Image characters exist in many universities.Of course, the backbone and meaning of the character should have been given in the process of production.However, it is rare to try to share the founding spirit throughout the university through these characters.

　With the growth of universities, campuses are dispersed, physical distances are separated, and exchanges and sense of unity between faculties are weakened, which is a problem that can occur at any university.
In this project, Shukutoku University will return to the idea of ​​opening the university through the production of a symbolic story that symbolizes "Shukutoku of welfare", and share the potential of the university itself with students and the entire university including faculty and staff. We will introduce the cases and their effects.

　Many people think of Shukutoku University as "welfare."Half a century ago, Ryoshin Hasegawa, the founder of the university, set up "Tomoiki" and opened it as a social welfare department at a college.Currently, it is transforming into a comprehensive university with 6 faculties and 11 departments, and XNUMX campuses in Tokyo, Chiba, and Saitama.

　This time, we focused on the educational reform promotion project that the university is conducting, with the image character of Sukutoku as a motif, sharing the founding spirit of Shukutoku University and the underlying "welfare mind" across campuses and faculties, and telling a story. It's a project to do. It can be said that the "welfare mind" is an attitude of listening to the other person's voice, getting down to the other person's eyes, and supporting the realization of that need.

The project starts two years ago.

　"Shukutoku University celebrated its 2015th anniversary in 50, and how should we pass the baton to the next generation for the next 50th anniversary? A new era, a new I thought that we had to think about "welfare" in a way that suits our needs.Then, I would like to ask the faculty and staff of each campus to create an opportunity to discuss "welfare", which is the origin of Shukutoku University, which was created by the professor Ryoshin Hasegawa, regardless of the faculty or department. I called on him, "says Professor Noriko Totsuka of the Faculty of Social Welfare, who is also the inventor of this project.

　At the request of Professor Totsuka, faculty members from each faculty gathered to hold a study session on "welfare."The Faculty of Social Welfare and the Faculty of Nursing and Nutrition, which have related fields, had a better understanding of "welfare", but the Faculty of Business Administration and the Faculty of Humanities have few opportunities to touch on "welfare". Over the course of a year, the faculty and staff themselves learned about "welfare" and exchanged opinions.

　And last year, which is the second year, as an extracurricular program, the production of the symbolic story of Shukutoku University began by involving faculty members and students and bringing together the power of all Shukutoku.

　In the story, the mysterious object UME attacks the bears who lived happily every day in the village of Suktok in a large forest.In order to save the crisis that came to the peaceful village, 11 bears will challenge UME by making the best use of their respective abilities.What I wanted to convey through the story was Shukutoku's spirit of "welfare mind" and "coexistence".He expressed that even if each person has a limited amount of power, sometimes it is possible to achieve an effect beyond imagination if everyone works together.

　In the story, it was necessary to create a Suktokuma character that represents each of the 11 departments.The characterization of bears in each department was taken down by each department.The person who knows the department most is supposed to be a person in the department.Various proposals were made by each department and students, and finally, at the school festival, the general public was involved in voting, and depending on the campus, online voting was conducted and decided.

　The students were also in charge of the voice actors of the bears in the story.When we recruited students who wanted voice actors, the number of applications exceeded expectations, and the faculty and staff of the project listened to each person's voice and selected and decided each student with a voice that matched the character.The script was written by the teacher in charge from the first discussion and carefully evoked in the story.The teacher, who is also in charge of sound effects and music, held a training camp with the students and finished the content to suit the scene.In the editing, emails were sent and received until midnight, and from the cut split to the end of the detailed depiction of each bear.With the cooperation of various teachers, we overcame a huge amount of work together and completed it.

　Before starting the story, students and faculty members from other campuses gathered at Oiwaji Temple, which is adjacent to the university, to learn about the roots of Shukutoku University.After that, I moved to the campus and received a lecture about the gurus from a faculty member of the same class who was actually taught by the gurus, Ryoshin Hasegawa.Shukutoku University states that social welfare should be "together with him, not for him," and this is the philosophy of Shukutoku University's welfare education. The idea is "tomoiki".The students who participated renewed their awareness of the university by touching on the thoughts of the scholars.

　As a result, this project was able to make a video called the story of Suktokuma, but the most important thing was the process.Through the process of creating the story, we were able to share the perspective of welfare, which was the foundation of the university, across the university, and that the participating students and faculty members each made use of their characteristics to create the story together. It was a task to experience the "symbiosis" of Shukutoku University, and it was an initiative to feel new possibilities in welfare.

　The image of "welfare" is often taken in the narrow sense of support for people in need and disabilities, but "welfare" in the broad sense means "happiness" and "warmth", and all citizens. It is to provide a little happiness and social support to.And, in various fields and industries, the skills cultivated by "welfare", "welfare mind" and welfare in a broad sense are utilized.

There is no doubt that the "welfare mind", which can be said to be the basis of Shukutoku University, is needed not only in the welfare field in the narrow sense but also in other fields and industries.The next issue is how to develop it as a university and output it in a way that can contribute to society and the community.