University President James W. Wagner discussed a range of topics, from his recent Emory Magazine column to sexual assault prevention and race, during an open forum hosted by the Wheel yesterday evening.
The event began with an introduction by the Wheel‘s Editor-in-Chief and College junior Arianna Skibell, who focused the forum on the question, “How will we and President Wagner move us forward as a University?”
During the conversation with Wagner, students tweeted their questions to the Wheel‘s Twitter account and sent their questions to Wheel‘s Facebook.
Along with Skibell, the Wheel‘s Managing Editor and College junior Lane Billings and Features Editor and College sophomore Nicholas Bradley moderated the evening’s conversation.
Wagner began the discussion by explaining the controversy surrounding his Emory Magazine column that included the Three-Fifths Compromise.
He said he has learned that the compromise is widely understood as the epitome of slavery and therefore, he said, is an entity itself that is hurtful to a large number of people.
Sexual Prevention and Awareness
Skibell began the forum session with a focus on sexual assault prevention and awareness. The Wheel reported on Nov. 5 that at that time seven cases of rape had been reported since August.
“Are there concrete plans to do something about the elevated number of reports?” Skibell asked Wagner.
Wagner said the question people need to ask is how to deal with these cases – either as a conduct case on par with underage drinking or as another type of case.
“Our folks do study the processes that do and don’t work on campus,” Wagner said.
Wagner said the Conduct Council is a part of the process of dealing with sexual assault. Still, one audience member tweeted to the Wheel that even as a member of the Conduct Council she has never been confronted with a sexual assault conduct case.
Skibell also asked, “How do we establish a culture where using alcohol as an excuse isn’t acceptable?”
“I don’t believe that alcohol.edu or a couple days of conversation during Orientation…is anything more than the beginning,” Wagner said. He said there might not be a straightforward answer.
Race and Social Justice
Wagner discussed micro-aggressions – which are mostly non-physical daily interactions that remind people that they are different – to macro-aggressions – larger systematic issues like incidents in fraternities on Eagle Row.
“I don’t think you address micro-aggressions by writing a list … There is something about respect, hospitality and charity,” Wagner said.
By valuing those three factors, Wagner said, the Emory community could overcome these micro-aggressions.
Black Star Magazine tweeted to the Wheel: “What steps are the Emory [administration] taking to ensure that minority population interests are represented throughout all divisions of the University? At times, it seems as if different practices and policies of one division are at odds with another.”
Wagner responded that the University needs to look at its hiring practices to gain an engaged community that “really means it.”
He also mentioned that the Campus Life committee on inclusivity has set up mechanisms to hold people accountable.
A Facebook question from Laura Emiko Soltis (’12G) asked how the majority-white and male Board of Trustees as well as the President’s cabinet is “working to ensure equity and social justice for the lowest paid workers on campus” who are mostly African American and Hispanic.
Wagner mentioned recommendations that were detailed in a recent Committee on Class and Labor study.
A follow-up question asked if the University as a whole is going to have any actions to address the cycle of poverty amongst contracted workers on campus.
“I don’t know what the resource requirements are,” Wagner said. “Am I ready to say we would harmonize all of the benefits? No, I am not ready to say that.”
He added that he simply does not have an answer to that question at this point. While the process seems frustratingly slow, Wagner said, that is the way it needs to be done to properly address the issue.
Advocacy For Liberal Arts
Skibell asked Wagner about his vision of a liberal arts education.
Wagner said the liberal arts should focus on three main components. In addition to making students critical thinkers, a liberal arts education should build individual character and give people the “capacity for enjoyment,” he said. He added that the liberal arts and humanities are under attack in society.
Skibell asked about what new initiatives will be implemented since the department changes announced last fall. Wagner responded that Dean of the College Robin Forman has a list of areas of development and that this question would be better for him to answer.
Skibell said it did not seem like those areas were fleshed out yet.
In addition, an audience member asked, “Don’t you think students should play a role in the direction of the University?”
“It will make you angry for me to tell you that I think the answer to that is mixed,” Wagner replied. “I think there are certain things the University should offer … and invite students to come and enjoy and gain from what we have. We can’t, under the circumstances of our time, provide all programs to all people. We just can’t.”
