Annual Board Meeting Held

The Board of Directors Meeting, September 19 (Sat), 10 am-1 pm

BoardMeetingBoard members present: Hisashi Kobayashi, Ken Furuya, Yuichiro Kuwama, Masaaki Yamada, Sumiko Ito, Koichi Hamada, Shigenori Matsushita
Others present: Shuta Kobayashi, Masako Osako, Fumiko Tamura
FUTI’s Annual Board of Directors meeting was held at the UTokyo New York office in New York, commencing at 10 am on September 19, 2015.
After President Hisashi Kobayashi’s welcome greeting, Mr. Shuta Kobayashi, Secretary, presented the minutes of the Annual Board meetings held on September 28, 2014 and March 10, 2015. The minutes were unanimously approved by the Board.
Prof. K. Furuya provided updates on various topics related to UTokyo, including: the policy declaration of President Makoto Gonokami, 30th president of UTokyo, the new academic calendar year starting from AY2015, and the University’s globalization efforts such as academic exchange programs, overseas offices in UTokyo, and construction of a global campus model (See slides “UTokyo Today”)
Dr. Yuichiro Kuwama, Director and Treasurer, assisted by Ms. F.Tamura, reported the financial results for FY 14/15 based on the materials presented to the board members (including a draft of the current year financial statements).  The analysis is summarized as follows:

  • The total amount of individual donations increased to $93,830 in FY14/15 from $ 56,660 in FY 13/14 due primarily to two large donations of $30,000 and $20,000 in FY14/15. Without these two gifts, individual donations would have decreased sharply to $43,830.
  • Total revenues increased to $116,886 from $109,906 in FY13/14, even though the distribution from Shintech’s Trust Fund decreased from $52,956 in FY13/14 to $22,642 in FY14/15. Total Expenses decreased slightly to $100,283 in FY14/15 from $107,537 in FY13/14. The cash position changed from $173.938 to $191,147 between the two fiscal year-ends.

Dr. Kuwama reported that FUTI’s agreement with the Shintech Trust was renewed for another five years beginning in 2015
The budget report and analysis were unanimously approved by the Board.
Dr. Masaaki Yamada, Director of University Relations, reported an overview of the 2015 recipients of FUTI Research Collaboration Funds, the IPMU program and the Columbia-UTokyo exchange program as well as the FUTI Scholarship Awards.

  • FUTI’s Scholarship program has progressed to a steady phase of 20+ short term students to provide highly qualified UTokyo and US college students with opportunities to become global leaders.
  • FUTI’s Education & Research Funds continue to provide supports for U. Tokyo students and young researchers to collaborate with world leading institutions.
  • Appropriate size of budget, potential expansion to non-science funds, timing of the award selection, awareness of the FUTI program among UTokyo students.

It was generally agreed that the scope of the FUTI Research Collaboration Fund should be expanded to other academic disciplines.
He also reported the status of a new proposal which aims for support of long term visiting and exchange studies. More detailed reports and discussions were made during the joint Board-Advisory Committee meeting in the afternoon.
General Discussions:

  • FUTI’s effort to open a bank account in Japan has been stalled, because the Japanese bank requires a hard-copy original of the Certificate of FUTI’s incorporation which FUTI has not been able to provide. The Treasurer will mail such a copy to the bank in order to complete the bank account opening process. Mr. S. Matsushita is serving as resident representative for the account.
  • The principal offices of the Corporation was changed from 30 West Street #24A, New York, NY 10004-3059 to 115 East 34th Street, #416, New York, NY 10156 effective September 19, 2015.
  • Plans for FUTI’s lecture series in New York using the UTokyo New York office facility were presented.

Appointment of Directors and Officers, Advisory Committee Members and Award Committee Members, etc.
The Board unanimously approved the following appointments:

Directors:

Masaaki Yamada, Ken Furuya, Koichi Hamada, Sumiko Ito, Yuichiro Kuwama, Shigenori Matsushita

Officers:

Masaaki Yamada – President, Yuichiro Kuwama – Vice president and Treasurer, Shuta Kobayashi – Secretary

President Emeritus:

Hisashi Kobayashi

Advisory Committee Members:

Hisashi Kobayashi (chair), Nobuko Sakurai, Shunichiro Kishioka, Geeta Mehta, Ko-Yung Tung, Yasuo Okamoto, Fumiko Tamura, Yasuyuki Sugiura, Motomu Takahashi

Award Committee Members:

Shigenori Matsushita (chair), Masaaki Yamada, Hisashi Kobayashi, Masako Osako, Nobuko Sakurai

Jimukyoku cho (the Managing Director of Operations):

Masako Osako

The Board and Advisory Committee Joint Meeting: September 19 (Sat), 1 pm-5 pm

Participants: Board of Directors; M. Yamada, K. Furuya, S. Ito, H. Kobayashi, Y. Kuwama, K.Hamada, and S. Matsushita: Advisory Committee Members; Nobuko Sakurai, Shunichiro Kishioka, Geeta Mehta, Fumiko Tamura; Other participants; Shuta Kobayashi, Masako Osako
Report on FUTI Award Recipients’ Experience
During lunch, Dr. M. Osako presented a slide presentation titled, “FUTI Award Recipients’ Reports.“ She also revisited the 2014 Kokusai Koryuka survey’s findings: 68% of survey UTokyo students agreed, ”I was unaware of the existence of FUTI” and 59% , “I thought my chance of winning would be too slim.”
She proposed more intensive outreach efforts (including direct mail to UTokyo professors) for the first issue. Regarding the second issue, she reported that FUTI does not require any specific score level for TOEFL or other English language proficiency tests, even though it requires the applicant’s score to meet the requirement imposed by the program he or she is applying to. She also suggested we may re-evaluate our selection criteria regarding the weight we assign on the course grades from the perspective of our mission, ”fostering of global leaders.” Board members voiced the importance of incorporating “Ningen ryoku,” (roughly translated into strength of character) in the selection process in certain types of program.
A good part of the joint meeting was dedicated to briefing the Advisory Committee members on the topics reported by Mr. K. Furuya, Mr. M. Yamada, Mr. Y. Kuwama, and Ms. F. Tamura at the Board meeting in the morning.
Then a sizable amount of time was dedicated to discussions regarding a a new proposed long term scholarship

  1. Objectives: Provide scholarship primarily to 1) UTokyo students who study at US universities and to 2) US students who study at UTokyo.
    1. Long term study for an undergraduate and graduate degree
    2. Long term exchange of students/post-docs
    3. Travel assistance scholarship
  2. Suggested fund source:
    1. A sponsor annually provides source fund to FUTI to support scholarship students
    2. Scholarship students receive:
      • Monthly expense
      • Tuition (could be delivered to host universities)
      • Travel support
  3. Open to all fields:
    • Natural science, Engineering, Social science
    • Art and Humanities, Law, Economics etc.
  4. Term:
    • Basically less than 2 years with exceptions
  5. Qualification for application
  6. Selection process at FUTI

More specific detail will be determined through discussions with a sponsor.
The participants then engaged in discussion on various topics related to FUTI, such as the FUTI’s relationship with UTokyo alumni associations and 2015-16 lecture series.
The meeting was adjourned at 5.00 pm.


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