LINGUIST List 4.574

Mon 26 Jul 1993

Disc: Last Posting: MIT Fundraising in Japan

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1. , Re: 4.511 Linguistics at MIT

Message 1: Re: 4.511 Linguistics at MIT

Let me make my final comment on the story of MIT fund-raising in Japan.

If the nature of MIT fund-raising going on in Japan is as is described
by Professors O'Neil, Pesetsky and Marantz in LINGUIST 4.511, then it
is their fellow alumni in Japan who do not understand what they are
doing.

1) When they collect money in gratitude to their Alma Mater, they
should do so in their own name and not under the official auspice of
the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), a semi-
governmental organization affiliated with the Ministry of Education.
Note, in passing, that according to the prospectus sent to us, the
money that will be collected at the JSPS is to be called "JSPS Fund
for Linguistic Research at MIT."

2) They should not send unexpected bank transfer forms to individuals
who are not MIT alumni nor have had any personal contacts with MIT in
their life. They should also stop applying their "Help MIT to promote
linguistics" rhetoric to non-alumni, and withdraw the "list of advisors
and supporters" which they have widely distributed, because it includes
some well-known Japanese linguists who are not MIT alumni. Such a list
tends to obscure the nature of their present fund-raising.

It is not my intention to do any harm to the reputation of MIT's
linguistics department. On the contrary, I want to warn the MIT'ers
that if their fellow alumni here continued their fund raising in the
way they had started it, the fame of their prestigious department
might be serously damaged.

It is not that my fellow linguists and I are against MIT raising fund
in Japan. It is their method that is not to our liking, and I hope
the MIT'ers will understand it.

 Best wishes

 Kazuto MATSUMURA
 G00814sinet.ad.jp
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 ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
 Nishigahara 4-51-21, Kita-ku, TOKYO 114 JAPAN
 tel: +81-3-3917-6111, ext. 488 fax: +81-3-3910-0613
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