Student protests, heavy workload and “Notting Hill”: a talk with Youssef Halaoua

As soon as I joined the Menton Times, I decided to focus on interviewing the most interesting people we encounter throughout our Sciences Po Menton journey. Therefore, who could be a more obvious choice for our first issue than the Head of Sciences Po Menton? For this issue, I sat down with Youssef Halaoua to explore what drives the people who shape our academic experience. From the reasoning behind our workload to his own path as a former student here, this conversation made room for both career ambitions and “Notting Hill.” 

Looking back on your time as a student here, is there anything you would have done differently or anything you wish you'd done if you were a student again?

Yes, to be serious earlier. I grew up in the Paris region, and when I came here, it was such a beauty shock: the region, the sea, the sun, the good weather. I realized I hadn’t worked enough for the midterm exams. 

University is not like high school, you know? Professors see you as an adult. It’s based on trust, and I think it cost me a month and a half to learn that, with the grades I got on the midterms. That’s the way you learn. Sometimes you can give advice without being tough or pretending you are the parent. Somebody should have told me: “Look, you are an adult, you are over 18, do whatever you want, just remember that now you are responsible for what you do.” If you work, you will get the reward for your work, and if you don’t work enough at some point, it will hurt you.

It’s okay to arrive on the first week and to enjoy the beach, the integration week, the friends, the associations. But then I think I should have worked more seriously earlier. 

Could you share the reasoning behind the workload and class schedule here?

We met with the 2A students during the summer to explain why we added a class time slot between 19:15 and 21:15 and removed lunch time. It's because we faced (and it's good news for the campus) an increase in the number of 1st-year students. 

Then, as a 1st-year student, you have more classes, but we still have the same number of rooms. The school building in Menton is a really good size, and we talked about that earlier: the weather, the sea, the location; Monaco and Italy are not far. But we are far from the capital, and since many teachers come from the capital, it’s logistically challenging to create the weekly schedule. We are trying to do our best when we hire professors.  For example, the law and political institution professor for the French track used to come here with a lunch break, and we had to tell him: “Now you will come, you will give four hours of lecture, and you will only have a 15-minute break." So my difficult decisions affected professors too. 

And then it's a question of organization. But the day you have, for example, 8 hours in a row, just 15 minutes in between, I, you know, for example, for the lunch break. The other day is when it's totally free. It's totally free on paper, but you should know that maybe it's the day you will spend a little bit more in the library or you would do your shopping, you would clean your apartment, you know? It's a question of organization. 

How can we make daily life easier to cope with the workload?

I think everything is about organization. I’m not telling you to be a machine, but to look for where we all lose time. 

To be more efficient, you should always be careful about your way of life. You should eat well, you should drink water, you should sleep well. And because of bad organization, you should not say: “Okay, you know what? I sleep for 8 hours a day. Let's make it 6 hours to have 2 more hours.” If you go to the library and you tell yourself that you will work for 2 hours, in 2 hours, the world will not change. You put your phone in airplane mode, and you work during those 2 hours. If you stay focused during those 2 hours, you'll gain time. And everybody is working differently. Some people are more efficient in the morning, some others in the evening, but the idea is to keep your life healthy, to do sport, to see friends, to have fun, but also not to lose time and, unfortunately, it's a little bit less fun because there has to be a schedule.

I think it's a question of organization. And there’s no magic recipe. Everybody works differently. It's a question of equilibrium.

What motivates you here as a director of this campus? 

Steve Jobs gave a famous speech where he said the only way to do great work is to love what you do. And I think I'm really lucky, because I really love SciencesPo.

SciencesPo changed my life. I was in a small high school in the suburbs of Paris, and it’s one of the most famous universities in France. I was lucky enough, but I also worked. I think I deserved my place, and it was not just a gift, but I felt really lucky to enter this university, the university that gave me 6 incredible years of my life; I met incredible friends who are still my friends today. You have great professors, you learn a lot, you attend nice events, and you have great opportunities. And to tell the truth, when I started to work, I was depressed. I was like: “Come on, this has no flavor!” I mean, life was so colorful being a student here. What is this work? It's so boring; it's not interesting. I'm not learning anything. People are not nice. I want to be back as a student, you know? Because it's so rich, when you work, you have to do a report on a meeting, you sign a product, you do a PowerPoint presentation. It's not as intellectually passionate as being a student. 

When I go to high schools and I'm trying to convince them to apply to SciencesPo, I don’t feel that I'm selling them something. No, I genuinely think that if they come to us, their life would be better. I really believe that. So this is what's motivating me. 

