what are the concerns of the students in Avignon?
End of vacation for students. The first pre-school take place this Wednesday morning in Avignon (Vaucluse). An important moment: both first meeting with classmates and teachers, and information meeting for detail the sanitary protocol, highly anticipated. The goal is a recovery as normal as possible.
Return to 100% face-to-face
Everyone in class! The government wants a 100% face-to-face return. It is the return of armored amphitheatres, at least at the beginning of the year. Wearing a mask is compulsory, but no sanitary step. The authorities trust the students, because more than 80% of them are already vaccinated at less than one dose. To convince the remaining 20%, an ephemeral vaccination center is set up this Wednesday morning on the Hannah Arendt campus. It can accommodate up to 300 people per day throughout the month of September from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
In case of contamination, each positive student will be placed in isolation for 10 days. It is considered that there is an outbreak of contamination from three cases in 7 days in the same “geographical unit”. This unit is determined jointly by the regional health agency, the prefecture, the rectorate and the establishment so that the decision can be adapted to each situation. At that time, a mobile laboratory is set up in less than 8 hours for massive screening.
Back to “normal” life?
No more hours spent alone, confined to their rooms with distance learning courses for students. There are many who have endured loneliness during confinement. However, Léa Granier, president of Inter’Asso, the federation of student associations in Avignon, fears the opposite effect at the start of the school year: “We see people all day long, there are student parties, etc. It can quickly become a source of pressure for students who come back to this life and who are not used to it”.
This is also what Inès fears. She is entering her second year at the Institute of Nursing. “I’m a little apprehensive, because in the end, we didn’t have time to get to know each other well. Is there going to be a bond of solidarity or will this first year make us feel better? separate that other chosen? “
Dorian, in third year of STAPS, experienced college with and without Covid-19. For him, the spirit of cohesion will take over. “If it’s 100% face-to-face, I’m confident. Being all together, in a lecture hall, it’s going to happen naturally and so much the better, because we need it.” To respond to student concerns, the University of Avignon is renewing the free hotlines of its psychologists on campuses.
The housing galley
One of the biggest problems for young people in Avignon is finding accommodation. Particularly because some owners have the habit of firing their tenants in the summer to be able to rent their apartments to the festival audience d’Avignon for a larger sum. François Rose has several properties in the city of the Popes and refuses this practice:
Avignon is the 26th city where student life is the most expensive (+1 place this year). Students will pay 2,078 euros “just for the month of September”, estimates an Inter’Asso survey.