Tag archive for: vice dean
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 tasks. This year, Professor Arnaud Bourdin was appointed Vice-Dean in charge of relations with the Clinical Research and Innovation Delegations (DRCI) of the Montpellier and Nîmes University Hospitals. Read his interview here to find out more about his career and the projects he hopes to implement as part of his mission!
You were appointed by Dean Isabelle Laffont. Can you tell us about your background and your area of expertise?
Pulmonology is an extremely broad discipline, covering fields as diverse as vascular medicine, inflammation, oncology, allergy, immunology, aerology, and more traditionally, environmental science, infectious diseases, intensive care, addiction medicine, and a good deal of technical expertise. It inspires culture, knowledge, and open-mindedness. It is by far the organ most in contact with the environment. It is a difficult organ to explore. You have to be in touch with it, with a desire to understand, reason, and generate evidence in order to grasp this multiplicity of themes. It is also a discipline that inspires humility, with all that this entails in terms of responsibility and ethics in order to progress.
How do you plan to balance your duties as vice dean with your other professional obligations?
As President of the DRCI and the CRBSP, I have been committed for many years to instilling a scientific culture in our faculty. Knowledge is often there, within reach, and not all issues can be resolved by recipes that are impossible to teach. The issue is therefore not one of reconciling activities, but of promoting this vision as much as possible in all the activities of the Faculty of Medicine.
What will your contributions and objectives be? What projects do you want to carry out in your role?
The first objective is, of course, educational: research is omnipresent in health curricula, from the validation of knowledge to the awarding of various degrees to the missions of teacher-researchers. Charters of responsibility, ethics, and respect for patients are deeply rooted in the human and social teachings of the past, and the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty has a duty to be a pioneer in this field. The second is to instill a culture of research in the Faculty, through its commitments, but also through its human and intellectual heritage. In conjunction with the scientific council, the orientation of major structural projects, the identification of needs, and the analysis of successes as well as failures must help us to progress collectively.
What motivated you to accept this appointment?
Training through research, a taste for progress, a rejection of mediocrity and the "idiopathic," and a desire to always provide better care and support, which requires rigorous and ambitious educational and scientific policies, are the drivers of motivation. Today, this is an urgent challenge for our Faculty and, more broadly, for our university hospitals, to ensure not only their legitimacy and sustainability, but also, and above all, their excellence.
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 tasks. Each year, a student Vice Dean is appointed by their peers elected to the Management Council to represent them on the Dean's team. Following Florian Mary and Théo Lacoste, Paul-Arthur Valet is now taking on the role of Student Vice Dean and President of Ademmoos. Read his interview here to find out more about his background and the projects he hopes to implement as part of his role!
Hello Paul-Arthur, for those who don't know you, could you introduce yourself?
Hello, my name is Paul-Arthur VALET, I am 21 years old and I am in my fourth year of medical school in Nîmes. This is the first time that the vice-dean has come from the Nîmes campus. I am also an elected student representative on the management board and president of ADEMMOOS (the association of elected student representatives from all disciplines). Although my future specialty is changing from internship to internship, I have my heart set on becoming a surgeon.
You were chosen from among ADEMMOOS members to be Vice-Dean of Students, succeeding Théo Lacoste. How did this transition go?
The handover went well, but the start of the term was a little unusual, particularly given the national situation. We had to organize a mobilization, in consultation with the SILR, ACM, and CCC, whom I would like to thank for their help. The mobilization brought together 400 students, which is historic for Montpellier-Nîmes. This was followed by the release of our VSS and student mental health surveys, which is the starting point for a paradigm shift that we are beginning to see.
What made you want to take on this role?
Since my second year, I have been a member of ADEMMOOS, first as VP Communications, then as treasurer, and finally as president/VDE. I have always had a strong interest in representation, being in direct contact with students, and being able to help them. In addition, working with the dean's team is very rewarding, especially within a caring and attentive team.
How will you balance your duties as vice dean with your obligations as a student?
It is, let's say, relatively complex, but I knew that when I accepted these responsibilities. It requires a high level of organization, but these positions (president and VDE
) are incredibly rewarding. To successfully balance everything, it is essential to delegate, and I would like to thank the association's board, particularly the vice president, Soukaina Mouh Mouh, who was elected to the educational council and does such important work behind the scenes.
