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Message from Deans to SFC students about COVID-19(May 28, 2021)

To all SFC students(May 28, 2021)
Akira Wakita, Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies

  1. Future prospects
  2. Data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has shown that the number of infected people this week is lower on the most days of the last week. The number of people who have been vaccinated twice in Japan has reached 3 million, and the vaccination rate seems to be gradually catching up with the initial projections.

  3. Classes in the forthcoming semester
  4. Under these circumstances, the SFC executive officers have begun to consider class formats for the forthcoming semester. Assuming that the infection situation has eased to some extent, we are discussing the possibility of a hybrid of three class formats: online (live), online (on-demand), and on-campus. However, this may change depending on the status of infections.

  5. Encouragement of Scientific Thinking and Action
  6. Alarmist and unscientific reports continue to appear on the Internet and TV each day. It is my ardent wish that all of you who now study at Keio will deploy a scientific mindset in times such as we are experiencing and adopt a calm stance toward the current situation.

    I would like to introduce two activities conducted by SFC students.

    A group of undergraduates voluntarily conducted a questionnaire titled "Survey on damages caused to SFC students by COVID-19 and satisfaction with the university's response". They provided us, as SFC executive officers, with useful input for ongoing university management, such as that on students' financial situations, mental health, and requests for class management.

    A website that displays the vaccination rate as a progress bar by Masayuki Yamabe, a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, has been attracting a lot of attention. This website allows us to compare Japan with other countries, and through this visualization, we can grasp the real current situation in Japan, which is not reported in the mass media.

    Vaccination progress bar (Japanease only)
    https://vacprogressbar.com

    How will the long vaccine waiting lines be digested? (Japanease only)
    https://note.com/masakick/n/ne3062ef18274

    As in the two exemplary cases above, data science know-how and programming skills are fully deployed to calmly assess the current situation and instigate productive and creative action. I believe that this attitude is the ideal of independence and self-respect during the COVID-19 crisis. It surely goes without saying that a similar attitude is imperative amongst those involved in policy and news reporting.

Hope to see you all soon.