Gérald Chanques: "Make everyone feel part of this historic university".
Following his recent appointment as vice-president for historical heritage at the University of Montpellier, Gérald Chanques presents us with his vision of heritage. Between his official mission and his more personal interests, he reaffirms his attachment to the university that taught him the joy and duty of studying.
Name?
My name is Gérald Chanques.
Position ?
I was recently elected vice-president of the University of Montpellier, responsible for historical heritage. I'm a doctor, a graduate of this university, and I'm a university professor and hospital practitioner in anesthesia-intensive care.
Missions ?
There's a lot of work going on at the same time, in different parts of the University of Montpellier campus, whether it's in the Jardin des Plantes, the historic medical building, or elsewhere. There's a lot going on at each of these sites. My main task is to monitor them with all the central services on site.
There's a second major project, and it's all in good fun. It involves linking up with all the components. It's about ensuring that every student at this university, as well as every office worker, teacher and researcher, feels part of this historic university through this heritage.
First mandate at the UM?
No, this is not my first mandate. Since 2018, I've been elected to the Academic Council's Commission for Training and University Life (CFVU). I was also elected to the disciplinary sections of the university's academic council. It's very interesting because it allows us to feel the pulse of all the components and the student, administrative and teaching issues that may arise. So we have a very transversal vision of the university.
A place?
The place that struck me? It was in my first year of medical school, just after the baccalauréat. A friend of mine from Montpellier took me to the Faculty of Medicine to register us. It was on rue de l'école de médecine. We were in the Place de la Canourgue, we went downstairs and found ourselves at the foot of the cathedral. And then he said to me: " That's our college! I'm still a bit emotional about it, it was so striking. You realize that something is really happening here, something that has happened. And when you sign up, you realize that it's still going on. So this is my favorite place.
There's no future without a past?
There are some very recent universities, some very modern universities, which have a lot going for them. They don't really have a past, so they only have the future ahead of them. And I think it's interesting to have this profile of a university that's very much rooted in the 21st century. But it's particularly striking to return to our roots. We're lucky in Montpellier. We are fortunate to have one of the four oldest universities in the modern sense of the term. These four universities are Oxford, Bologna, Paris and Montpellier.
We've been through this medieval renaissance, this renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment. The spirit of the Enlightenment that continued after the revolution into the 21st century. It's so easy to have this real estate and lapidary heritage in the form of objects left by the ancients. This heritage serves to explain the spirit. The spirit of the medical school, the spirit of the university and, ultimately, the spirit that unites us all as academics. It's a fabulous opportunity that we must continue to nurture and build. And we're bound to build it in a way that's different from the universities of recent birth, which have no history of their own.
A historical figure from the UM to revive?
It's probably Rabelais. Most interns, when they put on Rabelais' robe to defend their medical thesis at the end of their studies, don't know exactly who he is. Yet Rabelais embodies not only medicine, but all the knowledge and philosophy developed in his work. It's a joy to study, and also a duty to study enough knowledge in the broadest possible way, so that we can then be sufficiently educated to be able to decide in complete freedom. And that's a wonderful message for the University.