The Emory Wheel Since 1919
Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Volume 103, Issue 12
Emory receives criticism for new credit cap By Spencer Friedland Contributing Writer The maximum number of credit hours students can take in one semester has dropped from 22 to 19 for students in Emory College, Oxford College and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, and 20 for students in Goizueta Business School. Emory University Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Ravi Bellamkonda announced the decision in an email to students on Oct. 13. Emory implemented this new policy, which already went into place for spring 2023 course registration, to support the University’s commitment to holistic learning and “reduce academic burnout,” Bellamkonda wrote in an email to the Wheel. “The recent changes to course load policies encourage students to fully engage inside and outside the classroom, supporting both professional development and personal well-being,” Bellamkonda wrote. “While this is only one of many avenues we are taking to improve the student experience, we believe prioritizing holistic learning, student engagement and overall wellbeing will make Emory a more robust and healthier institution.” Bellamkonda stated in the Oct. 13 email that the new policy’s benefits are twofold. First, reducing the credit cap will allow incoming students to participate in a general education requirement outside the classroom. The new policy will also enable current students to become involved in more out-ofclass experiences. Credits for classes such as music practice, physical education and internships will not count toward the new credit limits, Bellamkonda noted.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2022
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New coalition advocates for student voting rights Taiwo (24C) added that because elections only happen about once every two years, allotting students the day off would still lighten the load for students who wish to vote without significantly impacting classwork. “Some people have classes that don’t end until 7:00 or a lab that doesn’t end until 9:00,” Taiwo said. “It’s unfair to those students who might not be able to even get to Emory Point or their respective polling area.”
By Eva Roytburg News Editor Emory University’s first non-partisan, student-run voting coalition, Emory Students Vote (ESV), is collaborating to foster “better voting” for students ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. The coalition was founded in late September but was announced to the public on Oct. 20 with an Instagram post. It is made up of nine organizations: Fair Fight U, Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Activists (APIDAA), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Emory Climate Coalition, Young Democrats of Emory, the Filipino Student Association, Planned Parenthood: Generation Action, the Omicron Xi chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the Mu Alpha chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Phi Alpha are both historically Black. The idea for the coalition first came about when students working for Emory Fair Fight U — a branch of Georgia Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams’ voting rights advocacy organization Fair Fight Action — contacted the other organizations about forming a coalition, APIDAA co-President Vivian Liu (24C) said. Fair Fight President Carly Colen (23C) and Acting Vice President Gabriella Lewis (23C) were concerned about not reaching the entirety of the Emory voting population. “That’s why collective impact, or having multiple organizations come together, is really essential to addressing issues,” Liu said. Colen added that she also wanted to give organizations that don’t have a strict focus on political or civic engagement a chance to get involved. “Even if you’re an a capella group, you can still care about engagement, and this is sort of a way to bring multiple organizations across Emory’s campus to gather
Future plans
Hayley Powers/Contributing Illustrator
and unite around this issue of voting and voting rights,” Colen said. All Emory student-run organizations are eligible for membership in ESV, as long as they respect all members of the community, send a representative to ESV meetings and participate in a civic engagement project at least once during the school year, according to ESV’s FAQ. Advocacy for an Election Day ‘on’ The coalition’s central focus is reducing the barriers students may face while voting, APIDAA co-President Anhhuy Do (24C) said. He noted that Election Day — always the second Tuesday of November, and a school day — is the primary obstacle to achieving high levels of student turnout. “Hopefully, through the creation of the Emory Students Vote coalition, we can be able to push for an Election Day of Action, in which we encourage faculty to be more flexible regarding attendance policies, as well as assigning work on those days to ensure that students will turn out to vote,” Do said. Colen added that Election Day would ideally be a day “on” instead of a day off. “It’s the idea that there aren’t classes
Emory’s international applicant pool remains strong despite national decrease
