Following the violent arrests of about two dozen students and three faculty members on Thursday when law enforcement disbanded a pro-Palestine encampment on Emory’s quad, Emory College of Arts and Sciences faculty senate Friday called for a no confidence vote against university president Gregory Fenves.
The call for a college-wide faculty vote came during an emergency faculty senate meeting for the College of Arts and Sciences. Hundreds of faculty packed the Math and Science Center auditorium at 1 p.m. on April 26 to debate both censuring Fenves and holding a no-confidence vote. By 2:30 p.m. the faculty senate had resolved to hold a no-confidence vote electronically by next week.
“It’s the most profound statement that faculty can make about their feelings about a university administration,” said Pamela Scully, a professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
It also puts Emory’s board of trustees “on notice” and tells the students that the faculty stands with them, Scully said. Fenves can only be voted out by the board of trustees.
“Generally there was a feeling of outrage that this administration had called police on students and faculty,” Scully said of the sentiment at the faculty senate meeting. “There was no attempt to de-escalate at all. It just went immediately to brutality, so people are really outraged,” she added.
Student activists Thursday morning set up a tent encampment on the quad demanding Emory’s total divestment from “Israeli apartheid” and “Cop City” — referring to the controversial police and fire training facility planned for the South Atlanta Forest.
The action followed similar ones by students at numerous other U.S. universities in the past week, starting on April 17 with an encampment at New York’s Columbia University.
Notably, the Emory administration summoned outside law enforcement within three hours of tents being pitched. The Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol, acting with the go-ahead from the Emory Police Department and administration, used tear gas and pepper balls to forcibly disperse otherwise peaceful demonstrators.
Right after the arrests on Thursday morning, Fenves tried to cast the activists as outside agitators. “These individuals are largely not affiliated with Emory,” the Emory president said in an email to the university community.
But of the 28 people arrested, at least 20 were from Emory, according to a subsequent Emory email to the university community on Thursday evening. That included three professors who reproached police for forcibly arresting students.
Even so, Fenves doubled down on the “outside agitator” characterization in a follow-up message to the Emory community on Friday. “I am saddened by what took place at Emory yesterday. To watch these highly organized, outside protestors arrive on campus in vans, construct an encampment, and overtake the Quad just days after it was vandalized with hateful and threatening messages was deeply disturbing,” he said in the email.
“I also know that some of the videos [on social media] are shocking, and I am horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions,” Fenves continued.
“The optics of setting the police on primarily Black and brown students, and the rhetoric of calling them ‘outside agitators,’ you know, has a certain ring about it that Emory should not be perpetuating and should not be proud of,” Scully said after the faculty senate meeting on Friday.
The Thursday morning protest on the quad was followed by an evening protest at the Candler School of Theology. In his Friday email Fenves said: “Emory staff from Facilities Management have returned to the Quad to repair the damage caused by a group of individuals who did not have this community’s best interests in mind. Dedicated staff members will then resume the work of preparing our facilities as we welcome thousands of families, parents, and guests to campus for our Commencement ceremonies.”
Emory’s commencement ceremony is scheduled for May 13.
This is absolutely nonsense and this article should be removed immediately for promoting falsehoods and propaganda. As a former Emory student I have seen the protests is spray painting “death to America” and “death to Israel” on 100 year old buildings a peaceful protest? I think not! Fact check before you post such a ridiculous article. The majority of Emory students support how the president is handling this and you should be ashamed for posting an article with such falsehoods
As neighbors, we recalled the same ‘death to Israel’ event ; immediately yard signs reading “We Stand With Emory Students” blanketed neighborhoods near Emory; however, notice the LOCAL SILENCE after Emory students protesting SLAUGHTER are tear-gassed, tazer’d, brutally body slammed, and cuffed while dodging rubber bullets. President Fenves letter to staff is a FALSE STATEMENT. What a LOSER AND COWARD to run back to his Lullwater Mansion for safety while his own Faculty and Students are beaten-up by APD-KKK-IDF thugs that he called. F—->>> goes down Fenves! I doubt UT Austin wants you back either. The exodus from Zionism Bus has left the station and it’s not coming back. Get on the bus or go live in a zionist biosphere….with Ben Gvir and Smotrich.
Fenves continues to repeat the lie about ‘outside protesters’ ; 20 of the 28 arrested were Emory Students and Faculty. As President, Fenves is not in compliance with Emory’s honor code or code of conduct regarding expectations of students.