What are your goals and priorities for this term? Do you want to continue the student "Well-Being" project initiated by your predecessor?
Regarding the "Well-Being" project, we have two vice-presidents in the office, Emma PETON & Florent BENOIST, whom I have every confidence in to fulfill the mission entrusted to them
. They have already organized stands for No Smoking Month and Solidarity Christmas, which aims to bring together students from the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine who wish to get together for a Christmas meal.
I also strongly believe in inter-association work. Student associations bring life to our campus and play a structural role on both of our faculty's sites. On a personal level, my priority is to combat sexual violence and allow victims to speak out.
What actions would you like to implement for students?
In addition to continuing existing projects such as publishing back-to-school guides and the Internal Future Forum, I would like to relaunch certain projects that had to be put on hold due to COVID-
, such as the cafés reprez’, which were opportunities to talk with ANEMF administrators and your local representatives.
Overall, I believe that national representation is just as important as local representation, which is why we have two members dedicated to this task: Zoé DOLADILLE (ADEMMOOS) and Rémi BOUCHARD (ADEMMOOS) for Montpellier. Overall, I believe that national representation is just as fundamental as local representation, which is why we have two members assigned to this task: Zoé DOLADILLE (ADEMMOOS) and Rémi BOURGAUX (ACM) for Montpellier, and Manon VALETTE (ADEMMOOS) and Elise DE LOTH (CCC) for Nîmes.
Any final thoughts?
The issue that is particularly close to my heart is gender-based and sexual violence (GSV). What I want is for people to speak freely, in order to break the code of silence that
prevents victims from speaking out.
Thanks to our investigations and the responses from faculty members, people are starting to speak out. It is up to us not to betray the courage that victims have shown in speaking out.
“The shame must shift to the other side.”
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.).
Each year, students elect a representative to represent them at the dean's office level. This year, Théo Lacoste, a fourth-year medical student at the ADV campus, was chosen to represent you. Learn more about him and Ademmoos' activities in this interview! Portrait.
Hello Theo, first of all, who are you? Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Théo Lacoste, and I am a fourth-year medical student at the ADV campus. I am also an elected student representative on the academic council and president of Ademmoos (elected students from all disciplines). I am aiming to become a doctor, of course, but I don't necessarily have a specific specialty in mind, other than specializing in something cross-disciplinary like emergency medicine. But I'm open to other possibilities. I think it's important to do several internships in different fields to be sure about your future!
You are president of Ademmoos: can you remind us what this association does?
It should be noted that our faculty has several campuses and several programs. Student representation on the various councils is therefore ensured by elected student representatives. This is a very significant undertaking. In 2016, we therefore decided to create this association to free elected students from the groundwork (particularly everything related to communication, infographics, etc.) but also to develop projects with other student associations. The aim is really to bring together, unite, and coordinate associations and, through them, students.
The members of the association are students elected to various representative councils, but we also have non-elected members. They often contribute very interesting insights from a different perspective at our monthly meetings.
Can you give us some examples of projects coordinated by Ademmoos and other associations?
Yes, for example MAP (Montpellier Artistic Project), which is an association focused on the arts. We organized an art therapy workshop with them, led by a professional, for students, with the aim of combating stress related to their studies. But the projects we lead/coordinate can also be carried out outside of our associations. I am thinking in particular of the "Dry January" challenge (see Instagram post below) that we recently ran in collaboration with the ICM, or the "Tobacco-Free Month."
See this post on Instagram
In addition to being the president of Ademmoos, you are now Vice Dean of Students. Can you tell us more about your role in this position?
I have three main responsibilities: First, an academic responsibility, which is very institutional. I work closely with the dean's team, particularly Dean Isabelle Laffont, but also with the teaching and administrative teams to represent the students' views. This involves regularly attending meetings, but also listening to what is happening both at the student level and at the faculty level. I act as a kind of "shuttle" to pass information up and down the chain of command. I pass this information on to the student representatives, who then disseminate it to the various departments, sites, and classes.
