Statement of Demands -

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STUDENT STATEMENT EMORY LAW STUDENTS WALK-OUT IN SOLIDARITY ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 FROM 3-4 PM (September 17, 2021) “These senseless acts strike at the heart of Emory’s commitment to upholding equity, diversity, and inclusion. Now, more than ever, we must stand together against intolerance and racism.” – President Fenves (August 13, 2020) It is vital that anyone who steps foot on the campus of Emory University School of Law is warmly welcomed, regardless of their background or identity. Our core values are inclusiveness, diversity, and respect for our fellow students, faculty, staff, and anyone else who calls Emory their home. We as students do not ask for transparency; we demand it. In the wake of professors using racial and homophobic slurs in class, students and faculty have expressed dismay and outrage about the lack of response from Emory Administration. Despite Emory Administration’s knowledge of the pattern of discriminatory language used by its professors, it continues to falsely justify this practice as “academic” rhetoric with a pedagogical purpose. Emory Administration failed to adequately address the two distinct harms that the professors caused in using racial and homophobic slurs. Specifically, the administration has issued boilerplate public responses, which do not contemplate prospective prevention or accountability for bigotry at Emory Law. As President Fenves emphasized, “it is our duty to speak up - to not be silenced - so that injustice could be rooted out and overcome.” We expect from the University that these words translate into tangible action. Our thoughts are with the students, faculty, and staff who feel threatened and unsafe on our campus, as well as those nationwide who are affected by derogatory rhetoric that enables and promotes systemic discrimination. We stand together to unite individuals from all marginalized backgrounds and the allies of these communities. We are disappointed to see that the institution in which we pour our financial resources, dedication, and time has not responded appropriately to our years of concerns of open hate and intolerance on our campus. We stand in solidarity against hate and intolerance in all forms, whether it is from our own professors, students, or from outside individuals to whom Emory chooses to give a platform. Publicly-issued statements are an important affirmation of values, and as future attorneys we understand the power of language as a tool to create social change. Words devoid of action, however, will not create material improvement in our institution and environment. To this end, we demand the following: 1. Emory University must amend its Open Expression Policy and Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy, and do a complete reformation of its Open Expression Committee. As a private institution, Emory University has the latitude to structure and tailor its academic and institutional framework with regard to speech. Emory’s current policies and public responses to the use of derogatory language have shown that it chooses to protect hate speech despite no legal obligation to do so. The University’s Open Expression Policy is broadly permissive to speakers and prioritizes a speaker’s hateful speech over discrimination and harassment. Further, dissent, a likely outcome when the University invites speakers who spew hateful speech, is the sole category of speech restricted by the Policy. Meanwhile, the University’s Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy outlines the importance of academic freedom, including a commitment to “the widest possible scope for the free circulation of ideas.” Neither academic freedom nor the free circulation of ideas is at danger here. The use of slurs is most likely to arise from discussions of oppression, bigotry, and violence. Certainly Emory faculty and students are capable of addressing these sensitive issues without directly using words that evoke such visceral, painful reactions. In fact, Emory faculty has demonstrated that they are indeed able to do so. Not once has the use of a slur in a classroom setting demonstrably advanced a student’s education at Emory Law, and to pretend the use of a slur conveys a concept more deeply than simply referencing the slur is intellectually dishonest. If the live use of slurs in a classroom – as distinct from reference to those slurs, or their appearance in scholarly materials – has a pedagogical purpose, what is it? The University has failed to clearly articulate and cite to authority how such language uttered in a classroom enriches the academic experience, especially when balanced against the (faculty-recognized) immense pain and alienation the use of slurs inflicts on students of marginalized identities. A restriction on the live use of the n-word, for example, is not at all a restriction on the discussion of the idea of racism, which is what the University aims to protect. Similarly, one would not argue that a classroom discussion focusing on the idea of homicide in all its myriad forms is incomplete without a live demonstration. Students can read descriptions of homicide; they can listen to someone recount their experience with homicide; and they can watch a video displaying a homicide. All of these forms of scholarly material remain available to professors as they seek to foster intellectual discussions of a sensitive and oftentimes contentious topic, keeping intact the University’s commitment to academic freedom. We demand amendments to Emory’s Open Expression Policy and its Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy. In its current iteration, the Open Expression Policy authorizes and protects hateful speech at the expense of marginalized students who are directly harmed by such speech and whose education is severely disrupted as a result. Similarly, Emory’s Equal Opportunity and Discriminatory Harassment Policy, which houses the “academic freedom” doctrine, authorizes and protects hateful speech from professors so long as the professor claims it has pedagogical value. These policies must be updated to advance Emory’s stated values of diversity, inclusion, and respect. We also demand a reformation of the Open Expression Committee. There is a clear conflict of interest in having professors who use hateful rhetoric – and double down on their decisions to do so rather than make amends with the harmed parties – to then be in positions of power to draft and implement policies to protect and proliferate their hateful ideologies in academic settings. We need competent professors who understand intersectionality in these positions of power. 