Will it be necessary to dislodge students to make their university rooms available to security personnel, public officials and volunteers mobilized during the Paris Olympics (July 26 to August 11) and Paralympics (August 28 to September 8), in 2024? The question agitates the student community since the regional centers of university and school works (Crous) of Ile-de-France, commissioned by the State to take part in the organization of the event, begin to warn the tenants.
“The State wants to mobilize 3,000 housing units and it has asked us to identify them”, explains Clément Cadoret, deputy director general of the national center for university and school works (Cnous), the coordinating body of the Crous. The three academies of Paris, Créteil and Versailles will have to release some 1,000 places each. As the Ile-de-France park has 22,000 places, 30% of which are unoccupied in summer, the equation does not seem impossible: only around ten residences out of 150 will be targeted; the list is still under discussion with the interdepartmental delegation to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
An unknown could complicate the deal, in the event of an influx of student volunteers participating in the organization of the Games. This number would then be added to that of students who take their remedial exams, work all summer, do an internship as part of their training or who do not have the means to return to their parents – the beneficiaries of a Crous accommodation being all scholarship recipients.
“Intolerable Blackmail”
“The student public must therefore face an intolerable blackmail: forced volunteering or expulsion”considers the coordination of student organizations in the Ile-de-France, member of the FAGE union, which underlines that the interministerial delegation to the Olympic and Paralympic Games “proposes without shame that any student participation in the organization of the games allows them to keep their accommodation in the Crous university residence”.
Hosting the biggest sporting event on the planet “cannot be done to the detriment of youth, but good for them and with them”continues the coordination, which asks the State to give up this project “irreconcilable with the primary mission of the Crous”.
It is only at the end of the lease renewal campaign, between March and May 2024, that the Ile-de-France Crous will have visibility on the number of students to be rehoused. Those whose room will be preempted will not have to pay any rent, promises the Cnous. According to student unions, ” additional costs “ will result from this requisition, whether it is a move to another room or a return to the family home.
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