The second mission focuses on the Ademmoos association. I have to provide "guidance" on the policy for our term of office. I will come back to this later, but the idea is to divide up the 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 representatives, but that's not enough, as information can get lost. So, I make it a point of honor to organize as many face-to-face meetings as possible with the different classes to discuss, "take the temperature," and gather information directly from the students about their needs and feelings. This information is then useful to me in my first academic mission, in order to convey the students' wishes as accurately as possible.
What are the priorities of your term of office?
There are several priority areas. First, there is 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 "Educational Alliance." That is to say, the co-construction of our student life journey, with all stakeholders: teachers, students, and the faculty's administrative staff.
It seems simple from the outside, but it is actually quite complex, because we have to reconcile everyone's opinions and ultimately succeed in finding agreements based on our disagreements! However, this is done with everyone's goodwill and mutual understanding. We must work together and look at the issues to be resolved through each person's perspective, so that the solutions adopted are beneficial to everyone. This duty to live together is truly essential, and we regularly remind the whole team of this, most recently to the newly elected student representatives on the management and teaching councils.
Then there are all the considerations surrounding student well-being. This is something that is fairly new, which wasn't talked about much a few years ago and which has been brought to light by the health crisis. Today more than ever, this issue has become our top priority.
But we can't take action without knowing the extent of the problem! So we set ourselves the initial goal of gathering students' opinions and experiences through surveys. We collected more than 1,000 responses to our first questionnaire on mental health, which was distributed during the winter— I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who responded! The results of this survey are currently being processed. In addition, a few weeks ago we began distributing a new survey on gender-based and sexual violence that students may experience at the university, in the evening, or at their workplace/internship in order to define the scope of the problem and thus identify corrective actions to limit incidents or even punish them if necessary.
In practice, do you implement measures to promote student well-being?
Yes, from a practical point of view, this year we created 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 a conference on addiction with Professor Hélène Donnadieu-Rigole, Tobacco-Free Month, Dry January, etc. In March, we will have a conference on psychosocial risks and workaholism. These events are quite popular with students.
There are also other practical projects outside the theme of "well-being," such as the Internal Future Forum, which is led by former Vice Dean Florian Mary and aims to connect fifth- and sixth-year students with interns so they can share their experiences.
What motivated you to take on this elected role as Vice Dean?
My motivation came from my previous commitments, both at Ademmoos and at ANEMF (Association Nationale des Etudiants en Médecine de France), because last year I was very involved in issues surrounding R2C (reform of the second cycle of medical studies) at the national level. This made me want to get even more involved at the local level, on issues that we encounter on a daily basis.
Of course, discussions with my predecessors also had a strong influence on me. Everything then fell into place very naturally, with the desire to help future students guiding my choices. I wanted to see my studies from a different perspective.
Afterwards, yes, it's very time-consuming. It can sometimes be a bit difficult to juggle everything! So it's important to surround yourself with the right people and know how to delegate. In this regard, I would particularly like to thank Florent Benoist, who is General VP of Ademmoos and representative on the Educational Council. He helps me a lot and enables me to organize myself effectively.
How is one elected Vice Dean?
The Vice Dean is nominated by the student representatives on the Management Board. He or she is often included on the list of elected students. The Council then votes for or against the proposed student. This proposal is discussed internally within Ademmoos beforehand. Once elected, the Vice Dean serves for two years, but we often resign after one year in order to focus on our studies.
Thank you very much for this conversation: do you have any final words?
Yes, regarding one of the priorities of my term, well-being. I would like to convey the following message: it's okay not to be okay. Health students come from a highly selective system where you always have to be the best. Culturally, it's difficult for us to say when we're not doing well; we tend to hide our weaknesses. However, it's not abnormal to feel bad! There are support services available on the Faculty's website. We need to break the silence surrounding this taboo and take advantage of the resources developed jointly by students and the faculty to feel better. Alone, we go faster, but together, we go further!
Each year, a new Vice Dean is elected by the students to represent them before the Dean and in the various faculty bodies (management council, teaching council, etc.). This year, Florian is succeeding Salomé. Read his interview here to find out more about him, his role in supporting students, and the projects he hopes to implement throughout this academic year. Let's meet him.
