At Polytechnique, Mines de Paris or AgroParisTech, dangerous connections with large companies denounced by student activists

With the arrival of fall, students bring out their suits, and employers their best arguments. Business forum season is open. A highlight of engineering training, this traditional operation of seduction and fundraising is now turning into insurrection. From Polytechnique to Mines Paris-PSL via AgroParisTech, the scenario is always the same. In the middle of the stands displaying the big names in consulting, banking or energy, rented at high prices to finance the school’s associative life, dozens of students drop to the ground, simulating death by performing A in the. All around, banners with striking slogans: “School financed by black gold”, “Stop stupid firms (seil)”, “Private interests always come at the expense of the common future”.

Then speeches break the silence of the stunned crowd. “How can we still accept being financed by TotalEnergies, which continues to multiply new oil projects, such as the Eacop project [de construction d’un oléoduc] in Uganda? How can we still accept partnerships with BNP, Société Générale or Crédit Agricole which continue to finance the most destructive projects? And how can we still accommodate LVMH or L’Oréal, who hire us to optimize their advertising targeting algorithms? »protested, at the beginning of October, around thirty Polytechnique students during the X-Forum, faced with the sometimes approving, amused, or more often indifferent looks of their comrades.

Similar developments a few days later, at the Trium Forum, co-organized by the student associations of four engineering schools (Mines Paris-PSL, Ponts ParisTech, Ensta Paris and Ensae Paris). Distribution of leaflets, sit-in of a few minutes in front of the stand of Perenco, a hydrocarbon producer, speeches on the call for revolt and, as a bonus, throughout the duration of the event, rhetorical exchanges of arms between recruiters and students.

Standing in front of the TotalEnergies stand, a young bridge engineer calls out to a representative of the oil giant: “I will not work for you until drastic changes are implemented. » All smiles, the recruiter draws his well-oiled reply: “It’s a shame, there is a severe shortage of engineers for wind power or hydrogen. I receive two hundred CVs every day for Oil & Gas and only fifteen for wind power. If you are interested in the transition, join us! »

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