Grenoble Law SchoolLaw at the top

What is your academic background?

Louison: Ever since high school, I have been interested in studying law. Encouraged by my teachers, I enrolled in a general law degree program at the University of Western Brittany, where I am from, after obtaining my ES baccalaureate. During those three years, I developed a strong interest in subjects related to international and European law, which is why I applied for a master's degree in civil liberties, specializing in international and European law, atUniversité Grenoble Alpes.  
Amaury: After graduating from high school in 2019, I immediately enrolled in law school and completed my first year in 2020. This year, I am in my second year, but I also have a full-time job that prevents me from attending classes in the traditional way. I have therefore chosen distance learning (EAD) to continue my studies in law.

Why did you decide to run for election to the Faculty Council (FC)?

Louison: This choice is not insignificant. During my law degree in Brest, I got involved in community work right from the first year with ACID Brest. It was a very enriching experience for me, allowing me to discover another side of university life. Over the course of those three years, I developed a real passion for helping students and defending their rights and interests. This motivated me to run for election to the Faculty Council of the University of Brest in my second year. After that experience, I decided to take a "break from associations." When I arrived in Grenoble in September, I felt the urge to get back involved in associations. I did so, initially, by joining AMEDIE (Association of Master's Students in International and European Law). Subsequently, Séverin CONSTANT-MARMILLON, current Vice-President of InterAsso Grenoble Alpes, invited me to join the "Bouge ton campus" list. This was an opportunity for me to rediscover and indulge a trait that is central to my personality: student representation.
Amaury: Having been elected to the university's Board of Directors at the end of last year, I had the opportunity to gain experience in student representation on the board. Although my term on the Board of Directors is very rewarding, the decisions made at this level are often far removed from the issues that directly affect students' lives. I therefore wanted to get involved within my faculty by running in these elections, so that I could contribute my experience to very concrete decisions such as the choice of exam methods, which is currently the main concern of students.

Why is the user council important within the CF?

Louison: From a personal point of view, I think the student council is important because, as students, we are in a position to address issues that directly affect us and to represent the voice of the student body. The Faculty Council deals with many aspects of study and operational procedures. We are, in a way, "actors in the field," and we can therefore convey the general feelings of students with a view to improving study conditions in particular. If an issue arises in our department, students are more likely to talk to us about it because of our proximity, so that we can represent their views at the Faculty Council, especially in light of the current health situation.
Amaury: Students sometimes feel that they are being kept out of the loop when it comes to decisions made by the faculty, and that their opinions are not being taken into account. Worse still, students sometimes feel that they are poorly informed about their studies and what they need to do to pass their semesters. With the Covid crisis, these feelings of lack of information and even abandonment have grown stronger among students and are becoming increasingly apparent. Professors and administrators, who have all the information and are aware of all the issues involved in the decisions to be made, are sometimes unaware of how students feel. The extremely important role of the user council is to make the board understand that students need better support, to explain the board's decisions to students, and to answer their questions.

What do you expect from your job?

Louison: I obviously hope to make an impact as a student member of the Faculty Council. I believe that our role is crucial in maintaining decent study conditions. But I don't think there will be any problems in this regard because, given the election results, we have a certain legitimacy to be present on the council. What's more, we attend every council meeting; we don't advocate absenteeism. This allows us, in a way, to be active participants in our department and to represent students as best we can. I am also committed to putting students back at the heart of their education, and this means giving them a voice and being as accessible as possible. Listening to students and their issues or requests will, I believe, be one of the most important functions I have to fulfill.
Amaury: I hope that at the end of our term, students will be able to say that they have felt a change in their relationship with the Faculty administration, and that they will have felt listened to and represented by professors and the Dean.

How would you like to share the students' views?

Louison: Our list has observed for some time now that students are losing interest in the "university machine" and finding it difficult to understand the issues addressed by the Faculty Council. That is why one of our priorities is to re-establish dialogue between students and their representatives. This will necessarily involve providing systematic feedback after each Faculty Council meeting. To this end, we have set up a dedicated page on social media, which can be found under the name "btcdroituga." Through this systematic feedback system, students will be able to learn about the issues and our positions on them in the most engaging way possible. We also want to allow students to express themselves freely by conducting surveys. Recently, we gathered feedback from many students at all levels to get their opinions on the first semester exams, which we will share with the other council members.  We also plan to create a dedicated email address to defend students' rights, whether to report difficulties or to communicate about students' rights and how to enforce them. In my opinion, students' voices are a priority, and we will do everything we can during this term to represent them in university bodies.
Amaury: If there is one positive aspect to the crisis we are currently experiencing, it is that it has fostered a genuine sense of solidarity among students. All in the same boat, they have come together to face the crisis as a group and avoid isolation. In some classes this year, the level of mutual support is such that you would think there were large tutorial groups of 200 people. Thanks to this solidarity, we are able to gather much better feedback than in a more "normal" situation, where students tend to keep their problems and questions to themselves. All of this facilitates the work of elected representatives in liaising between students and the administration. To help us, we have also recently posted an online survey on lockdown and related teaching adjustments, so that students can express themselves, voice their fears and misunderstandings, and we, as elected representatives, can summarize the results and report them to the Faculty Council.

Do you have any projects you would like to support?

Louison: We have collectively defined the areas to focus on and the commitments to be made. First of all, our primary focus will be to pay particular attention to the modernization and professionalization of our training programs. This will involve developing new teaching methods that may be geared towards the use of digital tools. Next, we need to prioritize language teaching in order to meet the demands of the professional world, as competitive exams increasingly require proficiency in two foreign languages. This year, it is impossible to study a second foreign language at the master's level; unfortunately, only legal English is taught. In my opinion, language teaching should be a priority.
The second focus will be on combating exclusion, obviously through better integration of the Valence site, which we also represent! In addition, we want to provide better support for students in difficulty. We believe that strengthening tutoring can be a solution that has proven itself in various faculties, so we want to reinforce it. We also have commitments that are close to our hearts, particularly with regard to selection for master's programs. Education is important, and we want to guarantee everyone the opportunity to pursue higher education, which is why we will be paying closer attention to selection for master's programs.
Some commitments are currently being upheld despite the health crisis. For example, in order to combat social isolation and precariousness, we have ensured that AGORAé remains open. In addition, we have set up social networks to be as transparent and accessible as possible. Our goal is to put students back at the heart of their education. You can find all of our priorities and commitments in our mission statement, which is available on all of our social media channels.
Amaury: For the moment, it is not really the time for major projects, as everything is made difficult by the impossibility of meeting in person and by the constant uncertainty surrounding the evolution of the crisis. Our priority is therefore to do everything we can to ensure that students can work as effectively as possible in these unusual circumstances, to guarantee the value of their degrees as best we can, and to prepare as quickly and effectively as possible for the return to face-to-face classes, which are essential for many students. Once the situation returns to normal, we want to develop all the processes involved in professionalization and the creation of professional networks because, for us, the priority is to guarantee access to employment for students graduating from our Faculty.