Bulletin #203
Subject : LETTRE OUVERTE AU
PRESIDENT PATRICK CHEZAUD/OPEN LETTER TO
PRESIDENT CHEZAUD.
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___________________________________________________________________
à suivre en langue
française
20 october
2005
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
After
soliciting the advice of many colleagues, students and teachers' union
activists, I contacted Stendhal University President Patrick Chezaud,
asking him to resolve this year-long problem caused by the liquidation
of CEIMSA and the removal of its web site from the Stendhal University
server.
President
Chezaud has yet to give a consistent and plausible explanation as to
why CEIMSA was not allowed to pursue the project which the Ministry of
Education itself suggested in 2004, i.e. to create a network between
CEIMSA at Stendhal University and other interested scholars teaching at
other universities in southern France. President Chezaud, instead of
encouraging this new project, liquidated CEIMSA Spring 2004 and then
used the suppression of our research center as a justification to purge
from the Stendhal University server all the publications and documents
which CEIMSA had generated since its creation in September 2000.
During the
following 12 months, he systematically ignored the petitions, letters
and press conferences which were organized periodically in order to
draw his attention to the crisis his careless decision making had
caused our institution. Hundreds of students and scholars were involved
in the movement to defend the right of CEIMSA's existence and the right
for its scientific work to appear on the Stendhal University server.
This movement drew the attention of the national press, and attracted a
wide range of scholars in the United States and Europe. [For the
bi-lingual Dossier documenting the defense of our Research Center at
Stendhal University, with a brief chronology and some 68 separate
documents, please click here to visit CEIMSA Newsletter No. 22.]
The
University of California agreed to temporarily house the CEIMSA web
site and the more than five-thousand pages of publications and
documents which CEIMSA now makes available to scholars and students in
Europe and America. The University of Savoie agreed to accept eight
PH.D. students who are under my direction in American Studies, after
they were deprived of their research center, CEIMSA, at Stendhal
University.
Despite these
extreme measures, President Chezaud has made no effort to resolve the
problems he created when he became Stendhal University President in
Spring 2004.
Because of
this remarkable recalcitrance, and his arrogant disregard for public
opinion and for the fundamental needs of our academic community in
Grenoble, I have written this "Open Letter to President Chezaud"
suggesting that he reconsider his policies regarding CEIMSA, that he
agree to respect its intellectual freedom and to finance CEIMSA as an
independent research center within his own "Equipe de Recherche,"
CEMRA, which is now attached to UFR d'Etudes Anglophones at Stendhal
University.
This
arrangement would enable my doctoral students to return to Stendhal
University and permit the CEIMSA web site, which I use regularly in my
graduate courses at Stendhal University, to be restored on the Stendhal
University server, where I continue to teach large classes.
Naturally,
all such guarantees would have to be in writing.
Sincerely,
Francis
McCollum Feeley
Professor of
American Studies/
Director of
Research
Université
Stendhal-Grenoble III
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
________________________
version
française
Lettre
ouverte au Président Patrick CHEZAUD
M. Francis Feeley
Professeur de
Civilisation américaine
à
M. Patrick
Chézaud
Président des Trois Universités de Grenoble
et
Président de l'Université Stendhal
et
Directeur du
CEMRA
UFR d'Etudes
Anglophones
et
Professeur de
l'Esthétique et du Rhétorique
UFR d'Etudes
Anglophones
Grenoble, le 18 octobre 2005
Monsieur le Président,
Il me semble qu'il serait raisonnable,
à l'occasion d'une nouvelle année universitaire et dans
l'intérêt de notre université et de tous ceux qui y
travaillent, de résoudre les problèmes posés par
la liquidation injustifiée du CEIMSA et par la suppression
très dommageable des fonds documentaires de son site Internet
sur le serveur de l'Université Stendhal en juin 2004.
