Dear President Fenves,
As Emory University faculty — including teaching assistants, graduate assistants, postdoctoral fellows, visiting faculty, teaching-track faculty and tenure-track faculty — and staff, we express our support for the Graduate Student Government Association (GSGA) Bill B7.4. Based on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, this bill proposes to divest GSGA’s $1.4 million budget from products that have upheld Israeli apartheid or have contributed to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and theft of Palestinian land.
Palestinian civil society organizations — including unions, universities and grassroots organizations — released the BDS call in 2005, pushing for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights. Graduate students’ support for this global movement demonstrates their commitment to not just studying social justice concepts at Emory in the abstract but also applying them in direct response to settler colonialism and the grave human rights abuses that are central to the movement.
The referendum vote on this bill, which some students hoped would begin on April 1, represents students’ democratic right to vote on and divest their own funds. It also represents the cumulative will of the graduate student body. However, the Student Involvement, Leadership, and Transitions office attempted to remove B7.4 from the ballot, claiming it does not comply with the process and policies of GSGA governing documents. Yet the administration has never inquired about the process, nor did it request any documentation about the process, which has been approved by the Elections Board.
As faculty and staff, we are dismayed by this attempt to repress graduate students’ democratic process. We support the autonomy of GSGA and the graduate student body to democratically decide how their money is used. A number of leading peer institutions such as Princeton University (N.J.), Columbia University (N.Y.), the University of California, Los Angeles, Brown University (R.I.), Stanford University (Calif.) and the University of Chicago have already taken this step. As campus workers bearing witness to genocide and Emory’s complicity with it, it is our responsibility to hold our university accountable. GSGA is a leader in this fight at Emory.
In solidarity,
Amelia Ali, English
Anna Mullany, Rollins School of Public Health
Betty Bekele, Neuroscience
Christopher Spaide, Fox Center for Humanisitic Inquiry
Clare McCarthy, Rollins School of Public Health
Conjay Dahn, Rollins School of Public Health
Courtney Bowden, Religion
David Nugent
Dee Roberts, Candler School of Theology
Dilek Huseyinzadegan, Philosophy
Donna McDermott, Writing
Emil’ Keme, English
Everet Smith, Philosophy
Faizan Tariq, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Geoff Goodman, Candler School of Theology
Hayley McMahon, Rollins School of Public Health
Hazem Ziada, Research Scholar, Candler School of Theology
Henry Kahn, Emeritus, Family and Preventive Medicine
Imani Belton, Rollins School of Public Health
Jadelynn Zhang, Sociology
Jazzy Johnson, Religion
Joshua Mousie, Philosophy (Oxford College)
Julian Currents, Writing
Julio Medina, Theater and Dance
- Rene Odanga, History
Laura Nenzi, History
Lisa Thompson, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
Madelyn Carlson, Rollins School of Public Health
Marina Magloire, English
Marta Jimenez, Philosophy
Mayra Sainz, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
Melissa Yang, English
Mengnan Wu
Michael Kramer, Rollins School of Public Health
Natalie Olson, Rollins School of Public Health
Neha Gupta, Math
Nicholas Fesette, Theater (Oxford College)
Punreep Sahota, Rollins School of Public Health
Rinchen Thakur, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Saffy Carson, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Sameena Mulla, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Sasha Tycko, Anthropology
Scott Kugle, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies
Sean Meighoo, Comparative Literature
Shromona Mandal, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Stu Marvel, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Tara Nancy Doyle, Candler School of Theology
Tasfia Jahangir
Umaymah, Sociology
Vani Kannan, Writing
Victor Omni, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Whitney, Epidemiology
