Soka University of America
Encyclopedia
Soka University of America (SUA) is a university
located in Aliso Viejo
, California
, United States
. It describes its mission as the fostering of a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life—with an emphasis on principles of pacifism
, human rights
, and the creative coexistence of nature and humanity. It has a graduate and an undergraduate program.
A much larger and older sister school, Soka University of Japan, is located in Hachiōji, Tokyo
. SUA encompasses a four-year liberal arts
college and a graduate school
. SUA hosts the Pacific Basin Research Center and the academic journal Annals of Scholarship
.
, who founded Soka Gakkai as a small group of educators dedicated to social and educational reform during the years leading up to World War II. Makiguchi was a principal of an elementary school in Japan. He was strongly influenced by John Dewey
and American educational progressivism
.
Between 1930-1934, Makiguchi published his 4-volume work, Sōka Kyōikugaku Taikei (Value Creating Education System), to argue for his belief that education should proceed through dialog instead of "force-feeding" information to students. This student-centered and humanistic philosophy, he argued, made "the purpose of education" an effort "to lead students to happiness." Education, he asserted, should be directed toward "creating value" for the individual and society. Makiguchi was a pacifist and an ardent believer in religious liberty and freedom of conscience. Jailed by Japanese authorities during the Second World War for ideas and actions inimical to the war-effort, he died in prison in 1944. After the war, as the Soka Gakkai organization grew, Makiguchi's educational philosophy became the centerpiece of a number of Soka schools in Japan founded by his successors, Josei Toda
(a former elementary school teacher) and Daisaku Ikeda
, who is also regarded as the founder of SUA. Ikeda describes the founding of SUA as the fruition of the dreams of Makiguchi and Toda.
In 1987, SUA was formed as a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the state of California. It initially was simply a small graduate school located on a 588 acres (2.4 km²) property in Calabasas, California
. The property was once the site of a large settlement of Chumash people, a Native American community, so when the university tried to expand to accommodate an undergraduate program it met resistance from environmentalists seeking to protect the Chumash ancestral site and the wilderness terrain. SUA decided to relocate.
In 1995, the university bought 103 acre (0.41682658 km²) of rough-graded property in Aliso Viejo in southern Orange County for $25 million. It then spent $225 million to build the first 18 buildings of the new campus, which opened to 120 first year undergraduate students on August 24, 2001. The new campus's principle academic buildings were named for Soka Gakkai leader Daisaku Ikeda
and noted twentieth century peace activists Mahatma Gandhi
and Linus Pauling
.
In 2003, SUA had a controversy related to its relationship with Soka Gakkai International (SGI)
. The university offers a non-sectarian curriculum, but most of its funding has come from SGI members. Two professors charged that the university was not independent from SGI and that they experienced religious discrimination
and breach of contract
. One professor took legal action based on these allegations, but the case was dismissed. Administrators refuted allegations of sectarianism and religious discrimination, stating that the majority of faculty and staff are not SGI members, that there was no evidence of preferential treatment, and that SUA never has and never will teach Buddhist religious practice.
In April 2005 the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority closed on the purchase of SUA's campus in Calabasas, which is now public parkland managed jointly by the Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority, the state parks department, and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
. After the sale of the Calabasas campus, the graduate school moved to the Aliso Viejo campus.
As of August 2007 the Aliso Viejo campus was home for all of SUA's graduate, undergraduate, and research programs. The Aliso Viejo campus is bordered on three sides by Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park encompassing a 4000 acres (16.2 km²) county wildlife sanctuary. SUA has at least a $400 million dollar operating endowment
and has raised in excess of $100 million for a scholarship endowment.
