The Year-End and New Year Holidays of a University Professor | Tomohiro Ichinose, Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies
2024.01.30
The year 2024 began with shocking events: the Noto Peninsula earthquake on January 1 and the plane crash at Haneda Airport on January 2. The full extent of the damage from the Noto Peninsula earthquake is still unclear. I would like to express my deepest condolences and sympathies to the many people affected by these disasters and accidents.
While December is known as a busy month, for university professors, the year-end and New Year holidays are particularly hectic. Although there are no classes for about a week, there is no time to rest, with tasks like grading numerous student papers and preparing syllabi for the upcoming spring semester. Syllabus preparation is especially tricky, as we have to think about the next spring semester before the fall semester has even ended. Some might say, "Aren't syllabi the same every year?" but most professors on our campus are seriously thinking about how to make their classes more interesting next time.
The Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies is responsible for teaching a course called "Fundamentals of Environment and Information Studies." Similarly, the Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management teaches "Fundamentals of Policy Management." The curricula of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies and the Faculty of Policy Management are very distinctive, with very few required courses. This "Fundamentals of Environment and Information Studies" course is one of the few required courses for students in the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies. It is offered in Japanese during the spring semester and in English during the fall semester, and is intended for first-year students who have just enrolled. Since "Fundamentals of Environment and Information Studies" and "Fundamentals of Policy Management" are one-credit courses, many students from both faculties take both. As a result, both become massive classes with over 700 students enrolled in the spring semester. The respective deans do not teach these courses alone but collaborate with fellow faculty members. Deciding who to work with and what kind of class to create is a very challenging task. After all, it is the first course that all new students are required to take.
In the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies and the Faculty of Policy Management, subjects such as languages, wellness, information technology, and data science are designated as required electives (with some being mandatory), but most courses can be taken freely by students from their first to fourth year. In other words, to use a dining analogy, the menu is à la carte rather than a set course. You can start with the main dish if you like. Research projects (the main dish, perhaps?), which can be considered the cornerstone of the curriculum at the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies and the Faculty of Policy Management, are also available to first-year students. Despite being such a flexible faculty, the first course that all students take is "Fundamentals of Environment and Information Studies." In short, it is a high-pressure course for me as the dean. After much deliberation over the New Year's holiday, I have decided to significantly change the structure of the course for the next semester. I hope to make it a class that can serve as a compass for students setting sail on the à la carte sea of our curriculum. As I focus on the syllabus and ponder various ideas, my mind is already completely in the new semester. But no, the most intense period of grading and reviewing papers is still ahead. With entrance exams coming up next month, university professors continue to run at full speed even in January.