The Emory Wheel Since 1919
Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Volume 107, Issue 3
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Printed every other Wednesday
April complaint, anonymous Instagram account allege misconduct by SGA presidential candidates
Community members honor ICE victims at vigil
By Jack Rutherford Managing Editor
Council is a division of the SGA, which represents the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. These allegations come four months after Emory University reinstated the SGA and College Council. Emory suspended the SGA and College Council for actions “potentially constituting discriminatory harassment” on April 14, 2025, resulting in a six-month pause in normal operations. Constitutional Council Chief Justice Alexcia Boothe (24Ox, 26C) said in an email to The Emory Wheel that the council is finalizing its review of the complaint and expects to publish its ruling in “the near future,” but was unable to provide the Wheel a specific date.
Four days into this year’s student government election season, an anonymous Instagram account emerged, calling for students to vote “no confidence” in the Emory Student Government Association (SGA) presidential election. The account published a paragraph alleging wrongdoing by several candidates, including SGA Vice President of Student Experience Ameer Alnasser (25Ox, 27C), Kenan Bajraktarevic (25Ox, 27C) and College Council President Vlad Senenko (25C). Alnasser and Senenko are the only two candidates running for SGA president this year. Bajraktarevic is running on a joint ticket with Senenko to become SGA vice president. The post accused Alnasser of “repeatedly posting antisemitic and untrue statements about Jewish students on his personal Instagram.” Additionally, the account claimed that Bajraktarevic and Senenko “repeatedly ignored SGA rules and regulations for their own personal benefit.” In a later post, the account shared parts of a complaint filed by three then-Emory students in April 2025 against Senenko. The complaint alleges that Senenko violated Title II, Article 1, Section E of the SGA Code and Article VI of the College Council Constitution. According to the complaint, Senenko improperly appointed three College Council legislators, who would serve as representatives to the SGA. The College
Senenko allegedly violates SGA Code with appointments College Council Speaker of the Legislature Elijah Robuck (26C) shared the complete complaint with the Wheel on Feb. 15, prior to when the anonymous Instagram account publicized the allegations. According to Robuck, the almost year-old complaint is relevant now because he was concerned about the negative effect Senenko could have on the SGA if elected president. In the April 2025 document, former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Council Pavel Ramirez Cammarata (25C), former BBA Legislator Ibrahim Jouja (22Ox, 25B) and former Club Sports Council President Jayden Davis (25B) alleged that Senenko unconstitu-
tionally appointed representatives to serve in Emory’s student government. Robuck previously worked for Davis as his SGA presidential campaign manager in 2024, and submitted an unsuccessful complaint seeking to have Abigail Dubinski (25B) removed from the election process. Dubinski later won the 2024 SGA presidential election. According to the SGA Code, College Council must send permanent representatives to the SGA to serve in the SGA’s legislature. The complaint alleged that when Senenko sent three representatives — Janice Lee (27C), Sophie Kalmin (26C) and Seth Weinfield (27C) — to the SGA, he did not follow proper procedure. “President Senenko appointed students to serve as College Council Divisional Representatives in the SGA Legislature who were not elected to those roles by the student body,” the complaint states. “Janice Lee, Sophie Kalmin, and Seth Weinfield were appointed while duly elected College Council Legislators were available to serve.” The complaint’s authors argued that Senenko should have appointed Teodoro Taylor (27C), Sahra Omar (27C) and Sushmita Rajan (26C) to SGA instead, since the student body elected them last March. Complaint alleges Senenko disregarded College Council Constitution with nominations
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Emerson Farrar/News Editor
Emory University students gather on University Quadrangle.
