Meal dis­tri­b­u­tion, COVID test­ing, course tutor­ing: in this peri­od of COVID-19, stu­dent life at UTC has rein­vent­ed itself. 

No one is hid­ing the fact that in recent weeks the san­i­tary cri­sis has had a heavy and sig­nif­i­cant impact on soci­ety but also on every­one’s morale.

The reopen­ing of cer­tain places and venues to the pub­lic comes as a real relief for every­one. But for the stu­dents the sit­u­a­tion has had an even more bit­ter taste; that of doubts, fears and appre­hen­sion for their future, this com­bined with an even more sour sen­sa­tion; that of pre­car­i­ous­ness. For many, the suc­ces­sive lock­down mea­sures have meant the end of stu­dent jobs and there­fore stopped a very large source of income. For many, the suc­ces­sive con­fine­ments and recon­fig­u­ra­tions have meant the end of stu­dent jobs and there­fore of a very impor­tant source of income. Con­se­quent­ly, the sit­u­a­tion, already com­pli­cat­ed for stu­dent morale, has also become com­pli­cat­ed for their finan­cial resources.

At UTC, the sit­u­a­tion was tak­en very seri­ous­ly by the Uni­ver­si­ty’s admin­is­tra­tive and man­age­ment teams. “From the begin­ning of the health cri­sis last year, mea­sures were tak­en to ensure the sup­port and well-being of the stu­dents,” explains Karine Sli­wak, Head of the engi­neer­ing appren­tice­ship pro­gramme. And a few months ago, the school took a fur­ther step by appoint­ing three “sol­i­dar­i­ty ref­er­ents”, includ­ing Karine Sli­wak her­self. Their role? To devel­op and coor­di­nate sol­i­dar­i­ty for stu­dents and to be the first point of con­tact for those expe­ri­enc­ing dif­fi­cul­ties. “We have set up an e‑mail address where stu­dents can write to us as soon as they encounter the slight­est dif­fi­cul­ty, whether finan­cial, psy­cho­log­i­cal or of any oth­er kind,” con­tin­ues Karine Sli­wak. We then set up actions to sup­port them. 

A con­crete exam­ple? “The finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties expe­ri­enced by stu­dents. It is quite nor­mal for a stu­dent to face dif­fi­cul­ties, espe­cial­ly when they no longer have a stu­dent job,” she con­tin­ues. “We have put in place extra­or­di­nary sup­port so that they can have extra mon­ey when they need it. But oth­er sys­tems exist for spe­cif­ic needs. Com­put­er loans, for exam­ple, for stu­dents who have dif­fi­cul­ties with their exist­ing com­put­er. For psy­cho­log­i­cal dis­com­fort, the Sol­i­dar­i­ty Advis­ers can accom­pa­ny stu­dents to pro­fes­sion­als who can help and sup­port them”. And the sol­i­dar­i­ty advi­sors also set up dis­tri­b­u­tion actions, whether it be food­stuffs (in con­junc­tion with the stu­dent asso­ci­a­tion EPI), dis­tri­b­u­tions of hygiene and health prod­ucts and basic neces­si­ties, in con­junc­tion with part­ner com­pa­nies. Some ofthe city’s restau­rants also joined the oper­a­tion to offer meals to stu­dents. Cous­cous or pael­la were offered to stu­dents. “These oper­a­tions are open to all, with pri­or­i­ty giv­en to stu­dents who have the most finan­cial difficulties.” 

But the log­ic of sol­i­dar­i­ty went fur­ther forthe stu­dents. They cre­at­ed an asso­ci­a­tion, mis­chie­vous­ly named TUT’UT, to cre­ate sup­port work­shops and exchanges between stu­dents on their courses.