INTERVIEW | Discover the portrait of Gérald Chanques, Vice Dean for General Affairs, Heritage, and Campus Life!
Every five years, a new dean's team, composed of vice deans and project managers, is appointed by the Dean to represent him or her in specific areas. This year, Professor Gérald Chanques was appointed Vice Dean for General Affairs, Heritage, and Campus Life. Read his interview here to find out more about his career and the projects he hopes to implement as part of his role!
You were appointed by Dean Isabelle Laffont. Can you tell us about your background and your area of expertise?
I completed my high school diploma and my studies in Montpellier, so you could say that I am one-quarter Parisian and three-quarters Montpellier native. I loved my studies so much that it was difficult for me to choose a "specialty." I chose anesthesia and intensive care for several reasons, primarily because of the cross-disciplinary nature of the medical knowledge involved, but also because of the human and material resources available to our teams to provide safe care, including pain management and treatment of the most critical situations.
How do you plan to balance your duties as vice dean with your other professional obligations?
This is a project that has been developed within my hospital department with my colleagues and my head of department, who has always supported and encouraged me in my professional career. My involvement in the faculty has grown gradually since my appointment eight years ago. I continue to work clinically, which constantly enriches my teaching and research. Conversely, my understanding of academic institutions shapes all my duties as a university hospital professor. The faculty and its unique history, as well as the university (I am an elected member of the training and university life committee and the academic council's disciplinary sections), make me reflect on all aspects of my work, from healthcare to teaching and innovation. The societal change that is taking place in our relationships with others (the fight against inequality, sexual and sexist violence, etc.) is a major and long-awaited turning point for our institutions.
What will your contributions and objectives be? What projects do you want to carry out in your role?
I gradually discovered the importance of teaching and passing on knowledge to younger generations, as well as the importance of having a faculty spread across several campuses (Nîmes and Montpellier, modernity and heritage) and a university spirit with a capital U that is meaningful to our patients, our students, and society. The faculty has an urban history. It is at the interface with the general public.
Today, our faculty faces multiple challenges in terms of the organization of the institution, its campuses, and the promotion of its heritage: the university community (students, faculty, and administrators) must embrace this past and future history by sharing it with others, our colleagues in other parts of the university, our healthcare colleagues, and the general public. Among the general public are potential patients. The image we project of the faculty through our history and heritage must be in line with today's requirements, innovation, excellence in care, but also consideration for precariousness and access to care. This is what makes our faculty what it is, and we cannot rest easy if we do not strive to address all these issues. The unity of the management team around our dean will be the strength of the institution, involving all its teachers and administrators, those from previous teams, and those preparing future generations.
What motivated you to accept this appointment?
My desire to help with a deanery project focused on community and kindness, listening, with ambitious goals for the institution. I was very grateful for this appointment because it allows me to continue the work I have been doing for several years with Dean Mondain and Vice Dean Lavabre-Bertrand on complex projects (preparation of regional state plan contracts for long-term work on the historic building, studies for the learning center, liaison with the general affairs departments of the Faculty and the University for the development of a large number of projects involving institutions, local authorities, and businesses in the context of the 800th anniversary, etc.).
