By Emily Garcia |Staff writerA petition to demand that Augusta University (AU) end all affiliations with Dr. Kirk Kimmerling reached over 1,000 signatures in just one week.Dr. Kimmerling is a volunteer adjunct faculty member at AU that sent an email out on June 19 to the entire student body at the college of dentistry calling their student and resident-led Black Lives Matter protest “disgraceful.”Hours after Dr. Kimmerling’s email Dean Carol Lefebvre and the dental college’s leadership team issued a statement clarifying that Dr. Kimmerling’s point of views do not align with the those of the university.The statement put out by the dental college condemned Dr. Kimmerling’s statements but condoned his right to make them.In their post on Facebook, the dental college wrote, “As a university, we unite differing points of view for the advancement of education, research and clinical care and facilitate learning opportunities that encourage open dialogue and civil discourse. The University System of Georgia’s Freedom of Expression Policy and the campus speech policies and procedures of Augusta University set forth our commitment to the First Amendment.”The comment section beneath AU’s posted statement called the dental college’s response to Dr. Kimmerling’s email poor and lacking in punitive action.One commenter stated, “Blatant racism cannot be veiled as uniting “differing points of view for the advancement of education…” This statement truly misses the mark and makes me angry as a graduate of this institution.”Harmony Osgood, a rising junior at AU and creator of the Change.org petition, commented that, “a lot of students felt the response from AU was half-hearted and it didn’t seem like they cared.”“He basically called people stupid for wanting to protest what they felt was right [and] the school backed him up in a way because they said it’s his first amendment right,” said Osgood.Associate Vice President of Communications Christen Engel commented that Dr. Kimmerling, “is affiliated with the Department of Endodontics for research only.”Engel stated, “As an adjunct faculty member, he does not have an on-campus office, laboratory, clinic, or classroom, and does not teach, grade, supervise, advise, mentor, or interact with any students or residents at DCG.”Dr. Kimmerling is one of 330 adjunct faculty at DCG. Adjunct faculty work on a volunteer basis and are not employees of the university, according to Engel.Engel declined to comment on information about Dr. Kimmerling’s donations to the dental college.However, an article posted eight months ago on Jagwire confirmed that Dr. Kimmerling gave a gift to the dental college.Miguelangelo Hernandez wrote, “The DCG [Dental College of Georgia] raised $2.4 million last year and awarded $430,000 in student scholarships, which included notable gifts from the Thomas P. Hinman Dental Society, Fisher Foundation and the 50th anniversary scholarship from MCG Foundation, as well as gifts in-kind from Bien Air and Dr. Kirk Kimmerling.”AU and Dean Lefebvre have not yet released any statements regarding the petition or the demand for AU to end its affiliations with Dr. Kimmerling. Contact Emily Garcia at EMGARCIA@augusta.edu.