Le Figaro Bordeaux
No is no.
The University of Bordeaux refused the request of nine student union organizations, which asked for March 8 to be trivialized for International Women's Rights Day, in order to be able to demonstrate in Bordeaux without missing classes or exams.
According to the unions, this response from the establishment to their request would however be
“insufficient to guarantee students the right to mobilize”
.
In February 2023, four organizations had already requested the trivialization of March 7 and 8
“to free the students”
who wanted to go to the mobilization against the pension reform and to the March 8 demonstration.
A year later, they persist and sign, but so does the administration.
On February 16, the board of directors of the University of Bordeaux decided not to trivialize this day, because several exams are scheduled for this date on different campuses, which would complicate the implementation of this measure,
" on a legal and organizational level
.
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“An important democratic problem”
The university establishment - one of whose philosophy professors is accused of rape by another teacher and of inappropriate behavior by several students - specifies, however, that
"this decision does not call into question its commitment to the cause of women's rights and gender minorities
.
An analysis which is not shared by left-wing student organizations, which are calling for a general mobilization so that no student can be
"sanctioned for having mobilized"
, and are encouraging students to join the procession on Friday March 8 at noon.
The nine organizations at the origin of this request for trivialization of March 8 (The Raised Fist, Du pain et des roses, Unef, the Student Union, All of Us, FIDL, Expressons Nous, MEUF and the Young Insoumis) are also at the origin of a petition launched on February 13, but which has only collected around a hundred signatures so far, demanding
“the democratic right to be able to mobilize freely, on which the trivialization of March 8 depends”
, and believe that
"if the universities of Bordeaux display feminist and pro LGBTQIA+ values in their policy, the absence of trivialization [...] constitutes an important democratic problem"
.