Dear colleagues,

Friday last week, a report was given from APU on the current situation
at APU. See my thoughts on this report below.

Last year, there was a blog that discussed the ATU (Almost True
University). I have the impression that even if APU is not yet ATU, it
will shortly become ATU.

However, at Ritsumeikan University too, appointments have slowly
started to be made without a vote at Faculty Meetings. I suspect that,
from about the time this started, morale has started to fall, and more
and more people have started to believe that although they won't
criticize Ritsumeikan, they won't cooperate either, and that they
don't want to think about Ritsumeikan. I imagine that quite a few
faculty now think this way. Not only faculty, but perhaps even a
majority of administration staff feel the same way.

Given the current situation, in which both Faculty Meetings and the
Union have to date failed in their attempts to counter the onslaught
launched from last year to concentrate all power in the hands of the
Managing Director, it is possible that Ritsumeikan University itself
will also turn into an ATU in which senior administration staff will
exercise all control.

A small incident symbolizes this. Last month, the APU Alumni
Association adopted some new regulations. According to these, "Any
revisions to or deletions from the Association Regulations will be
carried out by the Board of Directors and reported at the Student &
Alumni Association Assembly". A foreign student has written in a blog
his thoughts on this. According to the blog, this marks the end of
democracy at Jumonjibaru, the location of APU.

A system of control in which the top makes decisions and merely
informs everyone else about what has been decided is being established
throughout the Ritsumeikan Academy. The "Ritsumeikan Democracy" and
"Self-Rule by All Organization Members" of the past has in fact
degenerated into something that resembles Japan's "Pre-War Democracy"
in which the organization leadership makes decisions, while taking
collected opinion into consideration. The year before last, when
revisions were almost secretly made to the "Act of Endowment" (*) of
Ritsumeikan Academy, this degeneration was articulated
clearly. Democracy has not just died at Jumonjibaru. It has also been
dealt a severe blow by the surprise attacks last year at Toujiin in
Kyoto and Noji in Shiga, and is now on death's door. Even if democracy
was to be revived at Ritsumeikan, it would no longer be the
"Ritsumeikan Democracy" of the past, but would have to be revived
through the birth of a new Ritsumeikan democracy. This is an almost
complete defeat. We remain in a critical situation.

   ------------
   (*) The "Act of Endowment" of Private Educational Institutions is
   simlar to that of incorporated foundation. 

     Civil Code Article 39 (Act of Endowment) Any person who intends
     to form an incorporated foundation must provide for the matters
     set forth in items 1 to 5 inclusive of Article 37 in the act of
     endowment which is intended to form such foundation.

     Civil Code Article 37 (Articles of Incorporation) Any person who
     intends to form an incorporated association must prepare the
     Articles of incorporation and specify the following matters: (i)
     Purpose(s); (ii) Name; (iii) Location of the office; (iv)
     Provisions regarding the asset; (v) Provisions regarding the
     appointment and dismissal of directors; and (vi) Provisions
     regarding the acquisition and loss of membership status.

   From http://www.kl.i.is.nagoya-u.ac.jp/told/m29a08901je.1.0.txt
 
------------------------------------------------------------
[1] 28 July "Education and Research at APU" 
- A Talk Sponsored by the Union, the Kinugasa Forum, and the BKC
  Monday Club: The Editor's Impressions (Comments in brackets have no
  relationship to the lecture).
------------------------------------------------------------

On 28 July, a tenured member of staff from APU gave a talk sponsored
by the Union, the Kinugasa Forum, and the BKC Monday Club. I felt that
it is in effect forbidden at APU to discuss APU matters externally, so
am unable here to introduce the concrete contents of this talk. I will
instead introduce my impressions of the talk as a whole.

First, the structural problems of APU - location, culture, facilities,
and faculty - were mentioned. In terms of location, Beppu is difficult
to access both domestically and internationally. Moreover, Beppu is a
highly unattractive location for an international university because
it lacks everything a large city has, including culture and economic
activities. Among other issues raised was the fact that the library at
APU was never designed to be able to support research activities.

