Each year, students choose an elected representative to sit on the dean's team. This year, Théo Lacoste, a 4th-year medical student on the ADV campus, has been chosen to represent you. Find out more about him and Ademmoos in this interview! Portrait.

Hello Théo, first of all, who are you? Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Théo Lacoste, and I'm a 4th-year medical student on the ADV campus. I'm also an elected member of the student council and president of Ademmoos (elected student representatives from all disciplines). I'm aiming to become a doctor, of course, but I don't necessarily have a specific specialty in mind, other than to specialize in something cross-disciplinary like emergency medicine. But I'm not closed-minded, I think you need to go through several training courses to be sure of your future!

You're chairman of Ademmoos: can you tell us about the association's role?

It should be remembered that our Faculty has several sites and several courses of study. The power to represent students on the various councils is therefore assured by elected student representatives. This work is very substantial. So in 2016 we decided to create this association to free up the elected students from the substantive work (particularly everything to do with communications, infographics, etc.) but also to develop projects with other student associations. The aim is really to bring together, federate and coordinate the associations and, through them, the students.

The association's membership is made up of students elected to the various representative councils, but we also have non-elected members. They often bring very interesting ideas and a different perspective to our monthly meetings.

Can you give us some examples of projects coordinated by Ademmoos and other associations?

Yes, for example MAP (Montpellier Artistic Project), an association focused on the arts. With them, we organized an Art-Therapy workshop for students, in the presence of a professional in the field, with the aim of combating the stress of studying. But the projects we coordinate can also take place outside our associations. I'm thinking in particular of the "Dry January" challenge (see instagram post below) that we ran in collaboration with the ICM recently, or the "Mois Sans Tabac".

 

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More than just President of Ademmoos, you are now Vice-Dean of Students. Can you tell us more about your role in this position?

I have 3 main missions: Firstly, an academic mission, which is very institutional. I'm in close contact with the dean's team, in particular Dean Isabelle Laffont, but also with the teaching and administrative teams, to represent the student voice. This involves taking part in meetings on a regular basis, as well as keeping abreast of what's going on at both student and faculty level. I'm a bit of a "shuttle", passing information up and down. I pass on this information to the student representatives, who then pass it on to the various departments, sites and classes.

The second mission focuses on the Ademmoos association. I have to give a "line of conduct" in terms of the policy of our mandate. I'll come back to this later, but the idea is to divide up the most important issues among the 40 students in the association: some will deal with reforms, others with welfare or coordination with other associations.

My third mission is really to be in direct contact with the students. I can be contacted for this purpose by the class reps, but that's not enough, as information can get lost. So I make a point of organizing as many face-to-face meetings as possible, with the different classes, to discuss, "take the temperature" and gather their needs and feelings directly from the students. This information is then useful to me as part of my first academic mission, in order to convey the students' wishes as accurately as possible.

What are the priorities of your mandate?

There are several priority areas. Firstly, a slightly more academic and administrative aspect, which mainly involves continuing the work of my predecessors: Salomé Duteurtre and Florian Mary. They both worked on what I call the "Pedagogical Alliance". In other words, the co-construction of our student life-course, with all our contacts: teachers, students and the Faculty's administrative body.

It may look simple from the outside, but it's actually quite complex, because you have to reconcile everyone's opinions; in the end, you manage to find agreements out of disagreements! And yet, it's all done with the goodwill of all concerned, in a spirit of mutual understanding. We have to work together, and look at the issues to be resolved through everyone's prism, so that the solutions we come up with are beneficial for everyone. This duty to live together is truly paramount, and we repeat it regularly to the whole team, most recently to the newly elected student members of the Board of Management and the Pedagogical Council.

Then there's the whole issue of student well-being. It's something quite new, something that wasn't talked about too much a few years ago, and which was brought to light by the health crisis. Today, more than ever, this subject has become our top priority.

But we can't act without knowing the extent of the problem! We therefore set ourselves the primary objective of gathering the opinions and experiences of students through surveys. As a result, we were able to collect over 1,000 responses to our first questionnaire on mental health, distributed over the winter - and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all those who took part! - . The results of this survey are currently being processed. In addition, a few weeks ago we began circulating a new survey on sexist and sexual violence to which students may be subjected at university, in the evenings or at their place of work/internship, in order to delimit the contours of the problem and thus envisage corrective action to limit incidents or even punish them where necessary.

In practical terms, are you taking steps to promote student well-being?

Yes, from a practical point of view, this year we set up a wellness center with two project managers who are medical students (Ulysse Godin and Maribelle Dossou-Yovo). Their mission is to organize awareness-raising events. For example, there was the conference on addictions with Pr Hélène Donnadieu-Rigole, the Month Without Tobacco, Dry January... In March, we'll be holding a conference on psycho-social risks and "workaholism". These events are very popular with students.

There are also other practical projects outside the "well-being" theme, such as the Forum du Futur Interne, which is piloted by former Vice-Dean Florian Mary, and aims to put 5th and 6th year students in touch with interns to share their experience.

What motivated you to take on this role of elected representative and Vice-Dean?

My motivation came from my previous commitments, both to Ademmoos and to ANEMF (Association Nationale des Etudiants en Médecine de France), because last year I was heavily involved in the issues surrounding the R2C (reform of the second cycle of medical studies) at national level. This made me want to get even more involved at local level, with the issues we encounter on a daily basis.

Of course, discussions with my predecessors also strongly influenced me. After that, it all came very naturally, with the desire to help the graduating classes guiding me in my choices. I wanted to look at my studies from a different angle.

After that, yes, it's very time-consuming. It's sometimes hard to juggle everything! So it's important to surround yourself with the right people and know how to delegate. In this respect, I'd particularly like to thank Florent Benoist, who is General VP of Ademmoos and representative on the Pedagogical Council, and who really helps me a lot and keeps me well organized.

How do you get elected Vice-Dean?

The Vice-Dean is proposed by the students elected to the Board of Management. He or she is often on the list of elected students. The Board then votes for or against the proposed student. This proposal is discussed in advance within Ademmoos. Once elected, the Vice-Dean is in place for 2 years, but we often resign after a year to devote ourselves to our studies.

Thank you very much for this exchange: do you have any final words?

Yes, about one of the priorities of my mandate, well-being. I'd like to get the following message across: it's okay not to feel well. Health students come from a highly selective system, where you always have to be the best. So, culturally, it's hard for us to say when things aren't going well, and we tend to keep our weaknesses to ourselves. But it's not abnormal to feel bad! There are a number of ways to help, which can be found on the Faculty website.. We need to break the silence on this taboo and take advantage of the devices developed jointly by students and faculty to feel better. Alone we go faster, but together we go further!