Mira Gurock (26B) was fired on Monday from her role as College Council vice president of budgets for actions resulting in a “data leak” of a section of Emory Students for Justice in Palestine’s (ESJP) budget, according to an email College Council President Jannat Khan (25C) sent to the governing body. Gurock leaked the image to a former Emory University student who works with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, raising concerns that the budget indicated ESJP had plans to host a “flag memorial” on Oct. 7 in honor of the Palestinians killed during the Israel-Hamas war.
In the following days, Gurock’s actions have been debated by those involved. Gurock maintains that she did not violate the College Council Constitution, noting that the document does not have a provision ensuring the privacy of data related to an organization’s budget. On the other hand, Khan said that Gurock was in the wrong for sharing the budget, pointing to the fact that privacy concerns related to financial information are confidential according to the Student Government Association Constitution, which College Council operates under.
The leaked image also included the name of the ESJP member who was serving as the group’s treasurer at the time the budget was submitted. This comes amid allegations of hostility toward pro-Palestinian students on campus, with the ESJP member noting that the leak creates privacy concerns. The member requested to remain anonymous to avoid harassment.
Gurock said that it was not her intention to spread the ESJP member’s name and pointed out that the group’s roster is already accessible to any Emory community member on the Hub.
The ESJP member said that even though Emory students can find their names on the Hub, people not affiliated with Emory cannot log in and see the roster, so it is still a “breach of trust.”
Khan also emphasized that sharing both budgetary information as well as students’ personal information with people outside of College Council broke established expectations of privacy. Specifically, the image broke down ESJP’s proposed budget for an event on the Emory University Quadrangle, which included red, white, green and black flags, Palestinian flags and tarps, to put together a memorial for those “killed at the one-year anniversary of the current genocide,” according to a copy of ESJP’s budget obtained by The Emory Wheel. The budget listed Oct. 7 as the event’s date.
However, the ESJP member told the Wheel that Oct. 7 was a tentative date, and the group is currently planning the memorial for that week but have not picked an exact day yet. They added that it is still possible ESJP will hold the event on Oct. 7, which would mark the one-year anniversary of when Hamas killed over 1,200 people in Israel. Since then, Israel has engaged in a bombing campaign that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.
“That day was very sad for Israel, but also, it was the start of a one-year bombing campaign and invasion campaign for Palestinians, so that day is just as important to Israelis as it is to Palestinians,” the ESJP member said. “I’m not against putting it on the seventh … I don’t think it would be the wisest day to put it, but … I’m always open to having a conversation with people.”
In an interview with the Wheel, Gurock said she sent a section of the budget to a former student because she was concerned that a memorial for Palestinian lives on the one-year anniversary of the attack on Israel would cause “unnecessary and unfortunate conflict on campus.” Gurock clarified that she was solely concerned with the date and was not against the event itself.
“Having an event that is to memorialize the murder of Palestinians on the anniversary of a day that many more Israelis were murdered is insensitive,” Gurock said. “It’s intentional.”
Gurock said that she tried to organize a conversation with ESJP leaders about moving the date from Oct. 7 but alleged that Khan did not allow her to do so. Khan, however, said she never told Gurock that she could not have a conversation with ESJP but rather said that College Council upper level executives could not make a statement condemning the memorial.
In the email to College Council legislators, Khan added that she believed in second chances when executives make mistakes.
“As such, we assumed best intent and set up a meeting with the VP,” Khan wrote. “We did not receive assurance that a breach wouldn’t reoccur, nor was an apology issued to the students implicated.”
However, Gurock said that Khan never requested or gave her the opportunity to apologize. College Council Vice President Finn Johnston (25C) corroborated this claim in an email to the Wheel.
However, College Council Chief of Staff Grecia Perez Gomez (26C), who attended a meeting between upper executives and Gurock to discuss the leak, said that Gurock had multiple opportunities to apologize during the meeting but did not do so.
“We obviously expressed our disappointment in [the privacy breach], and then also remained open to the idea that there needs to be a discussion about this event,” Khan said. “But there was a lot of blame placed in … why are were allowing the event to happen when we couldn’t authoritatively go and stop it.”
Khan said that the executive board of College Council unanimously decided to fire Gurock, but she feels as if Gurock is singling her out, which Khan alleged could be due to her Muslim identity.
“It was a decision between four people, and we were very clear in citing the policy and privacy violations as the reason for that,” Khan said. “So unfortunately, it just feels discriminatory.”
Gurock, however, said that she was concerned by the lack of religious diversity on College Council. When asked if College Council is a safe space for Jewish students, Gurock thought for a moment before responding: “No.”
“I don’t feel unsafe as a Jew on this campus, but I think that I wouldn’t be surprised if Jewish students are feeling discouraged by College Council’s decision and by the lack of religious diversity,” Gurock said.
Johnston told the Wheel that students should feel safe expressing their concerns to College Council.
“Students are free to criticize our personal choices and urge us to do better,” Johnston wrote. “While I have not heard from any student before that CC is not a safe space for Jewish students, I would be happy to have a conversation to improve our environment if that is how people are feeling.”