I cannot introduce the concrete examples given of the realities of
research and education at APU. However, it does seem that research
activity at APU is viewed with much hostility. (In the internal
telephone directory from this year, the senior tutor's room at APU was
listed as an administration room, which seems to provide supporting
evidence for this.)

With regard to APU's faculty, no one criticizes APU any more, but at
the same time no one is willing to cooperate with the university
beyond their minimum obligations. In order to get faculty to cooperate
beyond this, it can be guessed that APU has to resort to "threats" in
one way or another.

Given this state of affairs, most of those at APU who have the
potential to be true assets are instead looking for work elsewhere
(see below). It is perhaps just a matter of time before APU ceases to
function as a university, and again just a matter of time before the
fact that APU is no longer functioning is exposed to the light of day.

Even if this gloomy state of affairs comes to pass, many Japanese
students may perhaps not be too concerned, because all they are
interested in is a university which will allow them to graduate
without making much effort. Ambitious international students, on the
other hand, find themselves bitterly disappointed and angry. Indeed,
the "realities" of APU are now known around the world. It can be
imagined that it will become increasingly difficult to attract high
quality international students, no matter how many pamphlets full of
images of pretty buildings and various events are distributed across
the globe.

Many individuals, including high government officials, have high hopes
for APU. It is important to endeavour to realize these hopes. I
believe that, in order to do so, the most important step is to direct
even a small fraction of the massive amount of resources spent
concealing the gap between hope and reality towards realizing instead
the APU ideal.

It is not an easy task to realize the APU dream, and this task can
only be done by managers. However, to create the true APU is a
long-term and difficult chore. This cannot be left to those who have
no experience in education and research. A critical time is upon us,
and those who have created the shell that is APU must hand over
control as soon as possible to those members of faculty who can take
responsibility for creating the contents within this shell. The true
cause of the APU crisis is perhaps the current ossified situation with
the Ritsumeikan Academy Board of Trustees, a board which cannot
oversee the needed hand over.


  For reference: as of 14 July, at least 13 new positions have been
  advertised at APU (see http://ac-net.org/rtm/f/apu-kyouinboshuu.pdf).

    Accounting: A Few [positions advertised for a few new members of
		faculty: same below]
    Development Economics: A Few
    Media: 1 [a position advertised for one new member of faculty: same below]
    Comparative Societies: 1
    Developmental Sociology: 1
    Japanese Culture and Society/History: A Few
    Tradition, Religion, Culture and Ethnicity in the Asia Pacific: 1
    Management: A Few
    Marketing, Innovation & New Business: A Few
    Tourism & Hospitality: A Few
    Health, Environment & Life Sciences: A Few
    International Strategy: 1
    Information Communications & Technology (ICT): A Few

  APU has some very strange rules about the duration of appointment,
  saying that the duration will be:

  (1) 5 Years (A fixed term contract based on the (sic) "The Law
      Concerning Term Limitation of University Educators" [; OR]
  (2) Tenure (until 65 for Professors, until 60 for Associate
      Professors); OR
  (3) 1 year: A 1 year contract renewable up to two times if both
      parties agree.

  In all cases, APU says "Successful candidates will be notified about
  which type of appointment they are eligible for".

------------------------------------------------------------
[2] (Introducing a Blog) between apu & me: 2006.8.1
      APU Alumni Association Highlights
   http://www.beautiful-people.org/betweenAPUnMe/?p=60
------------------------------------------------------------

APU Alumni Association regulations: Article 16: "Any revisions to or
deletions from the Association Regulations will be carried out by the
Board of Directors and reported at the Student & Alumni Association
Assembly".

Translation: the AAA's committee can add, change or delete anything it
wants from the regulations as long as it informs its members
afterwards. Can somebody pick up my head please, it just fell off
again. If democracy ever lived on Jumonjibaru, it died on July 16,
2006.

---------------
Japanese version archived in http://ac-net.org/rtm/No/106
           ( accessible with id: rtm, passwd: rtm )