The HEC Community is Mobilizing and It Works!
Emma Rouvière, HEC student, former Transition Forum intern
For several years now, the prestigious HEC (business school) has been offering master’s degrees and majors related to sustainable development and has been carrying out several specific initiatives (chairs, academies, Purpose & Sustainability MOOC, EarthWeek...). But for some students, these initiatives remain too disparate. For them, it is the entire educational system that needs to be reformed to meet the challenges of the environmental transition and the climate crisis. This is why nine of them took the opportunity of the recruitment of a new dean at the end of 2020 to question him on the subject in an open letter that they disseminated throughout the HEC community (alumni, specialized master’s, etc.). They collected 1,600 signatures representing a wide range of generations (up to the class of 1961!). "We felt that part of the HEC community felt concerned by the initiative. The need had been there for a long time," explains Emma Rouvière, one of the nine students who initiated the project. A few "big names" were then added, and the number of signatures quickly rose to 2,100!
Not only was the letter distributed to each member of the Board of Directors, but the new dean also received some of the students barely a week after being appointed. This meeting allowed them to reflect on how to reform the content of the courses so as to better integrate ecological and climate issues. As a result, a mandatory course on the state of the planet will be introduced in the 3rd year curriculum and will serve as a basis for other courses. Moreover, one of the finance professors is going to integrate green finance issues throughout his whole program and not only in his last course as he used to. In the end, plans are emerging for the new school year. Although not everything can be done in one day (teacher training, recruitment, etc.), "several forces are pushing in the same direction," concludes Emma Rouvière, who adds, "we're quite optimistic: the momentum won't fade away! ".