Hello Florian! You were recently elected Vice Dean of Students at the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine. Can you tell us more about yourself?
Hello! My name is Florian Mary, I am currently in my fourth year of medical school in Montpellier, and I am originally from Perpignan (Go USAP! 🟡🔴).
In short, you know, I don't think there are good or bad situations, but I think that, like many people, I haven't yet decided on my future situation. I have several ideas for specializations in mind, including general medicine.
You are now Vice Dean for Student Affairs: what does your role involve?
It is important to note that the VDE is first and foremost an elected student representative, and like any elected representative, my term of office will last for two years.
Our shared task is therefore to represent students before the faculty's educational and administrative bodies (the UFR, to be precise), whether during council meetings or committee meetings.
Nevertheless, for one year, I will be in charge of specific VDE tasks, which include acting as the main point of contact for the Dean and faculty representatives for all student-related issues, and managing the team of elected representatives and ADEMMOOS in order to be as effective as possible in handling various issues and developing the association.
Furthermore, communication with other associations and departments within the faculty is essential, whether in relation to project ideas, student representation, or the facilitation of certain exchanges. I believe that these connections offer us new perspectives for reflection and allow us to lift each other up.
What motivated you to take on this role? Was it something you wanted to commit to from the start of your studies?
Before my term as an elected representative and VDE, I had already spent two years immersed in the world of associations, first as a tutor, then as VP Representation at the Montpellier Medical Student Union, driven by a desire to be there to help students.
And I must say that the experience and encounters I had during this year at ACM, whether it was with everyone in my student body, the "old" VP Reprez and Salomé of course, played a big part in that.
I was curious and found that this position was a great opportunity to continue investing in students and faculty life.
How do you juggle your duties as Vice Dean with your obligations as a student?
So it requires a certain amount of organization, and last year was particularly helpful in that regard, especially because I combined very intensive work with associations and university studies.
But I reserve my association slots at lunchtime so that I can generally keep my working hours in the evening.
What are your goals for this term? What projects do you want to carry out?
So the primary objective is to continue the projects of previous administrations, whether it be flu vaccinations, the Intern Futures Forum, etc.
This year, we have a clever mix of experience and new ideas, and this is evident in the projects.
We want to boost communication in the same vein as last year, particularly with ADEMMOOS' Instagram account (👉 go follow if you haven't already), but also by remaining active on other networks.
Reforms are, of course, at the heart of our mandates, and well-being and sustainable development are also areas in which ideas are born.
What are the most common requests from students?
Generally, it means installing a beer tap in the coffee shop.
More seriously, these are mainly questions about the organization of our studies and proposals for changes that require discussion with the school administration and teachers.
Elected representatives act as a conduit for students, ensuring their voices are heard, and this is reflected in many of the messages.
The health situation is having a major impact on students' lives right now. Do you have a message you would like to share at this time?
I think that with the times we are going through, it is important to take care of ourselves and others.
Reach out to your family and friends, exchange ideas, discuss, talk with them, but don't stay alone, and if necessary, you can turn to us, there will always be someone to respond.
And take the opportunity to watch some movie classics—no more excuses for missing out on The Green Mile or Forrest Gump.
If students have questions for you or want to bring something up with the management board, how can they contact you?
It's very simple: via ADEMMOOS' Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, or by email 📩 for purists at ademmos.elus.etudiants@gmail.com.
Or they can also come and talk to us—we're all very friendly and we don't bite!
One last question: what advice would you give to students who want to become Vice Dean? How can they achieve this, and what qualities do you think are essential for this role?
So, I already think that knowing the non-profit sector, whatever it may be, can help and will give you additional skills for the job, as well as allowing you to gain experience.
Next, you need to be aware of the amount of work involved and the importance of the position, but don't worry—good organization and a desire to do well will make all the difference in your favor.
Finally, you are not alone, and being a VDE means above all being part of an office.
Having a good team like the one I belong to is therefore essential for fulfilling the mandate as best as possible!
Thank you very much for your time! We wish you all the best for your term of office and thank you for your commitment!
