It’s a curious ballet. Elected officials from universities, trade unionists, administrative executives. Everyone parades, along the glass roofs of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), behind the concrete columns of the Ecole Centrale or under the balustrades of the “castle”, nickname of the Faculty of Sciences of Orsay, from where are so many Nobel Prize winners. With closed, sometimes marked faces, delegations greet each other. Then they begin to parley.
The future of Paris-Saclay, and more broadly of the policy of regrouping French universities, is being played out there, in the intimacy of these meetings held in the middle of school holidays, almost everywhere on the campus. Seemingly quiet with its aisles momentarily empty, this French flagship of research is bustling. Since February 9, the institution, the first tricolor in the Shanghai ranking, has been blocked. A crisis paralyzes it and threatens the dozen scientific establishments that make it up.
Still operating today on experimental statutes, Paris-Saclay finds itself unable to elect a president at its head, taken hostage by its own board of directors (CA). Almost a putsch: “It’s an unknown world which will open up if no white smoke comes out of the current conclaves in the coming days”, slips Jean-Yves Mérindol, former president of the ENS and fine connoisseur of the juggernaut, created officially in 2020, in particular to influence abroad.
A quasi-putsch
Some of the members of the CA, elected on February 1 after a first vote, refuse to designate the “external personalities”, these third parties who must participate in the final vote, as required by the regulations. And prevent, in fact, the electoral process from succeeding. The blockers thus intend to delay as long as possible the sustainability of the grouping, established for 2025. Their objective: to modify the governance of the superstructure, before it is set in stone.
The subject has never ceased to annoy since the beginnings of the project, launched more than ten years ago by Nicolas Sarkozy. Already in 2017, Emmanuel Macron had to declare a divorce from the École Polytechnique, keen to preserve its independence. An earthquake. Then in 2022, Paris-Saclay, then led by the current Minister of Higher Education and Research Sylvie Retailleau, had to grant the universities of Evry and Versailles a form of independence within it.
At the heart this time of these internal struggles: the place of the former Paris-Sud University. It is largely thanks to its science faculty, the most prestigious, the historic heart of the group, that Saclay shines so much. But its members today consider it unfair that Evry, Versailles and the Grandes Ecoles (Centrale, AgroParisTech, ENS and the Optical Institute) retain a form of sovereignty, where the former Paris-Sud has lost its legal personality, requiring it to obtain the agreement of other structures for its budget or its recruitment. They fear being wronged or looked down upon. “Cenacles have recently been canceled due to lack of participation from other stakeholders,” regrets Patrick Puzo, elected CFDT to the board of directors.
Paris-Sud, heart of internal wars
This summer, the faculty of science presented proposals to rectify the situation. “The report was swept aside by the presidency,” laments Katia Le Barbu-Debus, researcher and SNCS-FSU trade unionist. Questioned by L’Express, Estelle Iacona, the current president of Paris-Saclay, who must leave her post on March 1, except in the event of re-election, retorts that it was a “counter-initiative”. “A working group including all parties has been set up, and its opinion was of course taken into account,” she explains.
In government, we thought we had finished with these old enmities. The governance modalities, those which today sow discord, were approved by the former CA last July. A delegation from the High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES) was even due to come in mid-March. The body is responsible for deciding whether the university can move away from the status of an experimental public establishment and take its final form.
With the blocking, no more visits. Canceled, urgently. Another must be scheduled before next summer. We should not delay: “If the university waits too long, it will have to redo its self-assessment, a step which requires launching a vast survey of staff and users. Starting from scratch would waste a lot of time for everyone” , warns a source within the institution. Enough to make everything worse again.
Strong tensions with the president
Since the semblance of summer idyll, tensions have started again. They were already very strong: in 2022, an expert report carried out by the consulting firm Degest, which L’Express was able to consult pointed to a “worrying psychosocial climate” and central administrative employees close to rupture. At issue: conflicts, all-out reorganizations and lack of means to carry them out.
Beyond this deep unease, relations with the presidency have also deteriorated significantly in recent months. The unions (FSU-CGT, SGEN-CFDT, SNPTES-Unsa), allies in the blockage, despite differences on the follow-up to be given, speak of a “dialogue of the deaf”. “We are being refused. However, this is about the survival of the most important French university, around 15% of the country’s research alone,” says the trade unionist and elected member of the Board of Directors, Patrick. Puzo.
To avoid the moment when, due to lack of leadership, the hydra will no longer be able to function, a provisional administration must be appointed by the rectorate. In the meantime, a new list of external personalities has been proposed. According to our information, this should again be refused, in principle. Oppositions demand, as a condition for any gesture in the direction of collaboration, a pure and simple postponement of the release of the experiment. Prerequisite that the current management refuses.
If no agreement is reached by the end of March, the regulatory deadline, the government will be forced to get involved. The issue promises to be hot. The risk ? That one of the components of Saclay in turn decides to slam the door. A few months ago, another standoff of this kind led the government to declare the split between Toulouse Capitole and Toulouse School of Economics. Some saw it as a failure, while Emmanuel Macron ardently defends the emergence of this type of super-establishment. It is thanks to one of its ordinances, dating from 2018, that such experiments can be held.
The minister left
Who better than Minister Sylvie Retailleau to avoid such disintegration? Unlike her replacement – whom she nevertheless chose as vice-president at the time – the minister managed to keep everyone around the table. At the cost of a little cuddle therapy and a lot of compromise. “Sylvie Retailleau is very attached to Paris-Saclay and keeps herself informed of what is happening,” concedes her office. Except that she moved away from the subject to avoid any conflict of interest. “She will therefore have no decision-making role.” Without a minister to decide, inertia seems inevitable.
Times of crisis are unique in that they only leave the choice between bad solutions. Reconstructing Paris-Sud, as requested by some of the unions, could, for example, lead to other tensions. “There are faculties, like that of medicine or that of pharmacy for example, which flourish in the current functioning. They would not be in favor of it,” notes Véronique Benzaken, honorary vice-president.
Some would like to change the composition of the CA, to give more weight to the late Paris-Sud. But schools might be offended. As for the CGT, traditionally opposed to the grouping, its proposals are seen as an attempt to dismantle the giant by the enthusiasts, the majority since the grouping made France climb the Shanghai ranking. “We cannot plan ahead to know what this large establishment will become,” summarizes Jean-Michel Bocherel, SNPTES-Unsa union representative.
From February 29 to March 1, Paris-Saclay hosts the Choose Science summit, a large gathering which will honor the excellence of French science. From the Elysée, the President of the Republic, who sponsors the event, keeps watch. But behind the scenes, due to lack of white smoke, negotiations continue. The colossus may have been designed to take on the light, but its future lies in the shadows.
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