2. Emory University must provide additional funding for Emory Law’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are core values of Emory University. We demand that Emory University directly invest in the Office of DEI at Emory Law. As a graduate school under Emory University, there is no reason that Emory University is not more invested in its own graduate school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts as well as its graduate BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students. Importantly, the lack of support and financial investment for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students from Emory University can be directly linked to the consistent bigotry that takes place on its own campus. We demand that Emory University increase funding to Emory Law’s Office of DEI, and we demand that there be full transparency behind the financing of Emory Law DEI. 3. Emory Law must implement critical race theory into the legal curriculum. There is no reason for critical race theory to not be integrated into our curriculum. USC Gould School of Law has already implemented a required class covering race, racism, and the law. Not a single one of the past four years at Emory Law has been free of incidents in which professors used derogatory language to teach discrimination in the law. This fact alone speaks to the importance of understanding critical race theory for law students. As future attorneys, we would be ill-equipped to represent our future clients without this crucial academic training. We demand that critical race theory be integrated into our curriculum in the Spring 2022 semester and be mandatory for all students to take thereafter. 4. Emory Law administration must set up an accountability process for professors who use slurs. There have been five known instances of professors using slurs in Emory Law classes over the past four years. Despite this, Emory Law’s administration has failed to take any proactive and preventative measures and have failed to institute repercussions for professors who continue to cause distress for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students. An accountability process for professors should have been put in place after the first instance. However, it has fallen upon Emory Law students to demand that our administration take action after enduring this trauma five times. The administration must take a strong stance against every instance of bigotry from professors. It is the administration’s responsibility to provide resources to distressed students after every instance. Though it is unfortunate that Emory Law’s administration must implement an accountability process for its faculty, it is not alarming in light of the frequency with which professors are using slurs in class. 5. Emory Law must implement a reporting mechanism for students through Emory Law’s Office of DEI. There is currently no mechanism to report instances of hate crimes at Emory Law. As a result, these traumatic instances go unaddressed and unresolved. There is no singular point of contact to which Emory Law students can report and from whom students can expect a response to their particular concerns. This opaque process has allowed Emory Law’s administration to escape accountability repeatedly, and has enabled the proliferation of hateful rhetoric against BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students in recent years. To adequately provide a safe learning environment for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students, we demand that Emory Law’s Office of DEI install such a mechanism within the next month. We demand that Emory Law’s DEI remain transparent by providing monthly updates on this reporting mechanism, and the steps undertaken to address the reported issues. 6. Emory Law must hire more BIPOC professors. There is a gross discrepancy in racial representation amongst our professors in the law school. This does not give any student the access to well-rounded legal training that is required post-graduation. Additionally, this harbors an unhealthy learning environment for marginalized students as it does not incorporate any representation from their communities. Effective legal practice requires training from intersectional professors, and Emory Law must hire more BIPOC professors to ensure that future attorneys are receiving the quality education they are entitled to. 7. Emory Law’s Office of DEI must begin to hold weekly office hours. Students must have a direct avenue to communicate with our Office of DEI just as other Emory Graduate Schools have this open avenue of communication. Creating a space to have conversations regarding DEI initiatives is integral to proliferating a safe and inclusive learning environment, as well as fostering accountability and transparency, and building trust between students, faculty, and administration. We demand the implementation of consistent weekly office hours by October 31, 2021. 8. Emory Law must provide monthly updates on our demands and provide full transparency on the steps being taken to implement these demands. Emory Law students are exhausted from shouldering the burden of our administration. We demand that Emory Law’s administration provide monthly updates regarding each demand’s implementation. There is no reason that Emory Law should not prioritize the safety and well-being of our BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students by implementing these demands. We ask that you join us in solidarity against Emory Law’s complacency in allowing the proliferation of harmful rhetoric against marginalized communities. We will be hosting a walk-out from classes at 3 PM on Tuesday, September 21st to protest, meeting at Bacardi Plaza. To close, we reflect on the words of our University’s administration: “We will continue working to make Emory a more equitable and inclusive community that lives up to its ideals. As academic leaders, we are committed to that work on campus, both inside and outside of the classroom, and to supporting scholarship that addresses the systemic racism that continues to shape our world.” – Joint statement from all Emory Deans (April 21, 2021) “Today, as we commemorate Dr. King’s legacy, I invite us to reflect on how our actions, reactions, or inaction square with his ideals.” – Dean Bobinski (January 20, 2020) “[W]e — as a university community — have much more work to do to fulfill our obligation to be a university that leads and prepares those leaders needed for a more just society.” – President Fenves (June 2, 2020) In Solidarity, Emory University School of Law Students Sign our petition: bit.ly/PetitionEmory