April 28, 2024 Message from the Provost

Fellow faculty and colleagues,  

The events of the past week have deeply impacted our community and continue to challenge us in unprecedented ways. Many in our community are hurting, and I know that these events, including those that unfolded on the Quad on April 25 and the hateful messages spray-painted across our beautiful Emory home, are especially distressing to you as teachers, mentors, and colleagues who care about our students and each other.  

Like so many of us at Emory, I have the utmost admiration, respect,, and genuine love for our amazing students, our caring faculty, our dedicated staff and our alumni and parents. And I want to reiterate that our leadership team is absolutely committed to the wellbeing of this community. That includes our safety, our ability to exercise our free expression principles, and our ability to carry out our mission of education and research. When events and intentional disruptors threaten to divide us, we must do everything in our power to move forward in a way that strengthens and supports our institution’s purpose and the people we serve.   

In this spirit, I would like to share the following with you:

First, as President Fenves mentioned in his message this morning, we are dedicated to keeping this campus safe. This is a commitment shared byall of us who call Emory home; in fact, videos taken last night show our students demonstrating courage in trying to stop vandals from defacing our spaces, and many recognized student organizations have called on members to stand up against external disruptorswho have consistently sought to escalate peaceful protests.

Second, we will not let these events diminish our commitment to open expression. We have a vibrant, viewpoint-neutral and dynamic open expression policy, and will continue to work with you all to examine and strengthen our policies to support our academic freedom and free expression principles. 

Third, we will continue to examine and learn from the events of the past week, including through dialogue with as many of you as possible, to guide responses to future challenges. We are committed to being transparent, respectful, and open to conversation.   

Fourth, we will work with you all to ensure recent events do not interfere with our shared academic mission. We will not allow Emory to be defined by those who disrupt. We look forward to honoring and celebrating the hard work of our students and faculty at Commencement along with families and friends. I also ask that you extend appropriate flexibility to your students to help them successfully complete the semester and final exams on time in these difficult circumstances. In addition to guiding students to support resources, please remember that our Faculty Staff Assistance Program (FSAP) is available to all Emory faculty and staff members.

Emory is special. We have always been a community known for compassion and for seeking wisdom. We will not let the challenges of the present moment pull us further apart. It is my fervent hope that we will step up in an Emory way as we navigate these days together. To this end, I ask you, our faculty, for your help — so please share your thoughts at provost@emory.edu. I genuinely welcome your perspectives and constructive ideas.  

I am grateful to our faculty who continue to push forward as we seek the best for our students and our university. Thank you for everything you do to make us the strong community we are.   

Respectfully yours, 

Ravi V. Bellamkonda
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs