Plan Afloat For Chuo’s “Comeback” to Urban Center
School Authority to Draw Conclusion This Autumn
10/29/2012
The Tama campus of Chuo University is located in the city of Hachioji in the western suburbs of Tokyo. The school’s administrative headquarters and the liberal arts faculties are placed there. Away from the metropolitan center, it is abundant in nature. Many Chuo students had no knowledge of where the campus is located until they actually began attending school.
The latest topic at this tranquil campus is Chuo’s possible relocation or “comeback” to the center of Tokyo. The purported plan specifically calls for the school’s three poster faculties of law, economics and commerce to be moved back to the urban core.
It all started when Tadahiko Fukuhara, a law professor and president-cum-chancellor of Chuo University, met a group of media reporters at an informal social gathering at the school’s Surugadai Memorial Hall in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on June 29. He told them, “We see our urban deployment as one of our medium to long-term challenges. We’re actually discussing a possible relocation of the Tama campus and an expansion of our (existing) campus in central Tokyo.” Remarks along the same lines were made by Syuuji Hisano, the chair of the Board of Regents, who is tasked with the school management.
What has brought up the plan now? There are largely two reasons. One is that the deviation score for Chuo has turned bleak and more applicants have tended to choose urban universities since the school’s move to Tama in 1978. Besides, many Chuo graduates have complained that their job-hunting would be much easier in the urban center. The other reason is that Chuo students have begun to get better results in the annual state bar exam since the university located its Graduate School of Law in the heart of Tokyo rather than at the Tama campus.
Opinions and rumors are widespread among students at the moment. Some say that Chuo’s new address can be Korakuen in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward. Others are skeptical about the plan itself, saying Chuo will stay at Tama after all. The school authority said it will draw a final conclusion this autumn.
Our Hakumon Herald ceased to be published about 20 years after Chuo was relocated to the Tama campus. We take up the topic in commemoration of the revival of the English-language campus journal. This article comes in three pieces: (1) before and after Chuo’s move to Tama, (2) the Korakuen campus where the faculty of science and engineering is located and which is little known to students of other faculties and (3) the future of Tama Monorail which is a lifeline for Chuo students.
⇒ School Authority to Draw Conclusion This Autumn
⇒ Chronology of Chuo’s Move From Surugadai To Tama
⇒ Epilogue