Gérald Chanques: “Making sure everyone feels like a member of this historic university”
Following his recent appointment as Vice President for Historical Heritage at the University of Montpellier, Gérald Chanques shares his vision of heritage. Balancing his official duties with his personal passions, he reaffirms his deep attachment to this university, which taught him both the joy and the responsibility of learning.
Name?
My name is Gérald Chanques.
Position?
I was recently elected vice president of the University of Montpellier, responsible for historical heritage. I am a physician, a graduate of this university, and a university professor and hospital practitioner in anesthesiology and intensive care.
Responsibilities?
There are several construction projects underway simultaneously at various locations across the University of Montpellier campus, including the Botanical Garden, the historic medical building, and others. There are numerous construction sites at each of these locations. My main responsibility is to oversee them in coordination with all the central departments working on-site.
There is a second major undertaking, and it’s nothing but a pleasure. It involves bringing all the different elements together. It means ensuring that everyone—every student at this university, as well as every administrative staff member, every instructor, Professor —feels like a member of this historic university through its heritage.
Is this your first term at UM?
No, this isn’t my first term. I’ve been serving on the Academic Council’s Committee on Education and University Life (CFVU) since 2018. I’ve also been elected to the disciplinary sections of the university’s Academic Council. It’s very interesting because it allows me to get a feel for all the different parts of the university and the student, administrative, and faculty issues that may arise. So we have a very broad view of the university.
A place?
The place that really struck me? It was during my first year of medical school—actually, right after I graduated from high school. A friend who was born and raised in Montpellier drove me to the School of Medicine to register. It was located on Rue de l’École de Médecine. We were at Place de la Canourgue; we walked down the street and found ourselves at the foot of the cathedral. And there he said to me, “That’s our school!” I still get a little emotional thinking about it; it was striking. You realize that there’s truly something happening here, something that has happened. And when you enroll, you understand that it continues. So that’s my favorite place.
No future without a past?
There are universities that were founded very recently—very modern universities that are certainly worth considering. They don’t really have a past, so they have only the future ahead of them. And I think it’s interesting to have this type of university that’s firmly rooted in the21st century. But it’s particularly striking to go back to the roots. We’re lucky in that regard in Montpellier. We’re fortunate to have a university that ranks among the four oldest universities in the modern sense of the term. These four universities are Oxford, Bologna, Paris, and Montpellier.
We have lived through this medieval renaissance, this renaissance, and the Age of Enlightenment. The spirit of the Enlightenment has endured since the revolution and throughout the21st century. It is so easy to possess this tangible heritage in the form of objects left behind by our ancestors. This heritage serves to explain that spirit. The spirit of the medical school, the spirit of the university, and ultimately the spirit that unites us all, as academics. It is a fabulous opportunity that we must continue to nurture and build upon. And we will inevitably build it differently from the newly established universities that have no history.
A historical figure from the University of Marseille worth reviving?
It’s probably Rabelais. Most medical residents, when they don the robe of Rabelais to defend their medical thesis at the end of their studies, don’t know exactly who he is. Yet Rabelais embodies not just medicine; he embodies all the wisdom, all the knowledge, and the philosophy developed in his work. It is a joy to study, and also a duty, to acquire sufficient knowledge in the broadest possible way so that one may then be sufficiently educated and able to decide freely. And this is a magnificent message for the University.