The Union News Vol. 1, No. 8, 17 October 2000

The Union News, an English newsletter of the Hokuriku University Union,is published from time to time as need arises in the (anonymous) editors'judgment.

Who's Responsible,
Law Teachers or Management Folks?
Should you love reading nonsense stuff about the Faculty of Law and itsteaching staff, you may take a quick look at the newest edition (No.12/2000)of the management mouthpiece, "With."
The headline is all right, though as boring as ever: "Toward Tomorrow’s Progress of the Faculty of Law: Responsible Action and Speech."
To put it very simply, the article attributes the drastic decline of the number of high school students wishing to join either the law or political science department to the faculty's teachers. In other words, the story completely ignores the simple fact that the
applicants' rise or fall is caused by various variable factors. No generalization, please.
What's more, another related story blames the voters for the resignation of Yoshihiko Hatsugai as the faculty's dean in late August. What's missing is appalling: no mention of his dedicated service as the faculty's head for two years and five months. How could his supporters envision back in March that his family problem would worsen to prompt his resignation?
Go back to the declined applicants. "With" blames the teaching staff for this problem that, in turn, is caused by the local community's deteriorating trust and evaluation. Hence, more responsible action and speech on the part of the law teaching staff. The "With" editor and those behind the house organ appear to have short memory. Did the board members act responsibly when a student was held for merely distributing flyers criticizing the chairman?
Did the board members act responsibly when a magazine ran an expose about the management or when the Ministry of Education found deceit in its documents? What about the public charges against chairman Yoshiro Kitamoto by Shinkichi Eto, who after all fuss was not hired as the new president?
Facing these serious issues, the management simply remained silent, as in the　 collective bargaining.
As long as the management keeps blaming and hurling rocks at the teachers, nobody with sane mind would expect local high school students would flock to the faculty of law. It's the board rather than the teachers or the Union, that is causing serious problems.
As for the case of Prof. Hatsugai, the chairman betrays his own favorite message that urges people to be  "grateful for favor/benefit." Anyone with a normal brain can easily imagine how he tried to shape up the whole faculty despite all sorts of unnecessary problems created by the management folks.

Cultural Activity Starting with
Arthur Miller
With no fanfare, the Union has launched its long overdue cultural project aimed at helping its members appreciate art.
Initially, this has to be modest in  scale--no free trips to the Paris/Florence museums.
Instead, the Union chose to offer 50% ticket discount for Arthur Miller's 1949 masterpiece, "Death of A Salesman" at the Noto Theater in Nakajima Town. The drama presented by actor Tatsuya Nakadai and his Mumei-juku colleagues is slated to run through November 3.
For the precise schdule, see the Union News, No. 160 issued October 13,2000.
Assistant Professor Masako Sasaki (ext.: 771) is in charge of "Salesman" tickets whose regular prices are 6,500/7,000 yen per person.