on Election Day, but the expectation is you’re doing something to serve the community,” Colen said. “That could be voting, that can be engaging in community service, et cetera.” Election Day doesn’t have to be a full day off for students, Liu noted, as even a half-day off would signal that University administration values voting. Rollins School of Public Health has given students Election Day “on” since 2020 as part of the Rollins Election Day Initiative. In the inaugural year of “Rollins Day On,” more than 100 volunteers from the Rollins community participated in activities to promote civic engagement, such as handing out personal protective equipment, snacks and water to people waiting in line to vote. Emory Votes Initiative (EVI) sent out a form to faculty members this year, inviting them to commit to having a lenient attendance policy on Election Day, according to Colen. “This year, we’re hoping to collect data so we can bring it to the University and say, ‘Hey, look, all these professors without University instruction were willing to do this, so why not partner with them?” Colen said. Emory NAACP Vice President Phoebe
Jessie Satovsky/Contributing Illustrator
Although national trends show that the number of international students in the United States has decreased since the COVID-19 pandemic, Emory University is not being hit hard, according to Vice Dean of Admission Scott Allen. Late last year, the Pew Research Center reported a 15% decline in inter-
national student enrollment among U.S. universities for the 2020-21 academic year. Chinese students are most affected by this national trend. They comprised the largest proportion of international students in the United States during the 2020-21 academic year at 35%. At Emory, Chinese students comprise 52% of the international undergraduate student body. Nationally, the Chinese international student population decreased
by 55,233 students, or 14.8%, during the pandemic. On Aug. 11, the Wall Street Journal reported that the number of F1 study visa applications — which is a necessary prerequisite for international students to enter the United States — has dropped to 31,055 in the first six months of 2022, which is when most newly admitted fall semester students are preparing to come to the United States. This is a little over
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The coalition has just begun, Colen said, and is currently focused on inviting other organizations to take part. ESV is aiming to have its first meeting the week of the 24th or the 31st, she added. However, several members of the coalition have planned voting-related events. Fair Fight, EVI, APIDAA and NAACP will host a “Party to the Polls” event on Oct. 28. Students will gather to walk to the 1599 Clifton Road polling location and cast their early votes to celebrate National Early Voting Day, according to Colen. “There’ll be music, there’ll be food, we’ll have information about the candidates that will be on the ballot on posters,” Liu said. “So you won’t feel uninformed and lonely.” Colen also emphasized the community aspect of the event. “Voting is an individual act, but we’re uniting everyone together by going to the polls together and making it a unifying, celebratory, empowering experience,” Colen said. ESV aspires to also reach groups outside of the Emory community, Liu emphasized, saying that APIDAA has tried to reach voters in disenfranchised communities. APIDAA has partnered with the Center for Pan Asian Community Services and Asian Americans
In October 2021, Sydney Warner (23C), Clare McCarthy (23C) and Jack Miklaucic (23C) thought Emory University’s environmental action seemed “promising.” The three students, along with four other leaders of the Emory Climate Coalition (ECC), a student-led environmental group, had just come off of a successful meeting with Emory University President Gregory Fenves. During their discussion, they convinced Fenves to join Race to Zero, a pact aiming to eliminate on-campus carbon emissions, and to sign an agreement that committed Emory to combating greenhouse gas emissions. Almost a year later, however, Warner, McCarthy and Miklaucic were back in an administrative meeting for a different reason. In early August, they heard that the Ways and Means Committee, housed under the Office of Planning and Administration, slashed funding for the student intern program of the University’s Office of Sustainability
Initiatives (OSI). As Emory’s most prominent environmental action organization, OSI directs sustainability operations for Emory’s campuses, in addition to Emory Healthcare facilities. At the Sept. 21 meeting, Vice President for Campus Services Robin Morey confirmed to the ECC leaders that the recent OSI budget didn’t include funding for the intern program, according to McCarthy. Morey told the students that the Ways and Means Committee members incorrectly thought that OSI had enough funds to cover the intern program, so they didn’t allocate funding for the program in the budget, McCarthy added. Morey told the students that “nothing nefarious is going on,” according to McCarthy. Nevertheless, the ECC leaders — who mobilized roughly 130 students for a protest Sept. 23 calling for an increase in OSI’s finances — said they want to see change. Warner, McCarthy and Miklaucic learned near the beginning of this semester that OSI is using external funds this fall to pay its interns due to
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