By Inaara Lalani Contributing Writer With the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials facing national scrutiny, around 30 Emory University community members gathered on the Quadrangle on Feb. 16 at 6:30 p.m for a vigil to mourn the individuals who ICE has deported and killed. Sunrise Emory and EmoryUnite!, the University’s graduate student workers union, publicized the event on Instagram. Since U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office in 2025, he has sought to increase deportations. In response to ICE’s actions, thousands of demonstrators across the United States, including at Emory,
held walkouts and protests against the new immigration policies over the last month. On Jan. 21, Emory Students for Socialism (SFS) held a campuswide walkout with about 70 attendees. Emory SFS, EmoryUnite! and Sunrise Emory organized another protest on Jan. 30 to condemn the ICE’s killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. The second protest was among the largest in recent Emory history, with around 300 attendees attending the demonstration. Anayancy Ramos (28G), who is a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient and leader of the international student working group, helped organize the previous protests for EmoryUnite!. She began the
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1 year after RFK Jr. appointment, public health community responds to policy changes By Irene John
Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to the position of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) a year ago, Kennedy announced changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including leadership changes, employee layoffs and new vaccine guidelines. These actions have drawn widespread criticism from both CDC employees and public health officials. In an open letter to The New York Times published on Sept. 1, 2025, nine former CDC leaders said Kennedy was “endangering” the nation’s health by citing “flawed research” to justify new policies. Kennedy was officially sworn in on Feb. 13, 2025, following a close 52-48 Senate vote. Ahead of his confirmation, a small group of protesters gathered outside the CDC headquarters near Emory University on Feb. 4, 2025, to voice their concerns about Kennedy’s nomination. At various other protests, demon-
strators, including former CDC workers, continued to express their dissatisfaction with both Kennedy and the Trump administration. At one protest following a round of CDC firings on April 1, 2025, there were 150 protesters. Barbara Marston (94M), a former CDC employee and founder of the CDC Alumni and Friends organization, called out Kennedy for making negative “judgment statements” about CDC employees. “He’s making all these judgment statements about CDC, but not having spoken to or worked with the people that work there, and obviously that’s damaging,” Marston said. Since the announcement of Kennedy’s appointment, Marston said she was doubtful about both his views on public health and his qualifications to effectively lead the HHS. “We were concerned from the getgo when he was appointed because prior to his appointment, he had very clearly expressed views that are not in line with what I consider, what most scientific people consider, to be the best science,” Marston said. The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) published a poll in February
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2026, showing that new changes to the CDC have decreased trust in the agency to 53%. Marston also expressed concern over sudden layoffs, which she said have damaged CDC’s morale. According to an October article from Government Executive, the CDC has laid off about 4,300 employees since Kennedy assumed office. “Nobody wants to work in a position where you’re being badmouthed by your boss,” Marston said. Because of the federal agency’s proximity to Emory, faculty at the Rollins School of Public Health have historically worked alongside CDC employees through joint faculty appointments and research initiatives. As a result, Emory community members expressed their views on Kennedy’s changes at the agency. Stephen Patrick, a neonatologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and a Rollins professor in the department of health policy and management, said Kennedy’s rhetoric has contributed to increased vaccine skepticism among parents. Kennedy faced criticism from Emory community members for promoting anti-vaccination conspiracy
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theories as well as allegations of misinformation when he said there was a link between Tylenol usage and autism in September 2025. Patrick said that since Kennedy has assumed office, views are influencing the general population’s conceptions of vaccines. “Before, misinformation was coming from fringe groups and so we would have conversations … countering various conspiracy theories,” Patrick said. “Now it’s just different, because the voice is coming from the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.” Assistant Professor of Biology Chris Rodgers also expressed his concern with Kennedy’s perspectives on vaccinations. He said these views have influenced how the CDC allocates its research funding. “There’s more funding for projects to seek out any potential negative effects of vaccines and there’s been less funding of projects, including here at Emory, to do things like support trans health or even to understand more about the health of people who happen to be LGBT or even women,” Rodgers said. Alexis Smith (28G), a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Behavioral,
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Social, and Health Education Sciences at Rollins, criticized the CDC for website changes that removed certain public health-related data. “I remember when they started scrapping data from the CDC website, and we were frantically downloading things and people were going and backdating the website,” Smith said. Researchers across the country have expressed concern over the CDC removing data from their archives. A KFF report shows that the Trump administration has removed detailed racial and ethnic data from government websites, including the CDC. The CDC also removed online information and replaced it with content that included claims linking vaccines and autism. Patrick expressed his concern that the CDC is no longer a reliable source of public health information. “I’ve always looked to CDC for guidance in many different places and what I see today is that that’s not a voice that I can trust,” Patrick said.
— Contact Irene John and Cynthia Bai at irene.john@emory.edu and cynthia.bai@emory.edu
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