“We believe you.” This is the message of one of the banners planned for the next mobilization, on November 25, international day for the elimination of violence against women. Clear support for the ten victims who reported incidents of harassment and sexual assault to the “Stop violence” unit of Bordeaux Montaigne University. A wave of testimonies which came after the filing of a rape complaint by teacher-researcher Barbara Stiegler, against a colleague.
This Thursday, in the Cirot amphitheater, around a hundred students but also professors responded to the call for a general assembly initiated by student organizations (Le Fist Raised, the Student Union Federation, the Student Union Bordeaux etc.) A meeting on the eve of a board of directors during which the presidency of the university will be asked for more transparency with the presentation of “an anonymous assessment of the management protocol of these current affairs », Explains Jahan Lutz, student elected to the board of directors and member of Le Poing Levé.
“A collective shame”
Some came to find out, sandwich in hand, about the cases of sexist and sexual violence that are shaking the university, and in particular the philosophy department, others about ways to mobilize. The organizers are forced to restrict speaking turns because many people want to speak.
Several professors are outraged that the complaints of the dozen philosophy students were not included in the referral to the disciplinary commission (whose decision will be rendered in the coming months) and are asking that they be included as soon as possible. as possible. “The university has been exposed to collective shame,” thunders a history professor. The students were made invisible in this referral.”
The university denies that the case of the students is not taken into account and highlights the letter from the rector of October 24 which indicates that “although the BO (official bulletin) does not specify it explicitly, the instruction of the disciplinary commission covers both the aspect concerning the teacher-researcher and that concerning the students. »
A support unit not well known enough
Cell failures have also been widely discussed. Students testify, for example, to the fact that many discovered the very existence of this unit, set up in 2020, thanks to these latest cases.
“The university does things, it listens to your words,” defends Lucie Ouvrard, director of establishment and campus life, who was present in the amphitheater. For example, she highlighted the partnership with the Clasches association, an anti-sexist collective fighting against sexual harassment in higher education, while recognizing the efforts to be made in terms of communication. For Jeanne, in the second year of her degree, we must look beyond the walls of the university to launch “a general university movement” and think about an optimized functioning of the cell which could be replicated in other French universities.
A “deleterious” atmosphere in philosophy
The representatives of the philosophy department present do not want us to lose sight of the support owed to the students who testified to the cell. Among them, a student had confided in a teacher but, disgusted by how the affair unfolded, she finally gave up on continuing her studies, even though she was succeeding.
A “deleterious” climate reigns in the section while the professor in question can return to his post from January. Administratively, it cannot be suspended for more than twelve months, explains the university. Other establishments, which find themselves caught in the same type of case, choose, for example, to place the professor in question on “research leave”. The corridors of the philosophy department have been echoing with these affairs for two and a half years and it will surely take a little time to regain a semblance of normality.