Between 2005-2007 SUA graduated its first three undergraduate classes with an average graduation rate of 90%. More than a third of the students in each of the first three graduating classes have gone on to graduate school. Forty percent of the 2006 graduating class entered graduate school (compared to 20% at Claremont McKenna in the same year). Cumulatively, 38% of SUA graduates have gone on to graduate programs, according to the 2008 Peterson's Guide to Four Year Colleges (p. 2228). Students have been admitted into graduate programs at Cambridge University, Carnegie Mellon University
, Columbia University
, Teachers College, Duke University
, Harvard University
, Hawaii Law, Indiana University
, London School of Economics
, New York University
, Oxford University, Stanford University
, St. Johns, University of California, Berkeley
, UC Irvine, UCLA, University of Liverpool
, University of Maryland School of Law
, University of Pittsburgh
, University of Southern California
, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Vanderbilt University
, Yale University
, University of Pennsylvania
, and others.
, SUA has adopted a series of curricular structures that make a low student:teacher ratio and small, student-centered seminars to be a mainstay of all students' educational experience, even in introductory level classes. "Learning Cluster" courses combine practical experiences and academics to develop student research skills.
There are no traditional discipline-based departments at Soka University. Instead the university has focused on interdisciplinarity
, a progressive movement in collegiate curriculum that has defined many American colleges and universities, including the nearby University of California, Irvine
.
SUA undergraduates choose courses of study within several interdisciplinary Concentrations:
Learning Clusters
Learning Clusters are three week intensive courses focused on a significant problem of contemporary relevance. Faculty and students develop Learning Clusters in collaboration during each fall semester. The primary goal is to produce an "educated response" and build student skills for research, critical thought, and active engagement in the world. Learning clusters typically create a collaborative final project designed to be shared with the "off campus" world in some way. Each year several Learning Clusters travel within and outside the United States (South America, Central America, China, India, and Korea as well as other places) with funding from the Luis & Linda Nieves Family Foundation.
Study abroad
All undergraduate students at Soka University of America study abroad for one semester in a country whose language they are studying (costs included in tuition). The experience has become a rite of passage on campus during the first decade of SUA's operation, with numerous students sharing familiarity with specific cities abroad, such as Quito (Ecuador), Shanghai (China), or Hachioji (Japan).
Since 2002, students have hosted an annual Halloween Fair for the community, transforming the recreation center into a "haunted house" and providing food and game booths, such as bounce houses, henna, face painting, and various other carnival-like games. On the first Saturday of May each year since 2002, students participate in organizing SUA's "International Festival," involving over 600 international performers—including students—on three stages.
Activism
SUA students have taken an anti-war and human rights message off campus and into the Aliso Viejo community. A student group convinced the SUA administration to sign-up with the Worker Rights Consortium
, an organization that monitors the production conditions for apparel sold to universities in the United States with the expressed purpose of rooting-out sweatshop practices.
Soka Education Student Research Project (SESRP)
The SESRP is a student initiated and run project established in 2004 to encourage serious study and research related to the methods and philosophy of education at Soka. Students have organized a successful two-day conference each year since 2005, featuring student-written research papers as well as keynote speakers such as former John Dewey Society President Jim Garrison and Sarah Wider of the The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society.
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
located in Aliso Viejo
Aliso Viejo, California
Aliso Viejo is a city in Orange County, California. It had a population of 47,823 as of the 2010 census, up from 40,166 as of the 2000 census. It became Orange County's 34th city on July 1, 2001, the only city in the county to incorporate since 2000...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It describes its mission as the fostering of a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life—with an emphasis on principles of pacifism
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
, and the creative coexistence of nature and humanity. It has a graduate and an undergraduate program.
A much larger and older sister school, Soka University of Japan, is located in Hachiōji, Tokyo
Hachioji, Tokyo
is a city located in Tokyo, Japan, about 40 kilometers west of the center of the special wards of Tokyo.As of January 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 551,901 and a population density of 2,962.27/km². The total area is 186.31 km². It is the eighth largest city in the...
. SUA encompasses a four-year liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
college and a graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
. SUA hosts the Pacific Basin Research Center and the academic journal Annals of Scholarship
Annals of Scholarship
Annals of Scholarship is an academic journal edited by Marie-Rose Logan . The journal was established in 1980 and covers the study of the development of methodological and historical criteria in all disciplines with an emphasis on the interaction between Art Practices and the Human Sciences in a...
.
