Quote
Nichijew
http://www.ocweekly.com/2011-03-10/news/soka-university-of-america-aliso-viejo-gakkai/#
Soka University of America, fine institution of advanced brainwashing studies. Please also search out SUA videos on U-tube. Frightening examples of SGI student brainwashing. Japan's decline at the hands of Soka Gakkai is a human tragedy. Don't let it happen to America and the world.
Mark
Interesting article, Mark, thanks for the link. There were 65 responses from people who say that they are SU students -- most of which were about how much they love SU, and no, nobody is ever pressured to join SGI! They love their school -- and why wouldn't they? Soka can spend a lot of money -- on a small number of students. Why spoil everything by asking where this money really came from?
The commenters pointed out that the article gives much space to professors who didn't get tenure....and understandably might be looking to blame something other than their own less than stellar job performance. Then again, you can also say that for a small university, there were a disproportionately large number of faculty complaints.
Nonetheless, the article made some points that are very believable, based on what we know of SGI:
"But some faculty members quickly became suspicious.
Students, they say, would always talk about their "life mentor," referring to Ikeda. They'd spend their days reading his speeches and chanting the Lotus Sutra in the lounge areas. The campus museum featured an exhibit titled "Gandhi, King, and Ikeda."
"One professor who asked to remain anonymous alleges that in the school's first year of operation, students told him of a sexual assault that had happened on campus. The victim went to administrators, who urged her not to say anything. "The excuses they gave were medieval," the professor states. "They said they were going to protect her reputation."
"Several Soka staffers walked out or were dismissed in the first few years of the school's opening......One of those students was Murphy McMahon, who left the school after the incident. Now 29 and working as a translator in Brazil, he wrote via e-mail,
"The university was handled like a prerogative of its parent organization, as if the purpose of its existence was the aggrandizement of Daisaku Ikeda. That was manifest constantly everywhere: the reading lists, the special events, the student clubs and activities, the buildings, the museum exhibits, and then in faculty politics and hiring, where not loving Ikeda enough proved an occupational hazard."
Comments on the article, from three people who say that they are Soka University Students:
#1
"I think the issue we should focus on is that Soka advertises itself as a nonreligious school, when it really isn't. When you go to Brigham Young, you know you're going to a Morman University. That basketball player may not agree with the rules, but he know what he was getting into. But
Soka claims it's not a Buddhist University, which isn't entirely true. Things might be getting better here, but still..."
#2 "THAT BEING SAID,
I most definately felt discriminated against on multiple occasions. I feel it would in SUA's best interest to advertise as a SGI University instead of a Non-Sectarian one. The most definately is a SGI presence in the classroom. In many classes I have taken with SGI teachers, quotes from Daisaku Ikeda were included with the lesson for the day or written at the top of the board. More than once, I was "encouraged" to attend "Ikeda Speech Discussion" by a Professor I was currently taking a course from, only because Ikeda was writing about a topic touched on in our course (Pacific Rim). These Speech discussions were often from SGI publications and if read in full context talked of the Lotus Sutra and "chanting to defeat devilish functions" and to overcome political enemies. Professors offered extra credit for this. CORE I included readings from Ikeda and we discussed the Mentor/ Disciple relationship as compared to Plato and Socrates. In the courses defense, we also read from the Bible, the Upanishads and the Koran, but those texts were treated as "religious ones" with Ikeda's were academic. Although each professor sets his or her own syllabus, the courses a non-SGI student takes would likely shape his or her experience. The pressure came more from the students. "You must chant for a stronger personal relationship with President Ikeda". If I questioned the presence of material in class, it was usually dropped. But rarely did I have the courage.
"I ran into Professors at meetings (encouraged to go by friends) and after class I would be asked if I would be attending again. There was constant pressure to join and almost a deadline that I be "shakabuku'd" (converted) before graduation.""It is too difficult to tell your friends the truths in your heart sometimes, because they will turn away from you and you will be utterly alone in a population were 90% of the students are SGI memebers, so you keep your mouth shut until you are either done or forced out."#3, responding to #2:
"In regards to your comments on using Daisaku Ikeda's quotes during class, Daisaku Ikeda IS a philosopher. It is natural to compare Plato and Socrates during Core I since the principle of this university WAS made based on his philosophy."
There's the Gandhi, King and Ikeda exhibit.....and now the Plato, Socrates, and Ikeda philosophy course.