Latest decisions and measures by the administration at La Sorbonne

Dear students,

To my utter dismay and anger and disgust, most of the class sessions we have had together in rooms outside our "normal" / "official" classroom, which is F366 at La Sorbonne, are considered as "non valid" (terminology and definition from the latest communiqué by President Molinié and the central committees) and this concerns everything (ie class, tests and exams, etc.) done either in room Chastagnol (teachers' room), at Bibliothèque Boutruche or at Institut de Géographie.

This results from the decisions of our most brilliant, most excellent, most competent and most conscientious top managers and "leaders" at La Sorbonne who held central meetings and committees some time around the middle of the past week. I was then confirmed these decisions by our History department that, as far as we are concerned, everything done outside our "normal"/"official" classroom is "non valid".

Here is a brief (and perhaps temporary...) summary of the decisions taken by the central committees at La Sorbonne by our most excellent leaders:

• the semester is prolonged to June 20
• only the class sessions (and for that matter the tests and exams) that took place and will take place in our "official"/"normal" classroom and with a "significant " ("their" terminology) number of students will count (which in our case was not possible since the rooms were locked during this semester...though we had our "significant" number of students...I would even go further, we had most of the students...)
  
• the rooms are supposed to open "at the latest" (communiqué by President Molinié and the central committees) next Monday, May 25.
  
• the exam will be based on whatever will be done from May 25 to June 20 in our "normal"/"official" rooms
  

As a result, technically speaking, all the grades we have had so far are "not valid" and will not count because they were done in places and circumstances that were not "official"/"normal" ("official classroom", bla bla bla.)

To avoid our semester course in English being canceled and/or challenged by some students (specially those who had or could have very low grades), this explains why we could not have an in-class exam yesterday (May 22) because the content is based on something done outside our "official"/"normal" classroom which is room F366 at La Sorbonne.

• Since the rooms will be opened or are supposed to be opened "at the latest" (communiqué by President Molinié) next Monday, May 25, we will have class at our "normal"/"official" room for a couple of weeks (if not more...) and the exam will be based on whatever will be done during that time and it will be held some time in June (or the end of June...) since the semester is now prolonged till June 20.
• So far, I have decided that we will have class at La Sorbonne next week (May 29) and there will be an exam the following week (June 05) based on whatever will be done next week (May 29). I hope that this will not be challenged by the administration...
  

Needless to say that all this angers and upsets me tremendously about how out top administrators and so-called "managers" and so-called "leaders" at La Sorbonne have handled this situation and have then decided all these measures and instructions.

During that very tense and stressful period, it was so difficult to maintain a modicum of class sessions, finding rooms after hours spent on the telephone, getting harsh and mean remarks either by some strikers (students as well as teachers) because of my maintaining the class sessions wherever it was possible to have them, provided they could be held in decent places and conditions (either at Institut de Géographie or in the History Department's Director's room or in the Teachers' room for example). But I made sure that we would not have to resort to have class in the corridors or cafés or Jardin du Luxembourg or Arènes de Lutèce, etc.

So far, despite all this, along with a handful of other teachers, I was able to have most (if not all) of the class sessions of this second semester and I could have class sessions, exam papers and tests held in decent places, all this now is considered as "non valid" ie totally useless, just good for the dustbin...Needless to say that after all this, I am exhausted and completely disgusted...

In case these rooms do not open from next Monday, then it is possible that your semester will be gone or cancelled or rescheduled to September or later...if we are still around, if there is still a place called Université de La Sorbonne...

Very best regards,

Mounir Nassor
(email : mounirnassor@yahoo.co.in)