a year later, what has changed in the prestigious engineering school

The internal survey had the effect of a bombshell at CentraleSupélec : a hundred alleged sexual assaults and rapes committed on the campus of the Ile-de-France engineering school for the 2020-2021 academic year alone. At the same time, the National Plan to Combat Gender-based and Sexual Violence was put in place, the budget of which will be doubled and increased to 3.5 million euros next year, as promised on Saturday 8 October in a interview at Le Parisien, the Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau.

And among the associations and schools that will receive grants to set up training and awareness-raising actions, CentraleSupélec, which has since deployed a series of tools to prevent risky behavior.

The first of these are the “staffers“, students trained specifically to prevent risks, especially during parties on campus. The other students can quickly spot them thanks to their pink T-shirts and white armbands. “staffers” have the mission to intervene in problematic situations, such as bringing back a student who feels uncomfortable.

“The question of staffers in the evening no longer even arises. It’s automatic, each time we are invited and we have places specially reserved for that.”

Aurélie Metzelard, “staffeuse”, president of the feminist association Capèse

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Management trains staff on gender-based and sexual violence. Last year, she was surprised by the extent of the phenomenon and the number of students who declared themselves victims in the internal survey, while the school’s listening unit had not received any reports. “Suddenly, a question arose: why the facts do not go back to us?“, recalls Alexandrine Urbain, referent “gender equality” at CentraleSupélec.

The school has since established a partnership with the association France Victimes, which offers a telephone helpline. Another channel, independent of CentraleSupélec. “Probably some victims needed to speak to a structure other than the structure in which they were studying. Because it was more neutral. Talk to people they would trust“, to analyse Alexandrine Urban.

In a new internal questionnaire, published a few days ago, the number of situations of harassment, assault and rape declared by students has been halved. But we are still far from the goal “zero gender and sexual violence“.