Professors sue Atlanta’s Emory University over handling of Israel-Gaza protests

Atlanta’s Emory University is facing a lawsuit from three tenured professors over its handling of 2024 protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza, capping off a tumultuous end to the spring semester. In recent months faculty and students have also demanded the removal of Flock surveillance cameras on campus, and Black law school students and others protested the school’s response to a student’s social media posts and emails that were filled with the N-word. Emory is one of the richest private schools in the US, with the nation’s 12th-largest endowment . It is also the Atlanta metro area’s second-largest employer . Noëlle McAfee, chair of the philosophy department and one of three plaintiffs in the civil complaint, sees the recent events at the school as connected. They reflect what is happening “mostly at public universities, but is creeping into private ones … a very dark, authoritarian turn happening around the country”, McAfee said. The lawsuit alleges the three professors sustained wrongful arrests and prosecution after the school’s administration called Atlanta police and state troopers onto campus two years ago, brutally shutting down a protest encampment less than an hour after it began. The suit also alleges the school violated its own open expression policy. The Guardian’s reporting on a conservative group that later targeted those who were arrested that day is named in the lawsuit. …