Status Report

The Med School.

This is for those interested in the goings on of the med school which I detailed for you the first year back on campus after the worst of the panic and last when the Subdirector (SD) caused us all so much trouble. Much to report. Some of which I have touched on in earlier posts.

The SD has been transferred to another part of the school and no longer has anything to do with education. There is a formal inquiry into the SD throwing a clipboard at the Department of Head, or as I titled her earlier, the Director. However, the difficulties began before the SD was hired. While I had little trouble or just ignored it, the two other male teachers were not happy with the Director the previous year. Some of their concerns with the Director visited upon me last year and I am now guarded around her. However, after class last week and again last night, she made it known to myself that my students this year are all very happy with me and my lessons. Given that we have much more flexibility in how we conduct our classes, this is not a surprise as that is generally the case for me. She also told me that I had the freedom to cover whatever I wanted in the lessons as long as I also covered the vocabulary in the book. That is a far cry from last year’s insanity.

One thing that is interesting is that I see several of my students from last year in the lecture hall for freshman students again this year. Asking about this I learned that we had a record number of students who failed first year and that many were my students last year, including those who left my class mid year. None failed English but various other classes. The nature of med schools in Japan means that if even just a single course is failed, the entire school year must be repeated. Not sure what the implications of this are; were my students just not up to studying as much as required and this led to the difficulties with them? Or, did the difficulties placed upon us last year lead to them not being able to study as much as they needed for other subjects. Something else? Another oddity from the past school year.

The big change is one of the teachers disappeared. He skipped the mandatory kickoff meeting, which was unsurprising. He travels during the breaks and was likely in his home country and especially after the 4 or more years of not being able to return to Japan if he left, probably he had no desire to skip or cut short his vacation for a meeting that was only held once before, last year, and never mandatory. He was also very much upset with how things went last year and refused to perform any of the few administrative tasks for which he received some compensation for; compiling the speech titles for all the classes and the like. Not at all surprised he skipped the meeting. However, it is shocking that he hasn’t shown up at school at all, has not contacted the school nor responded to any communication attempts. The school of course assumes he just quit in the most unprofessional manner possible, which given his track record, is not as far fetched as it should be. I did caution them against any harsh messages as there may be a health issue involved. As I type this I recall several cases in the past with other employers and individuals who fell ill and were harassed by our mutual employers for missing work, going so far as to harangue them from the side of the hospital bed.

Whatever the cause for his disappearance, the second week of the course was disrupted by the absorption of the missing teacher’s classes into those of the remaining teachers which is still an issue as it has caused one of my two classes to be behind the other. A wee bit of chop but not the swells and rolls of last year. The nursing students this year are solid but not as fun as last year’s. No complaints with them nor the nursing school. It is amazing how different the two schools of the university operate.

Masks are still required but less than half of my students wear them rendering the weekly mental preparation for a fight over masking unnecessary. Most of the staff are still wearing them though. So too are a great many school kids.

UPDATED. I typed the above during my morning coffee at a coffee house near the school. As I waited for the elevator from the faculty room to the classroom my esteemed college use from Australia met up with me. She was able to contact the missing teacher who told her that after 20+ years,he was just sick of the place. So, he just quit without bothering to tell anyone.

During the between class break, I ran into the other male teacher in the hallway and spoke briefly with him. This is the only other teacher there who went unmasked through out the panic. I understood that he had some difficulties the year before last but did not know any details. Shocked to learn that the MD who heads the language education department sicced a lawyer on him because he did not check his email late at night the day before class. The Director, who remains in that position, sent all of us an email late at night, the night before a test telling us where the tests would be. He does not have a cell phone at all nor a computer, uses his wife’s for the very little online and emailing tasks that he does do. So he came to school with no idea the email was sent and of course nothing of its contents. When the director got angry at him for not seeing the email, he said that it was ridiculous for her to expect that he read an email sent that late the night before. So the school sent a lawyer down to the classroom to talk to him. I would have gone off like a bomb if they did that to me. I suspect he did too.

This is his last year at the school due to mandatory retirement age, so there will be lots a changes the school year.

A CEO of a modest sized but rapidly expanding food service company is a private student. We often discuss topics related to management and I use examples from places I have worked or am still employed by. He is now long passed shocked at the lack of business sense, corporate law and basic management skills of Japanese universities.