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Applicableprinciple

Holding of LINKtopos2021
Public University Student Network, LINKtopos2021 in IWATE, Management team of Iwate Prefectural University

Principle 6: A commitment to encouraging global citizenship through education
Principle 10: A commitment to promoting inter-cultural dialogue and understanding,and the “unlearning” of intolerance, through education

1. LINKtopos
In 2012, students of public universities gathered from all overJapan for volunteer activities in the wake of the Great East
Japan Earthquake and found that there were many friends
who shared the same thoughts on reconstruction supportand disaster prevention. Then, the Public University Student
Network was established to aim for further discussion on
their support activities. The national student convention ofpublic universities, LINKtopos is an annual meeting led by
the students of public universities nationwide to get together
to study and exchange opinions through workshops and otherevents under the themes of disaster recovery assistance,
disaster prevention, community activities, etc. “LINK” means
connection in English and “topos” means a place in Greek.
With support from the Japan Association of Public Universities,
the first convention of LINKtopos was held at Iwate Prefectural
University in 2013 under the theme of “Students’ ideas oncommunity future.” Since then, it has been held annually ina public university nationwide in turn. In addition, public
universities in the country are divided into six blocks

including the Hokkaido and Tohoku region, and students
conduct exchange activities in each block, which has been
handed down as a network of students beyond the boundariesof universities.

2. Thoughts put into the theme of
LINKtopos2021
2021 is the milestone year of the 10th anniversary of the Great
East Japan Earthquake. Elementary school students at thetime of the earthquake are now university students and will goout into society soon. This is the first time for Iwate Prefectural
University to host the convention for LINKtopos2021 since thefirst convention was held.
Ten years have passed since the disaster, and the students
wanted to make this convention an opportunity for participants
to look back on the past ten years and what they had felt andthought and to think of their future. Based on this wish oftheirs, they decided on the theme of LINKtopos 2021 to be“Since then and from now on.”Poster of LINKtopos2021

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3. Overview of LINKtopos2021

4. After finishing LINKtopos2021

LINKtopos2021 was held online using Zoom for two days from
September 15 to 16, 2021. On September 14, 2021, the day
before the convention, a poster session was held for applicants
using oVice system.
LINKtopos provides workshops as its main program. This time,
the workshops had three sub-themes: “Consideration and care,”“Reconstruction and local community revitalization,” and“Community activities in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.”
After listening to lectures given by guest speakers on eachtheme, participants looked back on the past and worked on
making a poster to reflect on what the lessons of the past canteach us about measures against possible future disasters aswell as their own activities and lives. The participants weredivided into groups by sub-theme to discuss each of the three
sub-themes. They used Google Slides, Google Docs, and otherservices to create solutions and action plans for issues to beconsidered, and did presentations on them on Day 2. The timeschedule for September 15-16 is as follows.

LINKtopos2021 was participated in by 92 students and 40
faculty members, and the number of participating universities
was 22. We received comments from the participants such as“I had an opportunity to interact with students from acrossJapan,” “I felt the enthusiasm of the management staff,”and “This convention has broadened my mind on disasterprevention and disaster relief.” However, we also received
requests from the participants for deeper interaction andconnection with others, such as “I would like to have moretime,” and “I wanted to talk more with members outside myworkshop group.”
We hope that LINKtopos2021 can give opportunities for eachof the participated students to gain new insights by connectingwith other students from across Japan and to think about
values they receive in their daily lives, the power they cangain by connecting with people and communities, and thecontinuation and evolution of reconstruction support. We
condensed our thoughts on reconstruction that have been
handed down by university students across Japan into thetheme, “Since then and from now on” and disseminated it
across the country. Through this, we could say that we wereable to fulfill one of the roles that the university in the disasteraffected area have played until now.
Finally, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all
the students, university personnel, and personnel of the Japan
Association of Public Universities involved in LINKtopos2021
and wish for continued success and further development of
LINKtopos.

<Day 1>TimeDetails

10：00 - 10：25

Opening ceremony

10：25 - 10：55

Ice breaking activity

10：55 - 12：00

Guest speaker lectures

12：00 - 13：00

Lunch break

13：00 - 13：30

Q & A and feedback session

13：30 - 17：50

Workshop17：50 - 18：00

Housekeeping announcement<Day 2>TimeDetails

10：00 - 10：05

Housekeeping announcement

10：05 - 12：00

Workshop overview and final
presentations (by theme)

12：00 - 13：00

Lunch break

13：00 - 13：55

Workshop presentation at plenary
session (one group per theme)

13：55 - 14：00

Break

14：00 - 14：10

Review from alumni

14：10 - 14：40

Closing ceremony

Planning team committee members of Public University Student
Network, LINKtopos

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