September 4, 2024
Response from Georgia Tech Regarding GT MSA’s Campaign
Vice President, Dr. Luoluo Hong, responded to the MSA via email on behalf of President Cabrera and Georgia Tech leadership advising that the leadership team is reviewing the letter in more depth.
August 20, 2024
GT MSA held a memorial to honor the thousands of Palestinians that have been unjustly killed and to publicly launch the divestment campaign.
August 18, 2024
November 28, 2023
Response From Georgia Tech Regarding Public Statement
November 19, 2023
November 15, 2023
November 14, 2023
Private Meeting with Dr. Hong
President Cabrera Publishes Blog titled, “Caring for Our Campus Community”
November 13, 2023
Dr. Hong Requests to meet with MSA President
November 9, 2023
President Cabrera Agrees to Attend Memorial
November 6, 2023
Closed-door meeting with President Cabrera
October 24, 2023
Second Mass Email Campaign Launched
October 20, 2023
Private Meeting with President Cabrera
October 18, 2023
Daily Digest Article Presents Biased View on the Situation in Palestine
First Mass Email Campaign Launched
October 17, 2023
Dr. Hong Publishes Monthly Newsletter
October 16, 2023
Campus Wide Statement
Teach-In
October 13, 2023
Vigil
October 12, 2023
President Cabrera Publishes Blog about “Solidarity with Israel” Event
October 11, 2023
Solidarity with Israel Event
Palestine-Muslim Student Assaulted at the Event
MSA Reached out to President Cabrera for Similar Support
GT MSA launched campaign demanding that Georgia Tech:
Disclose: Disclose Georgia Tech’s complete investment portfolio, along with those of Georgia Tech affiliates, including but not limited to, Georgia Tech Foundation, Georgia Tech Alumni Association, Georgia Tech Research Institute, and Georgia Tech Research Corporation.
Divest: Divest from all partnerships and investments enabling Israeli genocide, ecocide, and apartheid as well as the construction of Cop City, a training ground where Israeli Occupation Forces will collaborate with local law enforcement.
Disassociate: Disassociate from the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a principal funder and proponent of Cop City, and of which President Cabrera is a member.
President Cabrera declined to sign onto the public statement.
GT MSA published a Public Statement with sign-ons from over 60 community organizations and over 200 GT Alumni.
GT MSA held a memorial in honor of all the Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza, with a grand display of Palestinian flags as well as the names and photos of children who were killed. For about five hours, students and faculty read the names of people who were killed in Gaza. The memorial speeches can be found here.
Dr. Hong and the MSA president met, and Dr. Hong informed the MSA president that President Cabrera had changed his mind and would not attend the memorial the next day. We were informed that this change of heart was due to pressure from Georgia Tech community members who took issue with the reference to those killed in Gaza as “martyrs.” Unfortunately, this term has been incorrectly politicized; in the Islamic paradigm, one who is killed wrongfully is referred to as a martyr. President Cabrera’s decision to unilaterally cancel his commitment without requesting clarification regarding this term has shown a lack of respect for our community and insensitivity to our religious beliefs.
President Cabrera published a blog titled “Caring for Our Campus Community” addressing how our campus has been affected with regards to what is occurring in Palestine and Israel. Disappointingly, he never mentioned the word Palestine, overlooking the violence in the West Bank. Furthermore, he never specifically mentioned the hurt our community is facing or the efforts we’ve made to seek support and uplift our community.
Dr. Hong requested to meet with the MSA president to discuss the memorial.
Dr. Hong followed up via email and relayed that President Cabrera had declined to attend the teach-in, instead preferring a smaller, more private event, so he agreed to attend a memorial MSA planned for November 15.
MSA had another closed-door meeting with President Cabrera. Yet again and perplexingly, President Cabrera did not address our asks, one of which was an invitation to a teach-in planned for November 29.
MSA launched a second mass email campaign to continue to ask for the President’s support following the unsuccessful meeting.
MSA and other representatives, including the student who was assaulted, a professor from Gaza, the MSA chaplain, and other faculty and students, had a restricted, private meeting with President Cabrera. In the meeting, President Cabrera stated that his absence at our vigil was due to a “personal motivation” and firmly expressed his commitment to not attend any other public event related to this conflict. As such, the MSA’s asks from the email campaign were not met, so we requested to schedule another meeting to continue the conversation.
The Daily Digest published an article titled “Georgia Tech Experts Shed Light on Israel-Hamas War,” showing an inaccurate, biased representation of the crisis in Gaza with blatant disregard to the enormity of the humanitarian crisis.
MSA launched a mass email campaign to President Cabrera and the administration with two asks: first, to attend another vigil, and second, to release a public statement acknowledging the humanitarian crisis and the pain of our community.
Dr. Hong published her monthly newsletter, titled “On the Crisis in the Middle East & the Impact on GT Students,” which provided a truthful and balanced effort to summarize the humanitarian crisis.
President Cabrera published a campus-wide statement to address the vandalism on Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), a Jewish fraternity house on campus, as well as the physical assault on October 11th. The statement was released several days after the physical assault, which was not publicized, but mere hours after a widely-circulated public statement from AEPi.
MSA held a teach-in and Dr. Hong attended, showed genuine support, and was receptive to our feedback.
MSA, alongside multiple other student organizations, held a vigil in solidarity with Palestine to mourn the loss of all innocent life.
President Cabrera published a blog about the “Solidarity with Israel” event while disregarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the pain of his Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab student community.
Jewish student organizations held a “Solidarity with Israel” event on campus which received immediate support from President Cabrera, who attended and delivered remarks at the event.
A Palestinian-Muslim student was physically assaulted at the “Solidarity with Israel” event after being racially profiled. See our previous statement for more details.
The MSA president emailed President Cabrera asking him to attend our vigil on October 13 to mourn the loss of all innocent life, to no response.
The MSA president emailed Blair Meeks, AVP of External Communications, who copied the Office of the President, who copied VP Dr. Luoluo Hong and Dean of Students John Stein. The Office of the President stated that President Cabrera was unavailable to attend our vigil. After several days and many emails, Dr. Hong offered to meet with our MSA and attend our teach-in event on October 16th.