Academic Skills Workshop Series “The Ultimate Guide to Office Hours”（2025/12/19）

Academic Skills Workshop

【Date】December 19, 2025 (Friday) Lunchtime 13:00~13:50 (50 minutes)

【Format and Location】Face to Face, Troyer Memorial Arts and Sciences Hall 1F 119 / The Faculty staff’s offices in Troyer Memorial Arts and Sciences Hall (TANAKA, Hiroki, Assistant Professor, Information Science Major・MATSUMURA, Tomoo, Associate Professor, Mathematics Major・FUJINUMA, Ryosuke, Professor, Environmental Studies Major・KABURAGI, Takashi, Associate Professor, Information Science Major), Japanese

【Lecturer】YAMAZAKI, Rekishu, Associate Professor, Physics Major

【Target】Students

【Attendance】11 students

　"When looking up a professor's email address on the icu MAP Faculty Information page, their office hours are also listed. But how do you actually go? What is the purpose of that time, and what should you talk about?"

    To address these questions, we held this Academic Skills Workshop. In the first half, Associate Professor Rekishu Yamazaki gave a lecture based on his own experiences—both from his student days(talking to some random professor in their office!?) and as a faculty member. He spoke about his history of office hours and suggested how to make an appointment for them, as well as topics for students to talk with professors.

    The second half was a practical session where students made visits to faculty offices in the Troyer Memorial Arts and Sciences Hall(T-kan), assigned at random. At the offices of Associate Professor Tanaka, Associate Professor Matsumura, Professor Fujinuma, and Associate Professor Kaburagi, the students enjoyed introducing themselves and learning about the professors' research. Some students even stayed beyond the scheduled workshop time to continue their conversations, making it a truly hands-on and engaging session.

【Participants' comments (Excerpt) (*Translation from the original Japanese comments)】

"Associate Professor Yamazaki mentioned that faculty members also look forward to talking with students, which really helped lower the barrier to office hours that I had previously found quite intimidating. Later, I visited Professor Fujinuma’s office, and he said something very similar. I could truly feel how much he welcomed students, making it a very fulfilling experience.”
“I think I will continue to enjoy visiting office hours in the future. In particular, it was my first time attending the office hours of a professor whose field is completely unrelated to my own major, and I found the conversation to be incredibly enjoyable."
“It was great to learn that faculty members actually welcome visits from students. Up until this workshop, I had always felt as though I was taking up their valuable time…”