“As you know, after months of concern and alert, the dean of the faculty of economics and management of the Colbert site in Marseille took the decision to close access to this building to students and staff , failing to be able to ensure their safety,” announced Eric Berton, president of Aix-Marseille University, in a letter of which Agence France-Presse (AFP) obtained a copy on Wednesday October 3. The closure of the Colbert site, located a stone’s throw from the Old Port, is due to take effect Friday after classes and last until October 13, in the hope of finding solutions to resolve the problem, a university source said. ‘AFP.
Some 1,500 students and around fifty staff attend this branch of the Faculty of Economics and Management. “The courses will be provided remotely and the staff, for some, will be redeployed or teleworking”, continues the president in this letter, specifying that this choice “is the worst” that could be “given to him to do so much reception and the well-being of our students are at the heart” of the university’s commitment.
“Beyond our own proposals to improve the security of the site and its surroundings, I call on your mobilization and cooperation so that all the institutional actors in our territory find suitable and rapid responses in order to secure this neighborhood and the living environment of our students and staff,” he adds. Attached to a university presence for years in this poor district of the city center, the staff saw a deterioration of the situation with the appearance of drug dealing points nearby, a university source reported to AFP. “But there is a real desire on the part of Aix-Marseille University to remain in the heart of Marseille,” she insisted.
A port city marked by strong inequalities, Marseille has been affected by drug trafficking for decades. But the level of violence for the control of drug sales outlets is increasing, as in other cities in France. In France’s second city, more than forty people have been killed this year in turf wars between traffickers, with the public prosecutor calling it a “bloodbath”.