And then, as you said, I'm back where I studied when I was your age. I had sweet memories of Menton: sleepless talks about the Middle East at the Sablettes. The church of Saint Michel ringing in the morning, incredible walks in the mountains, parties in Monaco, swims after a run- I was also living in Menton plus. Whenever you come back with such memories and see that, through your work, you can make the lives of today’s students as memorable as mine were 20 years ago, I’m really happy about this. 

Is there anything that can demotivate you here? 

Yes, after the 7th of October, the war in Gaza and what's happening in Palestine, in Israel, SciencesPo and, more specifically, the campus of Menton was the target of really unfair criticism and attacks. We had such a bad reputation wherever I would go. 

More students were demonstrating in support of Palestine. We are really careful about respect, tolerance, and fighting against racism, antisemitism, etc. Showing solidarity with Palestine is not being antisemitic, and linking these two is a mistake. I’ve done a bit of sport, especially tennis.  In competitions, victory is even more beautiful when you start by losing. If the wind is easy—voilà, you won; you don't feel proud, because it was easy. 

When things are easy, they don't have the same flavor as when they are difficult. You really learn that in sport. So some days I was really demotivated. Wherever I went, people attacked me, criticized me, and held prejudices about SciencesPo, its students, and its teachers. This is not true. It's not fair. Sometimes, when you fight day after day and whatever you do — you feel that people do not care, it makes you lose hope. Also, something I learned from sport is that the only recipe for losing is giving up.  If you want to win, you have to develop. So to hold on, to resist, and to continue. This is where my motivation came back. I was like, you know what? No, we have to find partners. 

Some people probably still believe in us. Monaco never abandoned us. They were always here by our side, offering opportunities. We got signals here and there telling us not to give up and to hold on.

You should never feel like you've won before the end of the game. Here, there is no end to the games. Every year is a new game, and we owe you, as 1A students, the same energy as those who came 3 years ago or 10 years ago. So this is what's incredible about this job. You have a rest, but you know when you come back, you cannot just do business as usual. You owe the students their 2 best years of their lives. At least it's my belief. 

You left Sciences Po in 2021 to join the   Agence Nationale du Sport, then came back two years later as campus director. What made you come back?

A phone call. When I left Sciences Po, I was the Chief of Staff of the former president. Then I gave my chair to someone else, who was the chief of staff of the next president. We became friends. I remember, on the highway in the Netherlands, coming back from a tennis tour, and he called me. Everybody knew that, while I was working in Paris, I was a Menton student. It was the first time a former Menton student was the chief of staff to the president of SciencesPo. I was really proud of it. He called me and said: “Did you hear that the director of Menton left?” I was like: “No, no”. He said, “Look, tomorrow the job offer will be online. If you're interested, do not hesitate.” 

I was like: “Are you joking? I'm busy”. It was June 2023. I was working in the Ministry of Sports; the Olympic Games were coming next year. He said: “You do whatever you want; the job offer is going to be online tomorrow”. The drive back to Paris took 4 hours; I kept thinking about that. I was like, you know what? Opportunities, if they do knock, they don’t knock twice. In the morning, I went to Agence Nationale du Sport a bit earlier. I prepared a cover letter really fast, and I thought: “I can actually use this opportunity; Sciences Po is my home. So is Menton.” The more I thought about that, the more I had ideas, because you need to come with a project: what you want to do as a director in Menton. I was thinking about that, and then I had many interviews, and then it worked really fast because he called me on June 20th, and I think I signed the contract at the end of July. 

And finally… some rapid-fire questions!

What’s your favorite book? 

“The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas

Favorite film? 

“Nothing Hill.” For my 25th birthday, my sister gifted me a poster because she went there to take some photos. 

Paris or Menton?

Paris. This is what we say for the football team: Paris is magic. Paris is the capital of France. It's my home, to tell the truth. Here it’s also my home, but if I had to choose, I would choose Paris — The opportunities, the beauty, the city open to the world, and my friends are there. 

You speak 5 languages (French, Arabic, English, Spanish, and Russian): which one is your favorite? 

Spanish. I was born with two languages: French and Arabic. In France, many people saw me as a Tunisian, and in Tunisia, people saw me as French. So I never really felt at home anywhere, except in Spain. Because the language is a bit in between. It’s a Latin language, but it has a lot of Arabic influence, especially in the south. In Spanish culture, people are really sociable and friendly; football, tennis, a southern country. When I hear Spanish from Spain, I feel happy. I don't know where it came from, but it's the country of my heart. If I have to choose, it's Spanish. 

Photo Source: Maryna Ulynska