The Emory University Senate shared a report with the Office of the President and the Board of Trustees outlining polls, resolutions, motions and referendums conducted by the Senate’s constituent groups following the administration’s response to pro-Palestinian protests on April 25, which ended when police officers arrested 28 protestors. Constituent groups include organizations of faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, staff and alumni.
University Senate President and Professor of Law George Shepherd said that he believes the Board of Trustees is meeting in September. He expects that the board will not consider the Senate’s report until then.
Faculty
The University’s Faculty Council did not take action following the events of April 25. However, faculty across several of Emory’s individual schools expressed their opinions on the matter.
The report revealed that the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing faculty rejected two motions condemning the Emory administration’s handling of April 25. The first motion of censure did not pass on May 17 after 44 faculty members (43.1%) voted for the motion, 48 (47.1%) voted against it and 10 abstained (9.8%). The motion would have condemned University President Gregory Fenves for calling “external security forces, the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, and the arrest of students, faculty, and/or staff.”
The nursing school’s faculty also rejected a motion of no confidence and request for redress on May 9, with 27 faculty members (26%) voting for the motion, 65 (62.5%) voting against it and 12 (11.5%) abstaining. The motion condemned the administration’s decision to call the Atlanta Police Department (APD) and Georgia State Patrol (GSP). This came shortly after Georgia Department of Public Safety Public Information Officer Courtney Lund wrote in an email to the Wheel that the Emory Police Department put out a call for GSP’s assistance. However, APD Executive Director of Public Affairs Chata Spikes stated several weeks later that APD, not EPD, had actually called GSP.
The failed motion also condemned the use of force and “violence” and the arrests of faculty, students and “members of the Atlanta community,” and rejected “false” statements made by Fenves and other members of Emory’s administration about April 25. Both motions demanded to drop charges against arrested Emory community members and for the University to cover the arrestees’ legal and health expenses.
Goizueta Business School’s full-time faculty also voted against holding a vote of no confidence in Fenves. Of the 61 faculty members who participated in the poll between May 3 and May 5, 42 (68.9%) indicated that they did not want to hold a vote of no confidence while 19 (31.1%) voted in favor of holding a vote of no confidence.
The Senate’s report stated that faculty members in the Emory School of Law, Emory School of Medicine and Emeritus College did not hold votes on the Emory administration’s actions regarding the events of April 25. Laney Graduate School also did not respond.
However, faculty in several schools on Emory’s campus passed votes against the University’s response to the pro-Palestinian protest. The Emory College of Arts and Sciences faculty voted that they did not have confidence in Fenves on May 3, with 358 (75.1%) of the participating faculty voting in favor of the motion. A few days earlier, over 90% of Oxford College faculty voted against Fenves.
On May 6, the Candler School of Theology passed a resolution on the use of law enforcement on campus in regard to April 25 and a vote to censure Fenves and Emory’s administration. The resolution, which stated that the University should provide transparent guidelines for the use of external law enforcement on campus, passed with 40 (95.2%) votes in favor and two (4.8%) votes against it. The vote to censure Fenves and the University administration passed with 26 (61.9%) votes in favor, 15 (35.7%) votes against and one (2.4%) abstention.
The Rollins School of Public Health Faculty Council voted that they did not have confidence in Fenves in a ranked-choice voting procedure. In the first round of voting, 80 (47.3%) faculty members voted no confidence, 46 (27.2%) voted to censure and 43 (25.4%) voted that the council should take no action. The choice of no action was removed for the second round of analysis due to receiving the lowest number of votes. In the second round, 86 (50.9%) faculty members voted no confidence, 69 (40.8%) voted to censure and 14 (8.3%) abstained. The motion stated that the university administrations’ actions do not align with the beliefs of Rollins or its faculty. Additionally, the motion by faculty demanded that all charges against arrestees be dropped.
Undergraduate students
Every student government association that represents a specific undergraduate student body at Emory — College Council, the Emory Student Nurses Association, the Bachelor of Business Administration Council and Oxford College Student Government Association — either voted no confidence in Fenves or called for the removal of the president. Emory’s Student Government Association did not hold a vote internally but facilitated a referendum that allowed all undergraduate students to vote on their confidence in Fenves, which resulted in the plurality of students voting no confidence. Of the 3,401 votes cast, 2,499 students (73.5%) voted that they have no confidence in the president.
Graduate students
Despite the widespread referendums among undergraduate students, no graduate student government group held a vote to assess students’ feelings on the events of April 25 or their confidence in Fenves, according to the Senate report. This includes the Graduate Student Government Association, Candler Coordinating Council, Graduate Business Association, Graduate Nursing Council, Laney Graduate Student Council, Medical Student Senate and Rollins Student Government Association.
Post-doctoral fellows
Like the graduate student government groups, the Emory Postdoctoral Association also did not hold a vote related to the University’s actions on April 25.
Staff
The Emory Staff Council distributed a survey to staff members across the University between May 9 and May 15. Of the 698 votes cast, 482 (69.1%) voted that the staff should formally respond to the Emory administration’s actions and 216 (30.9%) voted that the staff should not respond.
In a question assessing how they believe staff should respond, 405 staff members (58%) voted that Emory should review its criteria for calling outside law enforcement, 351 (50.3%) voted that Emory should review its open expression policy, 325 (46.6%) voted to recommend an external investigation of the events of April 25 by the University Senate, 308 (44.1%) voted that Emory should review its encampment policy and 278 (39.8%) voted to hold a vote of no confidence.
Alumni
The Emory Alumni Board also did not hold a vote related to April 25.
