crisis at the Ecole Pratique

[mkapstei at UCHICAGO.EDU]

Please distribute the following among colleagues and
other listserves to which you may subscribe (with
regrets for the occasional duplications this may entail).

Dear colleagues,

The École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), where it has been
our pleasure to receive many colleagues from abroad over the
years, has learned that, for reasons of safety, it must leave
its present location at the Sorbonne in Paris during the next
summer (2008), without any assurance that it will be able to
return once restoration work is complete. We will thereby lose
the historical connection, established in 1868, that we have
enjoyed with the Sorbonne, with which we have enjoyed close
and fruitful relations through our students, research
projects, and libraries.  

During this period of 140 years, the faculty of the EPHE have
contributed powerfully to the distinguished international
profile of the Sorbonne as a whole. Our identity and mission
are inseparable from the legacy bequethed to us by scholars
and teachers such as Ferdinand de Saussure, Teilhard de
Chardin, William Henry Waddington, Emile Benveniste, Sylvan
Lévi, Louis Massignon, Marcel Mauss, Alexandre Koyré, Claude
Lévi-Strauss, Georges Dumézil, Maxime Rodinson, Marcel Granet,
Étienne Gilson and Henry Corbin, among many others. 

With this in mind, it is a matter of great distress that no
solution has so far been proposed in order to assure the
reinstallation of the EPHE, not even the assurance that after
2008 any suitable facility whatsoever will be guaranteed
wherein it may continue its mission as an institution of
research and instruction. Our future is thus very seriously
menaced. The situation is all the more grave, for, as you are
aware, the EPHE is unique in French higher education for the
variety of disciplines in which it offers instruction, many of
them altogether neglected in our universities. 

In the name of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, I
therefore appeal to you in asking your aid in supporting our
institution from abroad. So that the international impact of
the precarious circumstances in which the EPHE now finds
itself be clearly brought to the attention of those in
appropriate positions of authority, I ask that you, as a
matter of urgence, write to our Prime Minister and Minister of
Higher Education, whose names and addresses are furnished
below. It is imperative that the importance of the EPHE in
international scholarship and research be made clear to them,
as well as the distress surrounding our departure from the
Sorbonne, and, finally, that you urge them to adopt measures
that will assure that our future situation be in accord with
our reputation and functions, and that we may be provided the
means required in order to pursue and develop our activities.
The urgency and gravity of these circumstances explain this
exceptional appeal. 

The École Pratique des Hautes Études is counting on the
solidarity of the international learned cmmunity, which is our
best defence so as to guarantee our maintenance of conditions
permitting us to continue and to develop our mission without
fail. With thanks in advance for your invaluable support,

Sincerely yours, 
Matthew Kapstein


PS. Your letters may be written in French or in English, or
other languages recognized for official use in the EU. The
names and address required are these:

M. François FILLON, Premier Ministre 
Hôtel de Matignon
57, rue de Varenne 
F-75007 Paris France


Madame Valérie PÉCRESSE, Ministre de
     l'Enseignement supérieur et de la
     Recherche Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur
     et de la Recherche 
1, rue Descartes 
75231 Paris cedex 05 France

We ask too that you copy your letters by e-mail as follows: 
The letter to Prime Minister Fillon to:
 1) Jean-Marc MONTEIL, conseiller du Premier Ministre
(jean-marc.monteil at pm.gouv.fr)
  

2) the letter to Mme Pécresse to:
     1. Philippe GILLET, Directeur du cabinet de la ministre
de l'Enseignement
     supérieur et de la Recherche
(philippe.gillet at recherche.gouv.fr) 

     2.  Marie-Danièle CAMPION, Directrice adjointe du cabinet
de la ministre de
     l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche
(marie-daniele.campion@
     recherche.gouv.fr) 

     3. Bernard SAINT-GIRONS, Directeur général de
l'Enseignement Supérieur (bsg at education.gouv.fr)

4.	Maurice QUÉNET, Recteur de l'Académie de Paris 
(dir-cab.recteur at rectorat.sorbonne.fr) 

5.  Jean-Claude WAQUET, Président de l'École Pratique des
Hautes Études
     (jean-claude.waquet at ephe.sorbonne.fr) 

In your e-mail messages, please write in the subject line:
EPHE. Lettre au Premier Ministre/à la Ministre de [followed by
your name and title]. 
Matthew T. Kapstein
Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies
The University of Chicago Divinity School

Directeur d'études
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris