Since 1919
The Emory Wheel Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Volume 104, Issue 10
Printed every other wednesday
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
requires Students lead climate strike for 5th consecutive year Goizueta clubs to accept all students
By AmeliA DAsAri Staff Writer
The strike began with speeches before students began their march to the Administration Building, chanting slogans such as, “Whose streets? Our streets! Whose school? Our school! Whose future? Our future!” Hill said that the Emory Climate Action Task Force would rather have “hard tangible change” and implementable initiatives rather than “lofty goals” that will they are unsure Emory could meet. Some of the speakers included Hill, Climate Research Initiative Project Assistant Bryn Davis and Jaanaki Radhakrishnan (26C), who is an organizer involved with the “Stop Cop City” movement. The movement seeks to stop the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, citing environmental, civil rights and other concerns. Emory students involved
Goizueta Business School recently implemented a new policy that requires clubs to accept all interested students as general body members starting this semester. This policy primarily affects first-year students and those not enrolled in the business school. Additionally, first-year students cannot initially apply to hold executive board positions under the new policy. Instead, these students now must join clubs as general body members before they can undergo any training or promotional process. Along with the policy, the University also established the new Goizueta PreBBA Association, which is dedicated to introducing first-year students to bachelor of business administration (BBA) opportunities and clubs, this semester, according to Goizueta Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Andrea Hershatter. “Then clubs that aren't ready to onboard all freshmen can use that entity as a vehicle for communication, for programming, for outreach, for all of the things they might want freshmen involved in,” Hershatter said. The change aims to foster inclusion among business school clubs, Hershatter said. She explained that the new policy will attempt to alleviate concerns from last year’s recruitment process, when an “extraordinary number” of first--year students applied to — and were rejected from — as many as 15 clubs. Barring first--year students from holding executive positions will allow
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Jack RutheRfoRd/Staff PhotogRaPheR
Students hold signs as they listen to a speech in front of the Administration Building during the fifth annual Climate Strike.
By elA moDy Contributing Writer Approximately 60 students gathered at the edge of Asbury Circle with cardboard signs for Emory University’s fifth annual Climate Strike on Sept. 29. The students ended their march at the Administration Building, demanding for University administration to review and approve Emory’s Climate Action Plan. A group of students, faculty, administrators and community professionals called the Climate Action Task Force have spent about a year drafting this plan, which closed for public comment on Sept. 13. The next draft is expected to be published on Oct. 13, 2023. Emory Climate Reality Project President Emery Hill (25C), who was part of the Climate Action Task Force, said that Emory’s new plan
is “comprehensive.” She said the plan addresses nine sections such as emissions reductions and carbon management, equity and justice and food, waste and procurement. However, student climate activists are concerned that the plan does not include provisions for implementing the changes it describes. Emory Climate Reality Project coVice President and participant in the strike Matthew Veerasammy (26C) said students want to ensure there are no loopholes in the plan. “We want to make sure we strengthen the plan to ensure that not only the students are accommodated, but also to ensure that everything that we want to pursue for the environment is actually happening on campus,” Veerasammy said. Students are also calling for the plan to include a timeline for completing each initiative, as well as require administration to delegate
parts of the plan to different offices and set aside monetary resources for new climate-friendly infrastructure. Enhancing these sustainability initiatives, including the University becoming net-zero by 2025, will reflect the “imminent danger” of the climate emergency, the Emory Climate Coalition wrote in a public statement regarding the strike. Protestors discussed these concerns during the Climate Strike, which is a collaboration between the Emory Climate Coalition and the Emory Climate Reality Project. Hill said the coalition is composed of the “most involved climate leaders on campus,” including the Climate Reality Project, Emory Climate Analysis Team and the Emory Climate Organization, and its members work directly with administration and faculty to represent the student groups’ sustainability demands.
Emory, local organizations aims to identify historical African American graves By Ashley Zhu Senior Staff Writer For most of her life, Mamie Hillman never thought to look on the other side of the brick wall that had long enclosed part of the Penfield Cemetery, and she lived believing that it was a white-only graveyard. But in summer 2019, Hillman and her friend decided to use a ladder to climb over to the other side. They discovered about 1,000 to 1,500 gravestones marking the final resting place of enslaved and freed African American people, as well as their descendants and other community members. “People had put dirt in the path of the entrance to the Black cemetery and they could not go back and take care of their loved ones’ graves,” Hillman said. “So the graveyard became overgrown and you couldn't get to it.” This marked the beginning of Hillman’s journey in identifying and clearing the African American gravestones in the cemetery in Penfield,
Ga., about 85 miles away from Emory University’s Atlanta campus. Her work would open access to the African American cemetery behind the wall, allowing descendents to visit the graves of their loved ones. Head of Digital Initiatives and Technologies at Pitts Theology Library Spencer Roberts began collaborating with Hillman on the project in summer 2022. They also partner with the Historic Rural Churches of Georgia, a nonprofit that aims to preserve the history of rural churches, Mercer University (Ga.)’s Spencer B. King, Jr. Center for Southern Studies, the Georgia State University Department of Anthropology and the Greene County African American Museum, which Hillman founded and directs. “I’m grateful that there are those that see the need to assist in cleaning it up because it needs to be celebrated,” Hillman said. “Those people were human beings, and they were denied so much in life.” As the director of the Spencer B. King, Jr. Center for Southern Studies, Mercer Professor of History Douglas
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A wall encloses the Penfield Cemetery, which blocked access to African American graves. Thompson is responsible for all programming related to the Universities Studying Slavery initiative, a collaboration of more than 100 institutions, including Emory and Mercer,
dedicated to sharing best practices and guiding principles about truthtelling projects addressing human bondage and racism in institutional histories.
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Part of that research focus is to tell the history of Mercer and Penfield “as they relate to the economies of
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