Students finish semester after Paris protests

Author: Amy McCowan

School is back in session for the students at the C.V. Starr Middlebury Schools in Paris after three to six weeks of student protests against France's new First Employment Contract (CPE) disrupted classes at the Paris 1, Paris 3, Paris 4 and Poitiers campuses.

On April 10, French student and labor union protests forced the French government to scrap the CPE, which would have made it easier for employers to hire and fire staff under age 26.

During the strikes, the Middlebury Center in Paris stepped into the academic vacuum created by the seemingly interminable strikes, offering a number of substitute courses for the 37 Middlebury students studying in Paris this semester.

Michael Geisler, dean of language schools and schools abroad, said, "It was a difficult decision to make at the time, since substituting a number of courses for our students was quite a drain on our budget this year. But as the strike continued for weeks without an end in sight, we felt that the Middlebury students needed to be able to complete their studies, no matter what the institutions in France might decide to do in the end."

As implementing a "one-size-fits-all emergency procedure" for the schools in politically volatile countries is impossible, the directors abroad discussed past emergency responses in their biannual meetings. A previous European strike modeled the various roadblocks to students finishing their semesters as planned.

"The last time there was a strike in Europe, it ended with the semester simply running over at the end until the time lost during the strike period had been more or less recovered. Our students don't always have the luxury of time to sit this out. It was with that prior experience in mind that we decided to minimize the risk to our students - at least those who studied in Paris - by substituting alternative courses," said Geisler.

Director of the School in France David Paoli was Middlebury's on-site connection as he collaborated with Geisler, Director of Off Campus Studies David Macey and other C.V. Starr Middlebury School Directors who have dealt with strikes in the past.

With protest duration and disturbance level varying at each campus, the Middlebury Center had to adapt to diverse student needs - the Institut Catholique and Sciences Po did not cancel classes, some students at Poitiers transferred to the Center for the Teaching of French as a Foreign Language to complete their course work and many Paris 3 students continued to study with Middlebury's hired substitute professors rather than risk the uncertain state of their universities' school calendar.

May Chan '07 who attends Paris 3 and missed six weeks of classes, complimented the Middlebury Center for providing the alternative courses. She is one of the few Middlebury students returning to Paris 3.

"I decided to return to Paris 3, although Middlebury advised us to stay for it would be easier, and there would inevitably be make-up courses at the other universities if I returned. However, during the strikes, I was really starting to miss the cultural immersion in the educational institutions here in Paris," said Chan.

Naomi Haefner '07, who missed three weeks of Sorbonne classes, said the normal post-protest atmosphere makes it seem like the strikes never took place.

"There was a little bit of general uncertainty right after everything happened, mostly because everyone was unsure about how to resolve the issue of making up classes and taking exams, but now that everything is settled in that department people don't seem to be bothered by the protest-aftermath anymore," said Haefner.

While the strikes offered her an additional opportunity to explore Paris, Haefner said that the protests largely detracted from her abroad experience: "All in all I think that it would have been a more well-rounded experience if I had been able to go to school consistently the entire time because there were times throughout the strikes where I found myself wondering what I was even really doing here."

Chan added, "The first few weeks were really kind of exciting and fascinating; the whole of Paris was so charged and it was really kind of unreal, realizing that we were witnessing social upheaval right here during our study abroad experience. On the other hand, as time passed, I really felt as if it was almost taking away from my experience if the manifestations had not stopped when they did. I never thought I'd say this, but it's great to be back in classes."

With the protests quieted and classes regrouping, what Chan said summed up the current situation experienced by Middlebury students studying in France - "Final exams are next week, summer is right around the corner, and most importantly, the students have their victory: the CPE no longer exists."