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The Dartmouth
July 10, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Protests in France affect students on LSA programs

Ongoing higher education strikes in France have affected students participating in Language Study Abroad programs.
Ongoing higher education strikes in France have affected students participating in Language Study Abroad programs.

French students and university staff have been demonstrating against French President Nicolas Sarkozy's higher education reforms since early February. The proposed reforms include cutting 200 jobs and changing professors' professional status to allow university presidents to decide how much time faculty spend teaching or conducting research, and whether to promote them, The Guardian reported.

Students on the LSA+ to Toulouse, the program in which Mayer participated, had to attend class in a hotel where one of the professors worked because of the strike. Jana Landon '11, another student in the program, said the French students had deliberately scheduled the strikes during final exams.

"We were told that the students at our university striked for the simple fact that they didn't care about school and didn't want to have to take exams or start a new semester," she said. "We went to a university where students would destroy computers and break windows and didn't care much about school. My host parents said they don't care as much about school because they don't pay for university education like we do in the States."

Two general worker strikes in January also affected the students in Toulouse, as large demonstrations disrupted transportation in the city, students said. These strikes have since ended.

Participants currently on the French LSA in Lyon told The Dartmouth that their classes have not been greatly affected by the strike because the program is separate from the Lumiere University Lyon 2, part of the University of Lyon system.

"On Thursday, however, the administration decided to shut down the entire school for two days, since I guess the protest was getting a little out of control, and vacation was due to start on Saturday anyways," Alex Robinson '11 said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "For those two days, my classes were canceled and no one was granted entrance onto university grounds."

The protestors held rallies and gave speeches in the university's courtyard, just outside of the Dartmouth students' classroom. They also created a blockade around the buildings and asked foreign students for identification before letting them in, Robinson said.

The Paris Foreign Study Program has not been as affected by the nationwide higher education strike, French professor David LaGuardia, who is leading the program this term, said. Parisian students and professors have been marching in a circle 24 hours a day, seven days a week as a form of protest, The Guardian reported on April 7. Dartmouth's program is isolated from the strike because it is not affiliated with a government university, LaGuardia said.

"Strikes are so common in Paris that one pays attention to them only if one happens to get caught in the middle of one," LaGuardia said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "I haven't noticed any strikes at all at Reid Hall, where we have our classes, but this is because this is a private institution that has nothing whatsoever to do with the French government."

Dartmouth programs should be less affected by the protests than programs run by other institutions, Lynn Higgins, chair of the French and Italian department, said. Dartmouth's classes are held at French universities, but students should be able to enter buildings, Higgins said. Alternate arrangements are made if the entrances are blocked in a protest, Higgins said.

"We do have contingency plans for all kinds of unexpected situations," she said. "In addition, the strikes have provided opportunities for public and private discussions of educational policy and other social issues. Discussing current events is always a part of our program curriculum, and students get a lot out of talking about current topics with their host families, the French faculty and others."

Some Dartmouth courses on these programs are taught by professors at the host French university. Although some of these professors are on strike, they still hold class for Dartmouth students because their College contracts are separate from their government employment, Higgins said.

Students at Brown University and Princeton University who are studying in France through their respective institutions have had many of their classes canceled and may not have enough hours to receive academic credit, according to The Brown Daily Herald and The Daily Princetonian. Brown has hired additional instructors in France to allow their students to make up the coursework.

Several Dartmouth students said they believe the strikes enhanced their study abroad experience.

"I think in my experience, it was interesting to learn how much different the university system is in France, particularly the student-teacher relationship," Matthew Kelly '11, who was on the Toulouse LSA+ last term, said. "Whenever the professors are not getting fair treatment as far as wages and such, the students take up the responsibility of protesting for them by physically blockading the campus. There is a great sense of community in the major cities when a group goes on strike, how others rally around them and show their support as well."