressed to the point of seeking approval from SFC's Public Relations Committee.

However, the plan fell through. The chair of the Public Relations Committee told me, "We don't need to use high-quality paper," and a committee member said, "Its appeal lies in being disposable." My workload was not lightened. I was mistaken to think the committee chair would agree, as he was someone who always gave a ready "OK" during the editing process. In short, I had not done enough groundwork by explaining things beforehand.

Currently, the functions of the former "Pantheon" seem to have partially shifted to the email newsletter and partially to the official SFC Website. The very "Okashira's Diary" on this Website that you are reading now is an article that would not seem out of place as a "Pantheon" feature.

In a special feature for the 30th issue of "Pantheon," Dean Aiso contributed a piece evaluating some of its achievements as "a short history of SFC," but he also touched upon the fact that its transition to the web had not yet been accomplished.

The current "Pantheon" as an email newsletter is limited to introducing new and retiring faculty and staff with a brief comment. Other serial articles, feature articles, and news-like articles have changed form and moved to the Website, a structure that has been in place for 13 years.

Both of Dean Aiso's predictions did come to fruition, but in the context of the "25-year historical review" for this 25th anniversary project, I feel that its role as a short history has diminished since it became an email newsletter.

To think that if we had successfully outsourced the work back then, the print version of "Pantheon" might still be in publication today, providing a continuous short history of SFC—this is perhaps nothing more than a futile regret.

When I consult the past print versions of "Pantheon" as a resource, the unique advantages of the paper medium become apparent.

I am fully aware that each medium has its own merits and demerits. It is a question worth considering what was gained and what was lost when "Pantheon" changed its medium from print.

The intention of creating a resource for posterity has changed its form along with the change in medium. However, this also brings into view the theme of how to archive digital data such as web content and email newsletters and make them easy to use as resources.

In the 25th anniversary project, I feel the importance of the archiving project on a daily basis.

Finally, I have a request for all our readers.

On the occasion of SFC's 10th anniversary, a large-scale effort was made to collect and archive materials for the creation of a 10-year history of SFC. However, the reality is that subsequent material collection has been insufficient.

We are of course looking for materials from the time of SFC's establishment, but we would especially like to request that anyone who has materials from the year 2000 to the present that they consider valuable to SFC please consider providing them.

If you are willing to provide materials such as photographs, videos, posters, booklets, or various articles related to SFC, please contact us at the address below.

(Contact) SFC Media Center, Multimedia Services section

E-Mail: sfc25-mc@sfc.keio.ac.jp

Phone: 0466-49-3435