About 500 of them wanted to make a difference, to debate, to propose concrete solutions to get out of this situation. But after a debate that won’t revolutionize anything, the strike and the civic movement are being extended until the next General Assembly. With 275 votes in favor and 27 against, democracy has spoken.
But what has it spoken about? To be frank, not much. Mainly about exams. At a time of mobilization and with the upcoming student coordination in Nice next weekend, the students seem more concerned with their own fate than with organizing such an event. About 200 people from all over France will come to Nice to establish a joint project against the “privatization of universities.”
This is an alarming observation for those nostalgic for large mobilizations. Gone are the days when General Assemblies resembled a battlefield where anti-government slogans were chanted in unison. Today, it’s a new form of expression exhibited by these students. They say they are mobilized to “dismantle the Pécresse law” but not at the expense of their studies. The meeting took place in a strange calm, without shouts, punctuated by a few scattered applause. It’s a new form of demonstration emerging, with students who still believe in their cause but no longer inject the same passion into their debates as they did at the beginning.
Violence here is forbidden; democracy must triumph over savagery. The few dissenters who still have questions about the future of their exams are reassured. The professors support them. They even tasked Mr. Schadron, a history professor, to allay their fears. He clearly explains that they “support a public university that guarantees freedoms and opportunities,” and regarding the exams, there is a sense of relief when he states that “students will not be penalized during exams.” Relieved of a burden, they can continue their playful “mobilization.”
The highlight is that they don’t lack imagination. They created a university Monopoly game and replaced the spaces with the names of major universities, writing the cost of their future education on them. But as Sophie, a first-year master’s student in history, says, “if we want to win this battle, we need to take the offensive, be effective in our actions, but not resort to violence, not play into the government’s hands.” This is what a demonstration looks like these days, a civic occupation without blockades or violence. Times change, and so do the ways of expressing discontent.
