Emory protests: Students holding no-confidence vote on university president

ATLANTA - Emory University's undergraduate students are ending the semester by voting on their confidence in how President Gregory Fenves is running the college following pro-Palestine protests and arrests on campus.

The college-wide no-confidence referendum will end at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

All undergraduates, including graduating seniors and members of the Oxford College, can participate in the anonymous vote, which is happening through the Emory Hub. Links to the vote were sent out on Monday at noon.

The student vote comes less than a week after the Faculty Senate for Emory College of Arts and Sciences voted 358-119 in favor of the "Motion of No Confidence and Demand for Redress" over Fenves' handling of the protests.

Fenves has not commented on the faculty or the student vote.

Both motions are non-binding. The decision on whether Fenves should be removed will then move to the Emory University Board of Trustees.

Protests on Emory University's campus 

At the end of April. police arrested dozens of people, including 20 Emory students and staff members, following a pro-Palestine protest in the school's quadrangle. 

Emory officials said the protesters who had set up an encampment were trespassing on private property and refused to leave, leading the school to ask the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol for assistance. 

The officers used Tasers and pepper balls to bring the crowd under control. Several people were placed in handcuffs and loaded into vans. 

Video circulated widely on social media shows two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by one officer as a second officer then pushes her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk.  

RELATED STORIES

• Pro-Palestine protesters forcibly removed from Emory University campus, 28 arrested
• Emory University faculty express ‘No Confidence’ in president after protest clash
• Emory University under federal investigation over alleged anti-Muslim discrimination

Originally, the school claimed that the group were activists who were not connected with Emory, with a spokesperson claiming that the protesters were "attempting to disrupt our university as our students finish classes and prepare for finals." Fenves later backtracked from that claim, saying it "was not fully accurate." 

Since the clash with law enforcement, protests on the campus have remained mostly calm with only one run-in with a counterprotester last week. 

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced it has opened an investigation into Emory University over allegations of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian activity at the college.

Emory moves commencement off-campus

On Monday, Emory University announced its 2024 commencement would be moved from campus to Gas South Arena in Duluth.

In a letter posted online, Fenves said the move is due to concerns about safety and security following multiple protests at the school's Decatur campus last week.

"I have been firm in my commitment that Emory will celebrate our graduating students at Commencement. While that commitment has not changed, concerns about safety and security require us to adjust the plans," Fenves wrote in the letter. 

While he acknowledged the move may be "deeply disappointing" for some graduating students, Emory's president said that the decision was not made lightly and that they consulted the school's police department, security advisors, and other agencies.

For more details about the commencement, click here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.