With exponential bill, radical decision. Faced with soaring energy prices, the University of Strasbourg will close its doors for two additional weeks this winter as part of the energy sobriety requested by the government, the presidency announced on Monday.
“A third week of Christmas holidays in early January and a full week of distance learning in February” will be put in place, detailed Michel Deneken, the president of the university in a video addressed to the students.
The start of the school year initially scheduled for January 3, 2023 will finally take place on January 9, after a week of administrative closure, without any teaching being provided.
The heating on “as late as possible”
Among the other saving measures, the heating, set at 19 degrees, will be turned on “as late as possible” and a communication campaign will be deployed “in favor of eco-gestures for a more sustainable planet”, also affirmed Michel Deneken. “The cost of energy (…) is soaring more and more every day”, underlined the president of the university, recalling that the establishment should “take its part in the ecological transition”.
The establishment, which had nearly 57,000 students in 2020-2021, is currently seeing its energy bill explode. Its expenditure on electricity, gas and heating on the network fell from 10 million euros in 2021 to 13 million euros in 2022, after an amending budget granted an extension of an additional 1.5 million euros. For 2023, 20 million have been included in the provisional budget.
“The administrative closures constitute a breach of the principle of continuity of public service”, denounced in a press release the FSU union. According to her, research activities could suffer from these measures, with less access to laboratories. The Unitary Trade Union Federation believes that these measures amount to “imposed teleworking” for certain staff, and will lead to employees being charged “heating and electricity costs which should be borne by the employer”.