Meeting with Department Head

Yesterday Kohno-sensei, the energy science department head came looking for Matsubara in the mornng. He was not present at the time, so we passed on the message to him later on. When he heard about it, he showed unpleasantness. This is probably one of the few times where higher administration tried to reach out to him. Kohno-sensei wanted to expose him to Project Separation a little to prepare him for the meeting today. All went without a hinch. He was acting extremely normal and at night he even offered some warnings to me when I was about to use the filter vessels. He told me that the vessel is not very clean. I didn't quite understand what he means, I asked for permission if I could use it since usually the catalyst group use it for filtering Carbn nanotubes from water. He said, "Ah, maybe it'll be okay if you wash it first." He seemed normal to me, perhaps extra normal. In the morning he was behaving like his careless self, didn't show sign of unpleasantness.

Today, Waki-sensei came into the student room and said to me, "I can't take this anymore. I don't want him as a student." I was extremely shocked. Apparently since yesterday, he has been sending threatening emails to Waki-sensei after the meeting with Kohno-sensei. Two of the emails had contents as followed. The first email was to the Human Resource in Tokyo Institute of Technology, claiming that Waki-sensei has been skipping her hours since her return from maternity leave that she is unfit to be a teacher. He sent a copy of that email to Waki-sensei for whatever purpose. The second email was to NEDO, the main source of our lab's funds, claiming that Waki-sensei has been mis-using the funds and request for an investigation.

45 minutes later, the meeting was held with the department head, Kohno-sensei and the core members of Waki lab, excluding the two new international students who had delayed presentation at the time. Kohno-sensei chose his words very carefully and came on very soft. No harsh words were exchanged. Perhaps this made him feel very satisfied that he didn't confront anybody. Kohno-sensei proposed that we separate the rooms and have better safety management inside our lab. To me it was just another official statement from the administration to compact things down so they feel everything's under control.

Of course we took their advise, later on we got into the real fight as soon as the department head went away. Matsubara turned back to this rude student questioning everything Waki-sensei does. Waki-sensei got very agitated and this became another fight that happens ever so often in the lab. Still, he denied that he did nothing wrong in all these years and that if we think he did something wrong, we should prove it. After 30 minutes or so of fighting, Waki-sensei came to the conclusion that for the safety of the students the lab will be closed whenever she is away. This is a huge blow to all the students. I did experiments all day yesterday and had plans to do more today and tomorrow. Now most experments would have to be put on hold. Because really, nobody is safe now, everybody is afraid of him, we don't know what he will do next. Unfortuntately, the Indonesian student was present at the time and heard everything for the duration of the meeting. About the threatening email, he still believed that he did nothing wrong.

Matsubara started to argue about the discussion and seminar presentation. He demanded to have time with Waki-sensei to discuss about his research. He became like a child, hounding Waki-sensei wherever she goes demanding for time and asking for her schedule.

He probably somehwhat felt the severity of his action and tried to start some small talks with the lab members. He began to talk to himself and act innocent as if someone is watching him. Or even offered advice to the younger students on research. This is extremely confusing to them. The drastic change of attitude is really scary. The lab members didn't want to stay in the same room with him and all would avoid contact with him.

This is torturing.

Later on I had a chance to talk with Waki-sensei and the Indonesian student, I proposed the idea of sending him and Tao-san away to Ihara lab, another similar lab in Ookayama Campus. Waki-sensei said that Ihara-sensei was her classamate in Tokyo University. This is just an idea in development, but perhaps this can prevent the 2 international students from getting this kinda of unhealthy exposure. I know deep in my mind now that this lab and him cannot co-exist. I am willing to take the next step.