Dear Messrs. Zonderman and Mullins,
I write in response to your letter of Nov. 5. I appreciate the concern that you and other students have shown for the future of Emory University. We share a determination that Emory continue to be strong, continue to pursue its vision and seek ways to lead in trailblazing the best way forward for research universities in the twenty-first century.
Toward this purpose, Dean Robin Forman was appointed to lead Emory College to even greater levels of excellence than it now enjoys. Recognizing the hard truth that the resources most available to do this are the resources the college already has, Dean Forman has led appropriate and extensive discussions with representative members of the arts and sciences faculty and has acted on their counsel. His decisions are both legitimate and necessary. The realignment of resources in Emory College will not be reversed. Doing so would be to return to a status quo that is untenable. Doing so would also be an abdication of responsibility by the university and, in the long term, would not advance the interests and excellence of the college. Sometimes courageous leadership requires facing reality and having the integrity to address it.
As I have said both in meetings of the University Senate and in other venues, while these realignments are necessary, they also require our acting with care for those who are most affected by them. In 2009 the university eliminated several hundred positions in the face of the severe economic downturn in late 2008; those cuts unfortunately meant laying off men and women who had worked with diligence and commitment on behalf of Emory. Under those circumstances the university determined that we should offer extraordinary severance benefits in a number of ways.
This time, also, we are taking pains to ensure that all faculty members are being treated fairly, that students whose programs are affected will be afforded reasonable time to complete their degrees, and that staff whose positions are eliminated will be given fair opportunity for reassignment elsewhere at Emory.
Beyond this reaffirmation of the steps Dean Forman has taken, let me address two other concerns that you have raised. First, your demand for “formal and meaningful student, faculty, and staff participation on all key decision-making bodies” assumes that there are not currently such formal, meaningful avenues for participation in shared governance. The bylaws of the university, created by the Board of Trustees, places significant responsibility in the University Senate, whose representation includes faculty, students and staff. Other important governing bodies of the various colleges and schools are appropriately elected and representative, and the exercise of their authority depends on the energy, imagination and leadership of their members. This administration respects their authority and has always encouraged the creation of meaningful agendas that aim to improve the quality of Emory in every way, as both an academic institution and a community. Ultimately, however, the university is not a pure democracy but more of a republic, dependent on the work of appropriately empowered representatives. Moreover, final management responsibility lies with the administration, while final governance authority rests with the Board of Trustees. Even there, the faculty have representation through faculty counselors who advise and provide input to the work of the various committees of the board. Along those lines, at last week’s meetings of the Board of Trustees, after discussions that included faculty counselors, the board formally affirmed its support for the decisions and processes of Dean Forman and the university administration.
Second, you note that the decision to close the Division of Educational Studies has a perceived impact on Emory’s commitment to diversity. Emory’s recruitment, retention and graduation of minority students in the college continue to be among the strongest in the nation. But our commitment to diversity has never depended on one department or division, nor should it. This university has a right to expect everyone of our academic and nonacademic departments to be fully committed to recruiting the very best students, staff and faculty, and qualities of excellence do not adhere to color, race or ethnicity. Nor have Emory’s relationships with the Atlanta community depended on one division or department. We have established vital connections to the Atlanta Public Schools through our Center for Community Partnerships. In fact, one of our trustees has given a munificent gift to ensure greater graduation rates in the schools with which we are partnered. Emory remains committed to our shared vision of being an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged and diverse community.
We must, now, put the decisions of August behind us. It is time to get on with the work of making the Emory College of Arts and Sciences the finest-possible liberal arts college that both contributes to and enjoys the benefits of its central position in a research university.
In view of your having shared your letter to me as an open letter published in the Emory Wheel, I have felt free to send a copy of this response to the Wheel as well.
Sincerely,
James W. Wagner
President
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.
President Wagner – we cannot “all” look forward, since you kicked out a big chunk of the Emory community a few months ago.
We know you guys aren’t running a democracy – but I’m pretty sure you’re not running a republic either – given a republic requires, as you say, “empowered representation”.
Hey Jimbo, I heard you guys just found out that the endowment went up $100 million this year thanks to some clever investment strategies. Good thing Forman saved you $4.5 million with these cuts, right?
http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/11/er_take_note_university_endowment/campus.html?utm_source=ebulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EmoryReport_EB_111312
This is not a substantive response to the questions put to Wagner by the SRC – it at best only obliquely address two of them. Most saliently, on the question of race, Wagner only invokes minority recruitment rates among undergraduates – data taken *before* these cuts, incidentally, and which count minority enrollment in the very departments he is eliminating! He completely ignores concerns about the racial dynamics of the termination of faculty, the DES PhD yield, and more. This is not a good faith answer – if the administration refuses to answer questions put to it by its own community, who will it answer to?
Wagner’s office has been ignoring interview requests from a local news team, too. So the official line of the administration appears to be that it will gladly answer questions from those who “seek legitimate dialogue” but also that those who ask questions are by definition illegitimate as interlocutors and thud unworthy of answer. Which makes perfect sense – since they probably don’t have actual answers to give.
“In fact, one of our trustees has given a munificent gift to ensure greater graduation rates in the schools with which we are partnered. Emory remains committed to our shared vision of being an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged and diverse community.” Who exactly will be staffing those partnerships now that the DES is being eliminated? Does this generous donor understand that their money also requires committed, trained education professionals from Emory to make sure it is properly spent – and that those very people are being told they are not valued by Emory? And how does firing a quarter of its non-tenured faculty of color and eliminating a program that produces more black PhDs than any other in the country (let alone the South) speak to a concern for diversity? Lip service, all of it.
Every time Wagner is asked about Emory’s commitment to diversity he responds with misleading numbers and WORSE cites the hard work and success statistics of departments he “applauds” the elimination of. Yet at the same time no one can answer how and why these departments are not ones of “true eminence”. It is shameful the misdirection the administration is trying to get away with.