Stéphane Place // Photo credits: 7:37 a.m., March 29, 2024

For several weeks, caravans have been set up on the campus of Bordeaux-Montaigne University, next to the university restaurant and classrooms. While waiting for an evacuation, a student union close to the Republicans launched a petition to ask for the problem to be taken into account and additional measures to avoid new installations.

Dozens of caravans, vans, laundry drying at the foot of the Bordeaux Montaigne University buildings... This Traveler camp was set up at the beginning of the month and cohabitation is not easy, according to some students. For years, the Bordeaux university campus has seen caravans arrive without warning in the middle of the university. A student union, claiming to be right-wing, has launched a petition to avoid new installations in the future, pending intervention by the police and an evacuation which is the responsibility of the Gironde prefecture.

Worried students

Some students complain of verbal tensions and incidents, not to mention the material damage borne by the university. “We can't go through the middle without there being dogs barking, protecting their caravan. We can think twice, three times, it's already happened,” says this student.

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For this other young woman, this camp has “nothing to do in the middle of a university”. “There are lots of places that are taken by them while we have difficulty parking. They do all that on quads, it’s still scary,” she relates. 

Costly repairs for the university

These occupations are recurrent on the Bordeaux campus: each time the university initiates eviction procedures and must financially assume the cost of repairs. “We have electrical installations which can be damaged or water installations which are connected a little where they find a breach. Sometimes it is at the university, sometimes it is at the Crous, sometimes on the network of the tram", explains Kevin d'Agneaux, chief of staff to the president of Bordeaux Montaigne. 

Repairs and security work already planned to prevent new occupations. A bill which, according to the university, amounts to hundreds of thousands of euros. For its part, the Gironde prefecture confirms having received a request for intervention.