Atlanta's Emory University is facing a lawsuit from three tenured professors over its handling of 2024 protests against Israel's assault on Gaza, capping off a tumultuous end to the spring semester. In recent months, faculty and students have also demanded the removal of Flock surveillance cameras on campus, and Black law school students protested the school's response to a student's racist social media posts and emails.
Lawsuit Details
The lawsuit alleges that the three professors sustained wrongful arrests and prosecution after the school's administration called Atlanta police and state troopers onto campus, brutally shutting down a protest encampment less than an hour after it began. The suit also claims the school violated its own open expression policy. Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department and one of the plaintiffs, sees these events as connected to a broader authoritarian turn in the country.
Faculty and Student Concerns
McAfee hopes the complaint will draw attention to the school's behavior and ensure police are never called to quash a protest again. She notes that some faculty and students have never recovered from the incident. Meanwhile, Emory law school expelled a student named Milano Wayne on April 23 after months of racist, misogynistic, and transphobic messages. Students criticized the school's swift response to protesters versus its slow reaction to Wayne's communications.
Greear Webb, a member of Emory's Black Law Students Association, expressed disappointment after a meeting with law school dean Richard Freer, who cited concerns about the political climate and avoiding the administration's college hit list. Students are asking for an apology and revisions to the student code of conduct to name hate speech.
Surveillance Cameras Controversy
A group of students under the name DeFlock Emory Coalition has gathered over a thousand signatures opposing Flock Safety's license plate reader cameras on campus, citing lack of transparency and potential data sharing with federal agencies like ICE. They published an editorial calling for mass mobilization if their demands are ignored.
Emory spokesperson Laura Diamond declined to answer questions about faculty and students seeking apologies or concerns about being targeted by the Trump administration, instead sending previously-released statements. One statement called the lawsuit "without merit," another condemned hateful language, and a third said the school is reviewing data sharing from Flock cameras.
Emil' Keme, an Indigenous K'iche' Maya scholar and plaintiff in the lawsuit, noted that the school's behavior contradicts its promoted image. He said students are now afraid to protest, reflecting a bleak national climate. McAfee added that students must weigh the safety of demonstrating, with one student saying, "I don't want to go to jail – I want to go to med school."
Stefano Harvey, a professor in Germany who studied US higher education, said universities under the Trump administration have been emboldened to act more like corporations, selling an image that often disappoints.
