AMU INFO - N°26

Marseille, Wednesday 01 September 2021

Dear colleagues,
Dear students,

After a well-deserved summer break for all of you, it is with great pleasure that I meet you again at the beginning of the 2021 academic year. It is at last the sign of the return to the classroom.

The resumption of teaching on our campuses will take place throughout the month of September, depending on the course. The resumption of administrative activities will be organized at the office with the application of teleworking modalities for those who wish it. Finally, the organisation of scientific, festive, sporting and cultural events will mark the return to the sharing and conviviality so long awaited on our sites.

However, we are still in a health crisis. Barrier measures are still necessary and we will have to respect new national instructions during gatherings. In order to continue the fight against COViD-19 and to live as well as possible with the constraints it imposes on us, we will very soon be organizing new vaccination campaigns, in conjunction with the ARS and the local authorities. It is a question of preserving our year and guaranteeing a good life together, serene and united.

I wish you all an excellent return to school.

1. A back-to-school experience for all

For all courses, the return of students to the lecture halls and classrooms will take place in person, in the full capacity of the rooms, without gauges or sanitary passes, with the wearing of masks obligatory. In the same way, access to the university libraries is free with the total capacity of the buildings, without gauge or particular social distancing, but with compulsory wearing of the mask. For all, meetings are authorized in ventilated rooms only (natural ventilation or VMC), with a distance of two meters between each person. Wearing a mask is mandatory.

For the staff, the resumption of activities is organized at the office according to the usual rhythms, or according to the modalities of teleworking validated within the services and directions. You have access to all the health instructions: link available here. I would be grateful if you would read them carefully and ensure that they are applied, for the good of all. In the near future, we will again offer easy access to vaccination on campus, as we did successfully last May and June. If 75% of the students on the site are now vaccinated, we must continue this action, which is the only way to live together serenely.

On Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 September, a vaccination stand will be present on the Schuman campus (Aix-en-Provence), at the Cube. We will soon inform you of the dates planned for the same week on the Marseille campuses, notably Luminy and Saint Jérôme.

In Marseille, access to vaccination is always easy for all students: the municipal vaccinodrome is now located at the Parc Chanot.

2. Resumption of events: participation under condition

The events schedule for the semester is very rich, festive and unifying. Scientific symposiums and festivals, sports and cultural events, associations, friendly meetings... Each week, several events will be offered to colleagues, students or the general public. The "socially committed" dimension of our university is also reflected in these exchanges, which I hope you will attend in large numbers. In this context, new health rules will allow us to meet. The MESRI circular of 5 August 2021 does not require a health pass for our priority teaching and research missions. On the other hand, a sanitary pass will be required for any event welcoming the public outside the AMU community (i.e. excluding staff and students) and for any event welcoming more than 50 people.

As a reminder, the health pass is the proof of a complete vaccination cycle dating back more than 7 days, or a negative test dating back less than 72 hours (PCR, antigenic test or self-test performed under the supervision of a health professional), or a positive PCR or antigenic test dating back at least 11 days and less than 6 months, thus attesting to the recovery of the COVID-19. I encourage you to read carefully These instructions.

Our first festive meeting between colleagues is next week. I am expecting you on Monday, September 6, starting at 7:00 p.m., at the Palais du Pharo, for a joyful, surprising and musical reunion. Registration is still open.Please note that you will be asked to show your health pass.

Of course, we are thinking about students: many parties and events are scheduled for you in the coming weeks: FestivAMU, the TITE sports challenge, the cultural events... follow our news online and on the networks of the university and your component.

3. Ethical rules within our university

Like our partner the CNRS, we expect our community to respect the rules of ethics for research jobs. We share the recommendation published by the CNRS Ethics Committee:

"By expressing themselves in the public space, researchers engage their responsibility as scientists. If he or she makes or is made aware of his or her status, the researcher who intervenes in the public arena must specify in what capacity he or she is speaking: as a specialist providing his or her expertise on the subject under discussion, as a representative of the research organization or an institution, or as a committed citizen or even as an activist. The researcher must distinguish between what is validated by scientific methods and what is based on working hypotheses or is the subject of debate. It is also important to point out the margins of uncertainty in the results of the research.

Similarly, teachers and teacher-researchers, in the context of their teaching and work, enjoy academic freedom concerning the training they provide. However, they may in no case infringe the rules of democratic life or those of secular and republican society.

4. Welcome of a new Deputy Director General of Services

Mr Damien Vogel has taken up his duties as deputy to Mrs Laurence Corvellec, alongside Mr Jean-Philippe Potier. His professional career has been dedicated to research partnerships and project management, within ESRI, for the CNRS and then for the ENS and PSL. We warmly welcome him and wish him every success in his new position with us.

Dear all, I thank you for the particular attention you will pay to these conditions of re-entry. I wish you an excellent start and a great academic year, together.

Éric Berton

President of Aix-Marseille Université