Dear Dr. Fenves,

            While we write to you today to express a deep grievance and difficult request, we begin in gratitude. Emory University holds a place of high esteem in the Atlanta community and beyond, in part thanks to leaders like you. As President, you quickly initiated efforts to address issues of racial and social injustice. You formed the University Committee on Naming Honors and the Task Force on Untold Stories and Disenfranchised Populations. Your goal to make Emory a "more equitable, just, and inclusive community” is one that we as part of the Emory community stand firmly behind. After the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and other Black people, you showed up to the table with a plan for action. Emory became a founding member of the ATL Action for Racial Equity to address the effects of systemic racism, joined the Universities Studying Slavery consortium, and appointed a Director of Diversity and Inclusion Education and Outreach. You have also approved a Land Acknowledgement recognizing the Muscogee Nation on whose stolen land Emory University exists. These are steps to be proud of, and we thank you.

The Land Acknowledgment states that Emory is committed “to respectful stewardship of the land.” This is an important commitment in the City in the Forest. We live on stolen land replete with trees and creeks, land the Muscogee honored and tended well. Yet, we are also the city losing its trees the fifth fastest in a state losing its trees the fastest in the nation. We are fortunate to have spaces like the South River Forest and the parks that comprise it left. This forest, as I’m sure you know, is surrounded by predominantly BIPOC communities. South River Forest is also known as Weelaunee Forest, the name given to it by its first inhabitants, the Muscogee Nation. And yet, the Atlanta Police Foundation seeks to destroy Weelaunee to build a police training facility. This decision is in direct opposition to the desires of the Atlanta community. Seventy percent of public comments on the issue were in direct opposition to it. The surrounding communities do not want a police training facility built at a time when a disproportionate percentage of imprisoned people are BIPOC, and when Black people are being murdered on the streets. They do not want their forest destroyed at a time when BIPOC communities have limited access to greenspaces and face greater risk of respiratory disease and living with pollution. Yet, their voices are not being heard. 

As a cultural and intellectual presence in Atlanta, Emory is in a unique position to synthesize our goals and research in support of the communities in which we exist. As President of Emory University, you are in a position to embody the spirit of Emory so that the larger community may know who we are. Yet, despite your commitment to addressing social injustices, dedication to inclusivity, and desire to voice untold stories, you are a member of the Board of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a group that has been at the forefront of the destruction of Weelaunee. Such a role is in direct opposition to everything you have been working for and is complicit in a shameful act of violation of the land and people. We respectfully ask you to step down from the Atlanta Committee for Progress board to show Atlanta and the world who Emory is and what we stand for. Step down as a step up toward ethical living, toward embodying the good we want Emory to do for the world. Let Emory be known as a University that stands strong for the health of our community, for the health of our forest, and against injustice.

Sincerely,