@thecoolboy1234 : Well, I think Wagner is in a position where he’ll pretty much say or claim anything to leave on a good note whether he means it or not.
Also to those who complain about damage: For one, Wagner is already in the process of being replace. And two, No it does not significantly damage Emory as other gaffs of his. The departmental closures and the 3/5 comment definitely brought much worse press to Emory. This “damage” is no different than what has happened at the other elites. One would like to believe it does do damage out of principle, but that is just not reality because only a certain segment (typically not those considering attending an elite private) consider this an embarrassment or even abnormal. This is the status quo at schools like this and Emory is clearly no exception. The brand is simply a function of effective marketing. Selective privates have traditionally gotten around bad press (even Emory) by their aggressive marketing and highlighting of things that students of course care about (whether they should or not). I could name several examples of such schools that do not belong to the top 10 or so that continue to receive higher app. numbers even after something horrible happens (like an actual sexual assault scandal, or D-1 sport course fixing scandal, giant cheating scandals, I find none of these more acceptable). Do not over-estimate the effect of this one moment in time. Emory and others have gotten around bad press before and will continue to do so. This is relatively petty compared to some of those incidents.