History and philosophy of SUA
SUA is secular and nonsectarian, though established by Soka Gakkai, a lay Buddhist organization. SUA's history and educational philosophy originate in Soka Gakkai, particularly in the work of Tsunesaburo MakiguchiTsunesaburo Makiguchi
Tsunesaburō Makiguchi was a Japanese educator who founded and became the first president of Sōka Gakkai....
, who founded Soka Gakkai as a small group of educators dedicated to social and educational reform during the years leading up to World War II. Makiguchi was a principal of an elementary school in Japan. He was strongly influenced by John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
and American educational progressivism
Educational progressivism
Progressive education is a pedagogical movement that began in the late nineteenth century and has persisted in various forms to the present. More recently, it has been viewed as an alternative to the test-oriented instruction legislated by the No Child Left Behind educational funding act...
.
Josei Toda
was an educator, peace activist and second president of Sōka Gakkai from 1951 to 1958. Like his mentor, Tsunesaburō Makiguchi, he was an innovative educator disillusioned with the Japanese educational system—which he thought of as suppressive of individual thought and as geared toward the interests...
(a former elementary school teacher) and Daisaku Ikeda
Daisaku Ikeda
is president of Sōka Gakkai International , a Nichiren Buddhist lay association which claims 12 million members in 192 countries and territories, and founder of several educational, cultural and peace research institutions.-Life and establishment of SGI:...
, who is also regarded as the founder of SUA. Ikeda describes the founding of SUA as the fruition of the dreams of Makiguchi and Toda.
In 1987, SUA was formed as a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the state of California. It initially was simply a small graduate school located on a 588 acres (2.4 km²) property in Calabasas, California
Calabasas, California
Calabasas is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California in the western United States. It is located in the hills in the southwestern San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains between Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills, West Hills, and Malibu, California. As of the 2010 census, the city...
. The property was once the site of a large settlement of Chumash people, a Native American community, so when the university tried to expand to accommodate an undergraduate program it met resistance from environmentalists seeking to protect the Chumash ancestral site and the wilderness terrain. SUA decided to relocate.
In 1995, the university bought 103 acre (0.41682658 km²) of rough-graded property in Aliso Viejo in southern Orange County for $25 million. It then spent $225 million to build the first 18 buildings of the new campus, which opened to 120 first year undergraduate students on August 24, 2001. The new campus's principle academic buildings were named for Soka Gakkai leader Daisaku Ikeda
Daisaku Ikeda
is president of Sōka Gakkai International , a Nichiren Buddhist lay association which claims 12 million members in 192 countries and territories, and founder of several educational, cultural and peace research institutions.-Life and establishment of SGI:...
and noted twentieth century peace activists Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
and Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling
Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...
.
In 2003, SUA had a controversy related to its relationship with Soka Gakkai International (SGI)
Soka Gakkai International
is a lay religious movement within Nichiren Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism derived from the teachings of the thirteenth-century Japanese monk, Nichiren Daishonin....
. The university offers a non-sectarian curriculum, but most of its funding has come from SGI members. Two professors charged that the university was not independent from SGI and that they experienced religious discrimination
Religious discrimination
Religious discrimination is valuing or treating a person or group differently because of what they do or do not believe.A concept like that of 'religious discrimination' is necessary to take into account ambiguities of the term religious persecution. The infamous cases in which people have been...
and breach of contract
Breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....
. One professor took legal action based on these allegations, but the case was dismissed. Administrators refuted allegations of sectarianism and religious discrimination, stating that the majority of faculty and staff are not SGI members, that there was no evidence of preferential treatment, and that SUA never has and never will teach Buddhist religious practice.
In April 2005 the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority closed on the purchase of SUA's campus in Calabasas, which is now public parkland managed jointly by the Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority, the state parks department, and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area or SMMNRA, is a United States National Recreation Area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California...
. After the sale of the Calabasas campus, the graduate school moved to the Aliso Viejo campus.
As of August 2007 the Aliso Viejo campus was home for all of SUA's graduate, undergraduate, and research programs. The Aliso Viejo campus is bordered on three sides by Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park encompassing a 4000 acres (16.2 km²) county wildlife sanctuary. SUA has at least a $400 million dollar operating endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
and has raised in excess of $100 million for a scholarship endowment.
