The devil is in the details. And this is particularly true on the new campus of Sorbonne-Nouvelle in Nation, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, victim of serial malfunctions which caused a return to school for the least complicated. “I suspect that what draws your attention are the difficulties we are encountering,” admitted Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia, president of Sorbonne-Nouvelle, during a press conference on Wednesday. However, “we are a thousand leagues from the situation of chaos that has sometimes been described”, assured the president of Paris 3. And yet the lack of rooms, which the presidency estimates at around thirty, led it to postpone the start of the school year for two weeks. If a little over 2,000 students started on September 19, the bulk of the troops (10,900 young people) are expected on Monday. “To place the courses is our major concern”, moreover recognized Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia.
To better understand the reasons for this mismatch, we must go back to the genesis in 2014 of the single campus project intended to bring together the 11 sites of Paris 3. Except that on the Nation site “the room offer is less important and radically different in terms of grading and typology, says Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia. The project was to create an upscale environment with lots of cultural facilities and social halls. We may have forgotten more classic rooms along the way…”
A “crappy organization”?
Above all, there has never been, according to the presidency, a document listing the need for cinemas, which seems staggering for a project at 140 million euros. What is more, an on-site university restaurant, not planned at the start, took up space that could have been devoted to classrooms. Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia claims to have alerted his supervisory authorities, rectorate and Ministry of National Education, as soon as he took office in July 2019 but that “the three simulations carried out since 2020 have sent rather reassuring signals”.
Not reassuring enough, however, for the management of the university to ask during the commission for training and university life (CFVU) in July to increase to 10% in distance learning. “We refused because we have already had two years of distance because of the Covid-19 and the students can’t take it anymore”, asserts Paul Malherbe, president of the Unef in Paris 3 who denounces a “shitty organization”. In disaster, the management team is therefore looking for rooms outside the campus to avoid distance. “But finding indoor games is difficult,” explains Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia. Finally, five rooms are rented at La Défense and two at the Cité universitaire, for a cost per semester of 500,000 euros.
Remote language courses
But as it is necessary to avoid the students going back and forth between the different sites, all the schedules are to be reworked to achieve stalling “a very complex training offer”, hence the delay in the start of the school year. Except that this is not even enough to avoid the distanciel which represents in this return to 9% of the courses given. “As two out of three amphitheatres are not yet ready, most lectures are given remotely,” says Frédéric Erard, secretary of the CHSCT. “In L3, we have almost 30% of distance learning courses, as well as the entire cross-cutting teaching office, abounds Paul Malherbe. We defend quality education and this is not the case. Thus Adrien, in a master’s degree in European studies, indicates that he takes his language courses remotely. “In addition, it is asynchronous, that is to say that we have no teacher in front of us, he explains. The course is dropped off at a specific time and we have a week to do the exercises. It’s a bit awkward to practice…”
But the lack of rooms is not the only difficulty related to the arrival in the new building. “95% of the site’s reservations have been lifted, but the rest has an impact on activities,” concedes Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia. And in fact, in addition to the two closed amphitheatres, there are a host of small failures such as problems with the blinds, the performance hall not yet open, sound insulation problems in the air conditioning of the cafeteria which will not open that October 10 or even “the absence of a coffee distributor”, notes Laura, in master of letters. An aspect which may seem anecdotal but which was raised by several interlocutors and generates a subtle but significant discomfort.
Serial falls
Other incidents have been talked about in the media, such as the fall of an entrance gate on June 20 caused by “a handling problem”, according to the president, the fall of a cornice element in wood on September 12 and finally the fall of a metal plate from a false ceiling on September 21. “For two days, we inspected all the false ceilings, assures Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia. I requested a commitment from the State to guarantee the safety of the installation. And we’ll go over everything that’s wrong. “Faced with these serial troubles, “the rectorate took things in hand by organizing a weekly meeting to monitor the site,” says Frédéric Erard. The rectorate confirms the meeting but refutes any “recovery by hand” and assures that it only comes “in support and accompaniment”.
“But the building is only the expression of the malaise of the agents”, continues the elected representative of the CHSCT. And it is true that several of them report unease and “violence in social relations”. “We are all exhausted from this operation where decisions are made by people above ground, denounces Isabelle, educational secretary and CGT union member. Here is the antechamber of Saint-Anne. “There is a form of hallucinating contempt, a mad arrogance”, confides Christine, documentalist. The lack of personnel is repeatedly underlined. “The presidency has eliminated dozens of positions and as we have the lowest salaries in Parisian universities, it is difficult to recruit”, laments Frédéric Erard who points out that in the “IT department, there are only 2 instead of 6”. “The worst thing is that in this organization, no one wins and all the departments are dysfunctional,” adds Christine.
Use of an outside firm
For its part, the management team assures him: “Our program is about learning to work together. She indicates that she has put in place an action plan to avoid “perpetuating a temporary situation” with a “working group to prepare for the second half of the year and the start of the 2023-2024 school year” and the call for a service provider for two missions: “to objectify the needs and help us on the methodology for creating timetables”. But the normal functioning of the campus is not for now. For example, one of the closed amphitheatres is the subject of legal proceedings and it will take time to open it.
But despite its flaws, the new site has some positive points for students. “The campus is quite pretty and very large with brand new rooms, says Laura. But it’s not super functional for students. It was more user-friendly on the Censier site. An opinion that Diane, in a master’s degree in European studies, does not share, for whom the old site was “horrible”. “Here at least the toilets work and the library is amazing. Moreover, Jamil Jean-Marc Dakhlia is convinced: “This campus is an exceptional opportunity for our students once we have solved the current problems”.