By Emily Garcia |ContributorKaren Mobley, former director of Multicultural Student Engagement at Augusta University, was terminated after receiving a letter of discharge Tuesday, Oct. 15, from Scott Wallace, AU assistant vice president and dean of students.In the days following, students in Lambda Alliance, a LGBTQ+ student alliance organization, and the Black Student Union conducted protests on campus to draw attention to the sudden termination of of Mobley.Because of student concern and protests, multiple meetings were held on campus to discuss the future of AU's Multicultural Center. The meetings were led by Wallace, Gina Thurman, associate dean of student life, and Garrett Green, assistant director of Student Life and Engagement and, currently, interim director of Multicultural Student Engagement.Although the meetings were meant to be a space where students, faculty and staff could voice their concerns and ideas about changes for the Multicultural Center, many students said they still feel like they can't trust the administration, especially since they still don't know why Mobley was terminated.Brooks Keel, president of Augusta University, declined to comment about anything regarding Mobley’s firing in a recent interview. He stated that the case involved personnel information that he could not comment on.Keel also declined to answer questions about the policy regarding university terminations. When asked, “How long does a staff member have before being locked out of their email?” and “What is the policy about issuing warnings before firing," Keel consistently said: “I can’t comment on personnel actions.”
Keel was also questioned about Wallace, who receives faculty, staff and student complaints. When asked whether or not Wallace (who served the termination letter to Mobley) would have a potential conflict of interest when handling complaints about himself, Keel responded with the following:“I wouldn’t say he handles complaints about himself," Keel said. "I mean, we have a mechanism in place that any sort of complaints like that can make their way up the chain, and if there are complaints like that, I’m sure they’ll make their way.”*-Note: This story was removed briefly from the Bell Ringer website and re-uploaded due to editing and credit errors. It was published too soon, and we wanted to make the corrections necessary to fix the story and give the correct author credit. -- The Bell Ringer editors Contact Emily Garcia at EMGARCIA@augusta.edu.