Between 2005-2007 SUA graduated its first three undergraduate classes with an average graduation rate of 90%. More than a third of the students in each of the first three graduating classes have gone on to graduate school. Forty percent of the 2006 graduating class entered graduate school (compared to 20% at Claremont McKenna in the same year). Cumulatively, 38% of SUA graduates have gone on to graduate programs, according to the 2008 Peterson's Guide to Four Year Colleges (p. 2228). Students have been admitted into graduate programs at Cambridge University, Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Teachers College, Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Hawaii Law, Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Oxford University, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, St. Johns, University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, UC Irvine, UCLA, University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
, University of Maryland School of Law
University of Maryland School of Law
The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is the second-oldest law school in the United States by date of establishment and third-oldest by date of first classes. The school is located on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore in Downtown Baltimore's West Side...
, University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
, Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, and others.
Academics
SUA literature claims a 9:1 student/faculty ratio and an average class size of 13.- The undergraduate college offers bachelor's degreeBachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
s in Liberal Arts with emphasis areas in Environmental Studies, Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences, and International Studies. Classrooms are designed as centers of dialogue and discussion, emphasizing seminar methods.
- The graduate school offers a Master of ArtsMaster of Arts (postgraduate)A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree in SecondSecond languageA second language or L2 is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue. Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas ....
and ForeignForeign languageA foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
Language EducationLanguage educationLanguage education is the teaching and learning of a foreign or second language. Language education is a branch of applied linguistics.- Need for language education :...
concentrating on Teaching English as a Second LanguageTeaching English as a second languageTESL or teaching English as a second language refers to teaching English to students whose first language is not English and is usually offered in a region where English is the dominant language and natural English language immersion situations are apt to be plentiful.TEFL or teaching English as a...
. The graduate school offers a 6:1 student/faculty ratio and graduated its tenth class in 2006.
Further graduate programs are under development.
- The Pacific Basin Research Center supports research on the humane and peaceful development of the Asia-Pacific Region, including the Latin American border states. It awards grants and fellowships to researchers studying public policy interactions in the Pacific Rim in such areas as international security, economic and social development, educational and cultural reform, environmental protection and human rights. The Center also sponsors campus conferences, occasional lecture series, and student seminars that extend and support its research activities.
- The academic journal Annals of ScholarshipAnnals of ScholarshipAnnals of Scholarship is an academic journal edited by Marie-Rose Logan . The journal was established in 1980 and covers the study of the development of methodological and historical criteria in all disciplines with an emphasis on the interaction between Art Practices and the Human Sciences in a...
has been edited at SUA since 2005, when Humanities Professor Marie-Rose Logan joined the faculty. Annals of Scholarship promotes the study of the development of methodological and historical criteria in all the disciplines with an emphasis on the interaction between Art Practices and the Human Sciences in a Global Culture.
Curriculum
Embracing the traditions of Humanistic education, Student-centered learning, and educational progressivismEducational progressivism
Progressive education is a pedagogical movement that began in the late nineteenth century and has persisted in various forms to the present. More recently, it has been viewed as an alternative to the test-oriented instruction legislated by the No Child Left Behind educational funding act...
, SUA has adopted a series of curricular structures that make a low student:teacher ratio and small, student-centered seminars to be a mainstay of all students' educational experience, even in introductory level classes. "Learning Cluster" courses combine practical experiences and academics to develop student research skills.
Interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity involves the combining of two or more academic fields into one single discipline. An interdisciplinary field crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of thought, as new needs and professions have emerged....
, a progressive movement in collegiate curriculum that has defined many American colleges and universities, including the nearby University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
.