College sophomore Brigid Choi asked through Facebook whether the department changes make Emory more focused on the parents’ goal rather than those of the students.
“It’s not – it can’t be about simply listening to what parents are willing to pay for,” Wagner said.
Wagner also addressed the recent Laney vote, in which 68 percent of voters voted no confidence in Wagner.
Twenty-two percent of the Laney student body participated in the vote. He noted “there is still some listening and discussions that need to be done.”
Reactions
Choi said she came to the forum because she is really worried about the arts at Emory.
She had asked the question about Emory adhering to the goals of parents rather than students. She said Wagner did not acknowledge “that the whole structure [of Emory] is geared toward the people giving money.”
“I felt like a lot of the things he said were really hypocritical,” Choi said.
She said Wagner mentioned that the liberal arts are under attack nationally when he himself does not support them.
“I don’t really know how I feel right now, but I know I don’t really trust him, and I know he doesn’t really care about me,” she said.
Soltis said Wagner deferred the students to information that was already released.
“I was disappointed but not particularly surprised that he failed to answer the large majority of student’s questions,” she said.
Soltis, who asked the question about the contracted workers on campus, said Wagner has been asked that question in the past and has not improved his answer.
“I continue to be disappointed in President Wagner’s disrespect toward students that he won’t answer our questions,” Soltis said. “I’m hopeful in the student body that we are asking the right questions.”
– By Karishma Mehrotra
Photo by James Crissman
The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.
The Wheel is financially and editorially independent from the University. All of its content is generated by the Wheel’s more than 100 student staff members and contributing writers, and its printing costs are covered by profits from self-generated advertising sales.
“there is still some listening and discussions that need to be done”
sounds like another extended, thoroughly vapid public forum performance is coming up, this time for the LGS!
admittedly there’s some truth to what he’s saying. if he just keeps “listening” and doing jack eventually people will be so disgusted they’ll just walk. that’s how wagner understands “discussion” with his inferiors more generally.
Jim Wagner in a nutshell: “He said there might not be a straightforward answer.”
The question has never been about Wagner’s accessibility, but about Wagner’s accountability.
It’s a shame how Wagner so eagerly denigrated students’ voices and democratic participation by stating matter-of-factly: “Only twenty-two percent of the Laney student body participated in the vote.” But in touting the majority faculty vote, he conveniently neglects to mention that Laney students turned out in greater numbers in 12 hours than faculty did in one week. He also neglects to mention that FORTY PERCENT of voting faculty have no confidence in his competence to lead Emory University.
In the last GSC elections, only 90 people voted. Which means that when the opportunity came to vote on Wagner, turnout went up fivefold.
“Still, one audience member tweeted to the Wheel that even as a member of the Conduct Council she has never been confronted with a sexual assault conduct case.”
I don’t think that means cases aren’t adjudicated. I looked on the conduct website and it says:
“It is a common misnomer for members of the community to refer to the Council Council generally as the body responsible for administering the Code. The University Conduct Council is a hearing body, but the Office of Student Conduct is the administrative unit of the University responsible for undergraduate students’ non-academic misconduct.”
So from that I think that the Conduct Council might not be used for everything. I imagine it’s (rightfully) up to the survivor to choose whether he/she/ze wants to initiate the conduct process (and that’s okay because the survivor should have the power to take the actions that feel best for him/her/hir). Plus the Office of Student Conduct is only for undergraduate students, not graduate/professional students. I don’t think every student on the Conduct Council sits for every single case. And honestly I don’t know that if I were a survivor of sexual violence that I would want my experience to be assessed by other students who have a varied level of sensitivity and expertise, and to be honest maturity levels. Personally I would feel nervous that a student wouldn’t honor confidentiality or be completely immune to the influence of rape culture.
“‘I don’t really know how I feel right now, but I know I don’t really trust him, and I know he doesn’t really care about me.'”
