2022
Speech at the entrance ceremony for the second semester Graduate Schools

Today, as we hold the entrance ceremony for the second semester of the 2022 Graduate Schools year for graduate students, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the two new students entering the Master's Program Graduate School of Engineering Engineering. I can only imagine the joy their parents must be feeling.

Today, all of you entering the university have been granted admission to the Master's Program in Graduate School of Engineering through the Graduate Schools 's early graduation system. I believe your admission is a testament to your diligent efforts in your undergraduate studies, having set your sights on Graduate Schools admission from the time you entered undergraduate school. Now that you are in Graduate Schools, I hope that you will dedicate yourselves to research and experiments as aspiring researchers, and strive to write highly regarded papers and master's theses.

Coincidentally, you will be entering Graduate Schools just before Itsutsubashi Campus opens for use next April. While many of your fellow graduate students will begin their studies in Itsutsubashi research buildings from the moment they enter Graduate Schools, you will be helping with the relocation of the research labs alongside the upperclassmen, and will likely be the last graduate students to experience Graduate Schools at the Tagajo campus, thus leaving your mark on Tohoku Gakuin's history.

Tohoku Gakuin University's Graduate Schools currently comprises six graduate schools and eleven majors: four humanities graduate schools (Literature, Economics, Business Administration, and Law) at the Tsuchitoi campus, an interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering school (Human Informatics) at the Izumi campus, and a science graduate school (Engineering) at the Tagajo campus. From April next year, Graduate School of Engineering and Graduate School of Human Informatics will be located at Itsutsubashi campus. Not only will Tsuchitoi and Itsutsubashi campuses be geographically close, but it is no exaggeration to say that we are entering an era of interdisciplinary research at Graduate Schools level. In fact, the Data Science Institute, which will symbolize the interdisciplinary approach, is expected to play a role as an institute open to the entire university and the local community, and it is scheduled to be established on the 5th floor of the research building that houses the Faculty of Faculty of Engineering. We hope that you will also take advantage of the benefits of Graduate School of Engineering at a comprehensive university by incorporating interdisciplinary elements into your specialized research.

Now, for those of you aspiring to become researchers, I would like to share two lessons from Max Weber's "Science as a Vocation," a lecture he gave in Germany exactly 100 years ago about what scholarship is.

First, there is no end to scholarship. Even if you submit an excellent master's thesis, it merely raises a new question, and it means accepting the fate that it will be refuted by the work of others and become outdated. Those who aspire to scholarship and research must accept this fate from the very beginning.

Secondly, while science improves technology and enables analysis and prediction, it does not teach humans the meaning of the world or demonstrate its value. We must not forget that teaching the meaning of the world and demonstrating its value comes not from science, but from the judgment based on each individual's worldview and values.

In this regard, I would like you all to cherish the founding spirit of this university, that is, character education based on Christianity. Article 1 of the university regulations states, "Tohoku Gakuin University aims to contribute to the creation of world culture and the welfare of humankind by imparting broad knowledge and conducting in-depth teaching and research in specialized academic disciplines, based on character education based on Christianity, and by developing intellectual, moral, and applied abilities."

Tohoku Gakuin has expressed its founding principles through its school motto, LIFE LIGHT LOVE. This motto has long been cherished among Tohoku Gakuin graduates. LIFE means valuing the lives and personalities of others as much as one's own (individual dignity). LIGHT means illuminating others through the achievements of learning and science (contribution to society). LOVE means not only loving oneself but also being loved by others (love for one's neighbor).

Today, I offer my congratulations as president, hoping that all of you who have entered Graduate Schools will dedicate yourselves to your research, acquire these values, and make Tohoku Gakuin University a new center for research.

Finally, I would like to share a famous quote from the Bible: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7).

September 30, 2022
Haruki Onishi, President of Tohoku Gakuin University