SUA undergraduates choose courses of study within several interdisciplinary Concentrations:
- Environmental Studies
- Humanities
- International Studies
- Social & Behavioral Sciences
Learning Clusters
Learning Clusters are three week intensive courses focused on a significant problem of contemporary relevance. Faculty and students develop Learning Clusters in collaboration during each fall semester. The primary goal is to produce an "educated response" and build student skills for research, critical thought, and active engagement in the world. Learning clusters typically create a collaborative final project designed to be shared with the "off campus" world in some way. Each year several Learning Clusters travel within and outside the United States (South America, Central America, China, India, and Korea as well as other places) with funding from the Luis & Linda Nieves Family Foundation.
Study abroad
Research
Soka University of America is a research and teaching hybrid. Faculty carry teaching loads comparable to research institutions so they may pursue scholarship while focusing attention on teaching.Student life
About half of SUA's student body is from the US, with the other half coming from 30 other countries on six continents. SUA is a residential college and students live on campus.Activities
A high level of club activity is common at Soka University, with students participating in over 35 clubs on campus, including The Pearl (student news/opinion magazine), Model United Nations, Vita Leones Philharmonic Orchestra, Sualseros (Salsa Dancing), Rhythmission (hip-hop dancing), Ghungroo (dances of India), American Football Club, Josho Daiko (Japanese Taiko group), Medical Path Group, Keep Soul, Humanism in Action, Green Planet, Judo, Amnesty International, and Activist Collective.Since 2002, students have hosted an annual Halloween Fair for the community, transforming the recreation center into a "haunted house" and providing food and game booths, such as bounce houses, henna, face painting, and various other carnival-like games. On the first Saturday of May each year since 2002, students participate in organizing SUA's "International Festival," involving over 600 international performers—including students—on three stages.
Activism
SUA students have taken an anti-war and human rights message off campus and into the Aliso Viejo community. A student group convinced the SUA administration to sign-up with the Worker Rights Consortium
Worker Rights Consortium
The Worker Rights Consortium is an independent labor rights monitoring organization focused on protecting the rights of workers who sew apparel and make other products sold in the United States, particularly those bearing college or university logos...
, an organization that monitors the production conditions for apparel sold to universities in the United States with the expressed purpose of rooting-out sweatshop practices.
Soka Education Student Research Project (SESRP)
The SESRP is a student initiated and run project established in 2004 to encourage serious study and research related to the methods and philosophy of education at Soka. Students have organized a successful two-day conference each year since 2005, featuring student-written research papers as well as keynote speakers such as former John Dewey Society President Jim Garrison and Sarah Wider of the The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society.
Citations
- Soka announces free tuition, March 5, 2008.
- Pacific Basin Research Center at SUA
- New West Coast College, Born of the Far East, The New York Times July 25, 2001.
- Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State UniversityOregon State UniversityOregon State University is a coeducational, public research university located in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees and a multitude of research opportunities. There are more than 200 academic degree programs offered through the...
, where Pauling graduated in 1922 and where his family papers are held. Linus Pauling InstituteLinus Pauling InstituteThe Linus Pauling Institute is a research institute located at Oregon State University with a focus on health maintenance. The mission statement of the institute is three-fold. First, to determine the functional roles of micronutrients and phytochemicals in promoting optimal health and to treat or...
(Wikipedia). - Education for Creative Living: Ideas and Proposals of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi Dayle M. Bethel, ed. 1990. Iowa State University Press, Ames, IA. 246 pages. ISBN 0-8138-0392-6.
- The Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Prize at Morehouse CollegeMorehouse CollegeMorehouse College is a private, all-male, liberal arts, historically black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College, Morehouse is one of three remaining traditional men's colleges in the United States....
in Atlanta, Georgia, USA - "A Day At Soka University" (2007) at orangecounty.planjam.com
- Soka University of America: A Review (Nov. 1, 2007) at viewpoints.com
- "Soka University campus sold to Conservation Authority," Los Angeles Business (2005)
- Soka Gakkai in America: An Update with a focus on SUA (2002) Harvard Pluralism Project
- National Cross Talk (Spring 2002) National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
- SGI Controversy, Religion Report}}
- http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/showVals.php?ft=bmf&ein=953909672 National Center for Charitable Statistics
- http://www.wix.com/halloweenfair2011/sua#!__site SUA Official 2011 Halloween Fair website