Le Conseil de l'UFR d'Etudes Anglophones
a voté en juin 2005 la motion suivante (13 voix pour, 5 contre,
1 abstention) :
"Le conseil de
l'UFR d'Etudes Anglophones, réuni le 20 juin 2005
demande instamment au Conseil d'Administration
de l'Université
sur proposition technique du Conseil
Scientifique, de rechercher
activement les moyens de la
réintégration des recherches du professeur
Francis Feeley et des étudiants et chercheurs
associés à sa démarche,
au sein des activités de recherche de
l'Université Stendhal."
Malgré une campagne de désinformation
entretenue dans les couloirs de l'université, je tiens à
vous faire savoir que je suis toujours désireux de rejoindre le
CEMRA, en tant qu'affilié dont l'indépendance serait
garantie par une convention assurant au CEIMSA les
éléments suivants :
1) Le retour de son site
Internet temporairement implanté sur le
serveur de
l’Université de Californie et sa restauration sur le
serveur de l'Université Stendhal dans
la rubrique des activités
"Recherche" de
l'université. (En effet, il est inacceptable que
l'université expurge
de son serveur des travaux de recherche
qu'elle a elle même
financés.);
2) La garantie
écrite de l'indépendance scientifique du CEIMSA;
3) Un budget annuel pour les colloques et
autres activités scientifiques;
4) Le retour de tous mes
doctorants de l'Université de Savoie vers l'Université
Stendhal-Grenoble III.
J'espère que la motion du Conseil de l'UFR d'Etudes Anglophones
sera prise en considération par le Conseil d'Administration de
notre université, et je vous prie d'agréer, Monsieur le
Président, l'expression de mes respectueuses salutations.
Francis Feeley
Professeur des Etudes américaines/
Directeur de recherches
Université Stendhal
Grenoble, France
______________________________
English version
OPEN
LETTER TO PRESIDENT PATRICK CHEZAUD
M. Francis Feeley
Professor of American Studies
to
M. Patrick Chézaud
President of the Three
Universités de Grenoble
&
President of the Université Stendhal
&
Director of CEMRA
Department of Anglophone Studies
&
Professor of Esthetics and
Rhetoric
Department of Anglophone Studies
Grenoble, 18 October 2005
Dear Mr. President,
It seems reasonable, on this occasion at the beginning of the new
academic year and in the interests of our University and of all
of us who work here, to resolve the problems caused by the unjustified
dissolution of CEIMSA and by the very damaging removal of the documents
and publications on its web site from the Stendhal University server in
June 2004.
The administrative council of the Department of Anglophone Studies
passed the following motion in June 2005 (13 votes for, 5 votes
against, and 1 abstention) :
"The Council of
the Anglophone Studies Department at [Stendhal]
University has met on June 20,
2005 and demands at this time that the
Administrative Council of the
[Stendhal] University, on the technical
proposition of the Scientific
Council, actively seek a way to reintegrate
the research of Professor Francis
Feeley and his graduate students and
his research associates into the
research facilities at Stendhal University."
Despite the campaign of disinformation this past year in the corridors
of our University, I assure you that I remain interested in joining
CEMRA, as an independent affiliate, the status of which would be
guaranteed by a signed agreement assuring that CEIMSA would be allowed
the following conditions,
1) The immediate return of the
CEIMSA web site from The University of
California web site, where it is now housed, back to the Stendhal
University
server
where it was located before June 2004, under the rubric "Research"
on the
University home page;
2) The written guarantee CEIMSA's complete
intellectual independence;
3) An annual budget for
colloquiums and other scientific activities;
4) The return of all my doctoral
students from the University of Savoy in Chambery to
Stendhal
University-Grenoble 3.
I hope that the motion which was passed by the Administrative Council
of Department of Anglophone Studies will be taken into consideration by
the Administrative Council of our University, and I ask you to accept,
Mr. President, the expression of my respectful greetings.
F. Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research
Stendhal University
Grenoble, France