On September 17th, 2019, Wake Forest University with collaboration from the sociology department, the university, and the university police issued statements to the student body and faculty regarding targeted threatening emails. Twelve members of the faculty were said to have received these ‘intimidating’ emails from September 10th to September 11th.
These emails were sent from an ‘anonymous source,’ with no emails being sent directly to students. These emails were designated as intentionally ‘intimidating,’ though no direct threat was made.
The investigation into these emails began on September 11th by the university police department who has also enlisted the assistance of federal and state agencies into the matter.
The sociology department wrote that the emails “praised the white male founding fathers, dismissed our undergraduates with ugly vile language, and called for our land to be ‘purged’ of people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.” The department continued, “The call to ‘purge’ categories of persons, is a white supremacist call for genocide.”
The university specified that the writer of the emails had deliberate targets within the university faculty: “individual and office inboxes associated with the Department of Sociology, the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the LGBTQ+ Center, and the Intercultural Center.”
The sociology department concluded their message, “We live in a society plagued by racism, sexism, and gun violence. We will do all we can to carry forward our scholarship, teaching, and our public engagement for social justice.”
The university has also designated increased police presence for the buildings associated with the threat. The sociology department has canceled classes for the week to better the security of the department.
The Wake Forest Review reached out to the university police for a statement on the matter, though they declined due to it being an ongoing investigation.