The college is one academic unit of a research institution with 15,000+ students that also manages like two hospitals and a ton of other things that I was too lazy to research. I don’t think it’s that Wagner was unwilling to answer questions — it didn’t seem like he knew all of the questions that were going to be asked so he couldn’t prepare tons in advance. Plus he’s got people who are tasked to be the primary contacts for some of the specific questions (and he said that!) so he probably doesn’t want to give inaccurate answers by speculating on things that in my assessment aren’t his job at the end of the day. Especially to a room of people who are recording him.
This is probably a sweeping generalization but: I think it’s probably better for students who are extremely passionate or concerned about specific subjects to go to the point-people. They’re the ones who deal with these issues on a day-to-day basis and can affect change. I’m glad that President Wagner took the time to do this. I don’t think the questions that were asked were unimportant, I just wish the questions were better tailored for Wagner’s position.
Wagner valiantly fighting the forces of specificity and coherence. Is there anything this guy can’t change into platitudes and gook?
Here’s Jim Wagner comparing the fight against institutional racism and respect for food allergies at a dinner party:
“Students had some amazing stories about this phenomenon of “microaggression.” Actually, that’s a word that goes back to the 1970s, I learned. But it’s incidences day by day that remind people that they’re different. …The examples go on and on, to actually some outright, not micro- but I would say macroaggression activities that have occurred from time to time on Fraternity Row. …There is something about respect, hospitality, and charity. … If you were gonna host people at your home, at your apartment, wherever you are, but you were going to host them for an event – maybe it’s a dinner – you would ask, “Does anybody that I’m inviting have food allergies, or food preferences? Does anybody need certain accommodations? Does anybody -” I mean, but why does that only happen, your sense of hospitality is only when it’s around events like that?”
I take my back my previous assessments of Jim Wagner as a cynical buffoon, and now instead am merely amazed that a dozen ducks in a man costume have been able to perform as a somewhat credible, bottom-of-top-twenty-university president for so long.
Why is Wagner the President of Emory University?
Wagner is not making a move without advice from his managers. Just watch how carefully orchestrated the next few weeks will be….
Right on. We all know that his plan is to survive the semester in order to negotiate a million dollar severance package upon his retirement. After having weaseled $12 million+ from Emory since 2003, watching this man fumble around about charity while claiming that Emory doesn’t have the resources to combat worker poverty is beyond sickening. President Wagner’s ego and personal greed has sucked the integrity out of this institution.
Emory doesn’t need to combat worker poverty. It is not a government organization or charity for helping the poor. These students who are protesting the pay of staff workers have no idea what they are talking about. Has the previous poster ever run a business? You can’t pay above market wages for unskilled workers in this country. The end customers (tuition paying students) are not going to pay higher prices for the same crappy level of service. The problem with this country is that there are too many people who just freeload off everyone else. Almost half the country pays nothing in taxes. They contribute nothing to the state yet constantly demand more services! There is no way to pay for all of these anti-poverty programs that liberals want. Absolutely no way! Even if we raised taxes on the rich to 70%, we wouldn’t be able to pay for the current amount of government spending without borrowing money. Unless you can convince a majority of middle class people to pay over 50% of their income in taxes, so that they can subsidize poor people having even more children, we’re not going to get rid of poverty. Even with high taxes, we wouldn’t have the same high quality public services that they do in Europe. I’ve lived in Europe and you don’t have as many completely unskilled workers as you do in the US. It’s much easier to give everyone decent wages, when almost everyone pulls their weight. If you could do simple math, you would realize that with rising pension and healthcare costs there is not going to be any money to combat worker poverty at Emory or in the US overall. I wonder how many of these people who demand that Emory’s contract workers get more money are here on financial aid. Those who don’t pay the bills have no problem demanding the University spend more money.
Where’s the “eminence” in our institutional leadership? If a ranking of university presidents were compiled, where would Wagner find himself on that list? Why should we tolerate mediocrity at the helm when we’re so aspirational and eminent ourselves? Those not so-deemed were summarily jettisoned in the fall…because you know we can’t do everything. Not that anyone was arguing we should do everything, but anyway that’s how real compromise in the service of noble aspirations works y’all.
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