The EPFL Assembly, a forum for the school
© 2016 EPFL
The newly elected EPFL Assembly began its two-year term this fall. What’s the Assembly’s mission, and how does it function?
On 4 October 2016, the 16 members of the newly elected EPFL Assembly gathered in the Vittoz lecture hall for the Assembly’s monthly meeting – the 268th one to be exact. They were joined by the ETH Board delegate and the Assembly secretary. This year, for the first time, the presidency went to a representative of the administrative and technical staff, Consuelo Antille. She takes over from Jan van Herle, who represented the teaching staff and served as president from 2010 to 2016. This is also the first time in 10 years that a woman is serving as the Assembly president – the last one was Aude Billard. Their agenda that first day was packed: following a statement from the ETH Board delegate and a photo of the new team came discussions with a host of guests. Martin Vetterli, EPFL’s future president, together with Pierre Vandergheynst and Andreas Mortensen, discussed the consultation on the partial revision of the Ordinance on the Organization of EPFL; Philippe Vollichard, the head of the sustainable campus team, followed up on EPFL’s new parking policy; and Jean-François Ricci, EPFL’s secretary-general, briefed the Assembly on matters currently under discussion among EPFL’s Senior Management.
Surprisingly, the EPFL Assembly is not particularly well known at the school despite the fact that it represents the entire EPFL community, including the other campuses. The Assembly is made up of four representatives from each of EPFL’s constituent groups: the teaching staff (professors and senior scientists), the student body, scientific staff (which includes doctoral students and post-docs) and the administrative and technical staff. The representatives are democratically elected by the constituent groups and serve a two-year term (except for the students, whose term lasts one year). The Assembly members serve in a voluntary capacity alongside their day-to-day workload and, in some cases, membership on their respective School Council.
The Assembly is EPFL’s forum – a microcosm of Swiss-style democracy. “It is not meant to replace the employee and student associations but rather to contribute to the discussion and cooperate actively with them on challenging issues like tuition, salary scales for doctoral students and the staff policy,” says Antille. “The entire Assembly discusses all the issues, which means different points of view are aired and everything is considered from all angles.” The Assembly commonly invites EPFL’s president, vice presidents, deans and project managers to attend meetings in order to answer its questions. The Assembly in turn is consulted about all major issues affecting the school and informs the Senior Management of its stance. Current issues include the partial revision of the Ordinance on the Organization of EPFL and the effort to standardize the regulations governing the organization of EPFL’s faculties. The Assembly has engaged in 28 consultations, taking a position on each one, since 2011.
Office of the Assembly
The Office of the EPFL Assembly consists of the president, vice president and two members of the Assembly. Its missions are to maintain regular contact with the Office of the ETH Zurich Assembly and the joint ETH Board delegate and to meet with the ETH Board during the annual “Dialog” days for a 45-minute discussion.
Does the new team have a particular goal in mind for this term? “First of all, we would like to establish a culture of mutually respectful cooperation with the new president,” says Antille. “There will be many changes to deal with in the near future, and we need to play our role. We would also like the EPFL community, which we represent, to be more aware of our work.” She wishes to remind everyone that they too can get involved, such as by joining the School Councils, which are often short of members.