Ninety percent of University President James W. Wagner's response for his controversial column on compromise has been taken down.
The full statement appears to have been truncated to include only the first 71 words of Wagner's 687-word response before directing readers to the Emory News Center and an article written by Nancy Seideman, the associate vice president of university communications.
Published in the winter issue of Emory Magazine, the piece sparked local and national outrage two weeks ago when Wagner upheld the Three-Fifths Compromise as an example of political compromise. By Sunday, Feb. 17, Wagner had added a statement to the column, clarifying his opposition to slavery and explaining what he intended to say.
A Google-cached version of the webpage shows that as of Friday, Feb. 22, the full response was still on the page. The page, though, was updated on Sunday, Feb. 24.
Editor of Emory Magazine Paige Parvin responded in an email to the Wheel saying that "based on community feedback, it was obvious that the essential part of President Wagner's statement was the apology in the first paragraph. The remainder reiterated the argument in his original column and was not adding to the conversation."
Many, though, found Wagner's response to be insufficient. As previously reported, at a monthly College faculty meeting, one faculty member criticized Wagner since "part of his explanation was an apology for hurting feelings."
"We need to be attentive that hurting feelings is not the issue here," the faculty member said. "It's not against the law to hurt feelings, but in a democracy, it's unethical to contribute to the culture of discrimination, and I think that's what this statement did."
– By Evan Mah
