Starting "Introduction to Environment and Information Studies" | Tomohiro Ichinose, Dean, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies
2022.04.19
Spring semester classes started on Thursday, April 7. Since the spring semester of 2020, the number of classes that could be held on campus has been limited due to the spread of COVID-19, but Keio University has decided to return most classes to campus starting this semester. I started teaching "Introduction to Environment and Information Studies" on a campus bustling with students for the first time in a while. This is one of the few required courses in the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, designed for first-year students to take immediately after enrollment. It is offered in Japanese during the spring semester and in English during the fall semester. The dean is the main instructor for the course. In other words, the dean conveys the appeal of the faculty to newly enrolled students. Since I became dean on October 1 of last year, I had already taught the course once last semester when it was offered in English, but this is my first time teaching it in the spring semester, when most of the new students enroll. Similarly, a course called "Introduction to Policy Management" is offered for students of the Faculty of Policy Management. Since each is a one-credit course, new students in both faculties usually take both. Enrollment usually exceeds 700 students, so holding the class in a single classroom was deemed too risky. Therefore, this year, the course is offered twice a week, with the students split into two groups.
The course is structured around the theme "What is Environment and Information Studies?" with a total of 26 faculty members speaking from their respective areas of expertise. In the Dean's Diary entry published on December 8, 2021, Tomoki Kamo, Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, introduced the discussions that have taken place regarding policy management and a newly launched book project in a post titled"We're Making a Book."Compared to the Faculty of Policy Management, where discussions about what policy management is have frequently occurred, this has not been the case as much in the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies. Even looking at the pamphlets and website for the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, there is no clear explanation of what environment and information studies is. Of course, when the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies was established in 1990, the application for its creation included a definition of what environment and information studies is, but it has not been discussed since. More than 30 years have passed since the faculty was founded, and in order to look ahead to the next 30 years, I planned this semester's course with the idea of once again posing this question to the faculty members. In the two weekly classes, multiple faculty members will appear and, through dialogue, discuss their own specialties and environment and information studies. This is a valuable opportunity featuring many faculty members. We have decided to compile the introductory part of each class into a several-minute video and release it to the public on the SFC YouTube channel. I believe this will be an opportunity not only for enrolled students but also for many others to learn about the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, so I hope you will take a look.