"What Is a 'University Administrative Staff Member'?" | Hideyuki Nakamine, Administrative Director, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC)
2022.12.06
I am Nakamine, and I was appointed as the 12th Administrative Director of the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) on April 1, 2022. Nine months have already passed since my appointment. After a hot summer, the season of autumn leaves, when the campus looks its most beautiful, is now coming to an end. Every day, I am reminded of how quickly time flies. This is actually my second time working at this campus. Previously, I served as the manager of the Academic Affairs Section for four years and five months, from June 2011 to October 2015. During that time, I was involved in formulating the "14 University Regulations," which apply to all current students of the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies. Also, nearly 20 years ago, while working at the Shinanomachi Campus, I was involved in the hiring process to welcome the first graduating class of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care, who graduated in March 2004, into the Keio University Hospital's Department of Nursing. I worked to establish the procedures that are still in place today. Even now, Keio University Hospital is the largest employer for students from the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care. In this sense, as the current campus Administrative Director, I have a close relationship with the students of these three faculties, and I am in a position to oversee the "administrative staff" who work on campus. Therefore, for this installment of the "Okashira Nikki" (Head's Diary), I would like to focus on the career path of a "university administrative staff member"—a role I myself hold—under the title ""What Is a 'University Administrative Staff Member'?"", incorporating some of my experiences from my time as the manager of the Academic Affairs Section. This will be a bit long, but I appreciate you reading.
Now, at Keio University, there are broadly two types of people working: those called "faculty members" and those called "administrative staff members." When people from the general public think of a university, the first thing that probably comes to mind are the "faculty members"—professors and associate professors—who teach in the classrooms. Amidst the tense international situation of late, we also see several "faculty members" from the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) providing commentary on news reports. When one imagines people working at a university, the presence of "faculty members" seems very significant. However, on the other hand, many people like myself also work at the university in the capacity of "administrative staff members." An easy-to-understand example is the career path of nurses and midwives, which students of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care aim for, but many other "administrative staff members" work here as well. So, what do these other "administrative staff members" do? Are they people who assist with the work of "faculty members"?
As an answer to the question "What do administrative staff members do?", I would like to introduce a very clear website. It is the "Keio University Staff Recruitment Information" website.
Here, in a section called "Features: Staff Interviews," "administrative staff members" working in various departments at Keio University appear with their real names and photos, clearly explaining their respective job duties. It is also very interesting to read, so I highly encourage you to take a look. By the way, students of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care should check out the following site. This is also a well-produced site.
And on the "Keio University Staff Recruitment Information" website mentioned above, a person named Erina Kamiya is interviewed under the title "Balancing Work and Child-rearing." Ms. Kamiya worked with me as a subordinate during my time as the manager of the Academic Affairs Section at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC). After graduating from Keio University's Faculty of Law, the first place she worked as a "staff member" hired as a new graduate was in the Academic Affairs Section at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC). Now, let's take a look at the work of an "administrative staff member" in the Academic Affairs Section.
Who are the readers of this "Okashira Nikki"? Unfortunately, there are no detailed statistics on this, so I don't know for sure, but if current students at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) are reading this, there is something I definitely want to tell you. Of the three faculties at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), the curriculum that students of the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies are following is called the "14 University Regulations," which started in the 2014 academic year. At that time, as the manager of the Academic Affairs Section, one of my missions was to create and launch a new curriculum from scratch. Shortly after my appointment in June 2011, I was asked to coordinate this by Jiro Kokuryo, then Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, and Jun Murai, then Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies. I organized the "Next-Generation Curriculum Review Working Group," inviting the current Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Fumitoshi Kato, to serve as its leader. Over the next two years, we held over 40 meetings to review the curriculum. We spent at least half a day, and sometimes a full day, holed up in a conference room, engaging in repeated discussions. We started by analyzing the problems with the "07 University Regulations," which applied to students at the time, and considered various ways to solve them. At the same time, we brainstormed ideas for what content to include in the new curriculum and discussed them thoroughly to reach a consensus. I also have experience working in academic affairs for other faculties, but a characteristic of Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) is that "faculty" and "administrative staff" collaborate more closely on various matters. In the process of discussing the formulation of this new curriculum, "faculty" and "administrative staff" carried out the series of tasks in close collaboration. "Faculty members" offer the courses they are in charge of and can hear students' voices directly through connections in research projects and other activities. On the other hand, "administrative staff members" can take a campus-wide view and comprehensively analyze student trends based on various data such as course registration and grades. By leveraging these respective strengths, we prioritized what kind of learning we should provide to the students of these two faculties, the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and I believe we were able to incorporate the best possible content at that time into the "14 University Regulations." I would like to share one specific example. The following is a website that summarizes the concept of the "14 University Regulations."
