VP Holloway & Dean Bowyer Respond to Targeted Vandalism
10/2/20
Dear Emory & Henry Family,
Yesterday afternoon our offices were notified that an act of vandalism occurred on the Emory campus. Several students’ final art projects expressing support for the Black Lives Matter Movement were torn down, moved and even destroyed. The malicious destruction of college approved artwork is unacceptable and demonstrates a complete disregard for how hard students worked on an academic assignment. These reckless acts were senseless, blatantly disrespectful and brought great harm and pain to faculty, staff, students, alumni and other stakeholders within our beloved community. As E&H community members we must ALL discern a place of empathy and appreciation for the many different lenses that we bring to this campus. We must find ways to celebrate our uniqueness and not be so quick to judge others based on our perceived differences. Incidents such as the vandalism that occurred today on our campus underscores the necessary and ongoing work of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and our entire campus community. The Office of DEI will be assembling a campus group to explore if the E&H community may have interest in identifying ways to support those impacted by this act.
We want to be very clear, this type of vandalism has no place within the Emory & Henry community and will not be tolerated. Collectively, our offices are investigating this incident and are prepared to hold those responsible accountable for any and all violations. Anyone who may have any information regarding this incident is urged to contact either the Associate Provost and Dean of Students, Ryan Bowyer at 944-6528 /rbowyer@ehc.edu or The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office at
944-6772/DEI@ehc.edu.
Respectfully,
John Holloway,
VP for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Ryan Bowyer
Associate Provost & Dean of Students
- Emory & Henry Wiley Hall