Minutes from the Extraordinary General Meeting
Tuesday, 14th of November 2017, Campus Belval, MSA, 3. 110
Present: R. Bisdorff, A. Cosma, I. Corbisier, A. Fickers, J. Gerkrath, R. Harmsen, W. Haslehner, L. Heuschling, S. Mauw, S. Menétrey, E. Neframi, A. Pantazatou, E. Poillot, I. Riassetto, M. Theobald, G. Tripathi, G. Steffgen, L. Van der Torre, J. Van der Walt
Excused:, J. –L. Bueb, M. Cole, M. Hesse, H. Hofmann, D. Hiez, K. Ligeti, B. Mantin L. Ratti, F. Teferle, J. Van Bommel, D. Zetzsche, E. Weydert
The EGM starts at 17:15
Agenda
New APUL Executive Officers introduce themselves.
1) Draft law on the University:
The meeting starts with a discussion on the action to be taken regarding the draft law. As the Conseil d’Etat is said to deliver its position on the law in the forthcoming weeks, an urgent move is required. Several proposals are made: an APUL position paper, a full support to Luc Heuschling’s report on the law (see here), a commentary of the law with specific suggestions of amendments. Given the emergency context and the fact that a quick reaction to the law is required, the decision is taken to opt for a short position paper that will be presented as a press release focusing on issues regarded as particularly problematic.
After a discussion, it is decided to focus on the four following points:
- the emphasis made by the law as to the role of the governing board which is considered as unappropriate,
- the role of the Conseil Universitaire which will be transformed by the law into a mere advisory body while there is a need for a democratic decision-making body as it was demonstrated by the crisis through which the University went this year,
- the direct appointment of Faculty Deans by the Rector combined with the deletion of Faculty Councils,
- the presence in article 37 of the law of several provisions that can be considered as hampering student’s rights.
The position paper should also raise awareness to the public debate that the draft law was drafted before the ‘University crisis’ which was attributable to the rectorate from the crisis and that the draft still relies on the necessity to give more control and powers to the rector. The position paper should also be a first step allowing to reach politicians who can have an influence on the legislative process.
The position paper draft will be circulated in order to allow APUL members to do comments (with a strict deadline for formulating them due to the emergency context).
2) New appointed rector:
In view of the arrival of the new appointed rector, E. Poillot suggests to collect opinions from colleagues regarding issues on which APUL should draw the attention of the incoming rectorin order to draft a “welcome letter”. J. Van der Walt suggests that, as it was done when the previous rector was appointed, a special meeting could be organized giving the possibility to Stéphane Pallage to introduce himself to APUL members and to have his reaction on the welcome letter. This suggestion is approved.