Here, the first item listed under the curriculum's features is "Opportunities for making friends and discovering/rediscovering possibilities centered on classes." In the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, all newly enrolled students attend a class guidance session at the beginning of the semester under two class advisors per class, a system that provides a "place to belong" called a "class" within the university. This idea was proposed by the "administrative staff" and brought to fruition. The starting point was the serious concern in the academic affairs office that a certain number of newly enrolled students each semester were unable to adapt to the university environment, leading them to take a leave of absence and eventually withdraw. There are all kinds of students. While some proactively participate in club activities and research projects, others struggle to find their place and lose sight of their path in confusion. So, we came up with the idea of first providing a "place to belong" in the form of a "class," which is automatically organized without the student having to take action, and having them use it as a first step. To this end, we have made adjustments to the first-year timetable so that students can take a certain number of classes together with their "class" peers. I believe this is a proposal that could only have been made by "administrative staff members," who can take a bird's-eye view of the entire campus and consider student movements. And Ms. Kamiya, whom I mentioned earlier, was also involved in the curriculum formulation right after she joined the Academic Affairs Section in June 2012. I believe she was able to effectively leverage her recent, real experience as a student at the university. Thus, even in launching a new curriculum, "faculty" and "administrative staff" have their respective roles, and the "14 University Regulations" are the result of their collaboration. Furthermore, the Academic Affairs Section is closely involved in the entire flow of student learning, from "course registration," which is the first thing students must do in their university life, to the "final examinations" that follow, and then "grades." "Faculty members" are in charge of the flow of learning within their individual courses—running the class and assigning grades—but it is the "administrative staff" who oversee and take a comprehensive view of all these courses, acting as a bridge between "faculty" and students.
The above is a brief introduction to the duties of an academic affairs staff member. However, academic affairs staff are only a small part of the "administrative staff" at Keio University. So, how many "administrative staff members" work at Keio University? This number is published on the Keio University website under "Information Disclosure." The respective numbers are "2,784 faculty members and 3,252 administrative staff members (as of May 1, 2022)," showing that "administrative staff members" are more numerous. It is clear that there are many "administrative staff members" at Shinanomachi, and about half of them are nurses or midwives, who are also the predecessors of the students in the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care. Another characteristic is that while "faculty members" have a high male ratio, "administrative staff members" are more than three times as likely to be female as male.
I hope you now understand that many "administrative staff members" work at each of the six campuses of Keio University. And managing this "Information Disclosure" website is also the job of "administrative staff members." Furthermore, calculating the faculty and staff numbers presented here is also the job of "administrative staff members." Specifically, this figure is calculated by the Human Resources Department, whose office is in the Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration) building on the Mita Campus. The Human Resources Department handles personnel matters for all of Keio University, and after serving as the manager of the Academic Affairs Section at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) until October 2015, I became a manager in this department the following month. Personnel-related duties are wide-ranging, and one of them is the recruitment of "administrative staff members." On the "Keio University Staff Recruitment Information" website mentioned earlier, a person named Mika Kondo is interviewed under the title "Engaging in Corporate Operations." She was my subordinate during my time in the Human Resources Department and was one of the people who helped build this "Keio University Staff Recruitment Information" website. Both Ms. Kamiya, mentioned earlier, and Ms. Kondo joined Keio University through "new graduate recruitment" after graduating from Keio University's Faculty of Law and Faculty of Business and Commerce, respectively. At Keio University, there are many people like them who have started their careers as "administrative staff members" by staying at their alma mater. On the other hand, there are also many who graduate without even realizing that a job as a "university administrative staff member" exists at their alma mater. If the pool of applicants is small during recruitment activities, the selection is limited to that pool. Naturally, the larger the applicant pool, the higher the possibility that a wide variety of talented individuals will apply. Therefore, Keio University also conducts "mid-career recruitment" for those who are already working at other companies and considering a career change. During my time in the Human Resources Department, we hired several dozen experienced individuals. What surprised me was the large number of applications we received from people working in a wide variety of fields. Many talented individuals apply from famous companies that line the top of the "Top Employers for New Graduates" rankings, such as major banks, major manufacturers, major airlines, major travel agencies, and government offices. When I speak with these experienced individuals, there is something I always ask. That is the question, "Why didn't you apply as a new graduate?" Those who join through "mid-career recruitment" include graduates of Keio University as well as other universities, but in any case, it's not as if the possibility of "working at their alma mater" was invisible to them. However, the answer I get is, "I didn't know there was such a thing as a university administrative staff job." This clearly shows that the existence of "university administrative staff" is still not widely known. On the other hand, when I ask mid-career hires about their reasons for changing jobs, I hear from many that they made the wrong career choice: "I was swayed by my friends during new graduate recruitment," "I chose a company by its name to reassure my parents," and "I felt that my place was not in the day-to-day pursuit of profit." I don't believe that continuing to work a lifetime in a mismatched profession leads to a happy life. At the crucial moment of choosing your future, I feel it is very important not to leave "I didn't know" as an option.
This has become a very long post for "Okashira Nikki," so I would like to wrap it up. What I want to say with this long article are the following three points.
① Many people called "university administrative staff members" work at universities.
② A university runs on two wheels: "faculty" and "administrative staff."
③ You have the option of "working at your alma mater."
That's right. If you who are reading this are a student at Keio University,
"Won't you come work with us?"
"Won't you help us build the next Keio University?"
That is the invitation I would like to extend to you. Students at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), even compared to students at other Keio University campuses, have experienced a very diverse range of learning. It is precisely people like you who are indispensable to the future of Keio University, who should be part of Keio University's future. As the campus Administrative Director, this is what I believe. Every year, many students from the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care find employment at their alma mater as nurses and midwives. For students of the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, I hope you will add the future of being a "Keio University administrative staff member" to your list of career options.
Finally, in my role as campus Administrative Director, I also hold a concurrent position in the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, a university-wide department. If I have another opportunity to speak to you all, I would love to talk about the initiatives of the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. For now, I would like to introduce the website for the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion below.
The work of a "university administrative staff member" is extremely diverse. I hope this article serves as a first step in getting you interested in the existence of "university administrative staff members."