Free speech debate roiling Vanderbilt
Some question school’s commitment to ‘ brand’
A string of student demonstrations at Vanderbilt University over the past two weeks has put the school’s reputation as a fierce defender of free speech at odds with the university’s administration.
In late March, nearly 50 students staged a sit-in at Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s office to protest the removal of a proposed amendment from a student ballot, which if approved would have prevented student government funds from going to certain businesses that support Israel.
Four students were arrested, three of whom were expelled. Others who protested inside Kirkland Hall, the towering administration building in the heart of Vanderbilt’s campus, were either suspended or placed on disciplinary probation.
The university said that while it is committed to “free expression” and “civil discourse,” the students’ actions violated university policy and were “not peaceful,” citing the moment students pushed their way past a university employee to get into the administration building.
Vanderbilt University houses a First Amendment Center and the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, in addition to a collaboration started last year with the global judicial think tank Justitia to create the Future of Free Speech project.
But the conflict – and the arrest of a reporter covering the protests – has been a blow to the public perception of the university as a place dedicated to free expression. A number of alumni and students, for instance, have expressed confusion over what they’re allowed to express on a campus.
Diermeier says free speech is “alive and well” on campus, and that calling demonstration arrests and expulsions a suppression of free speech is a “red herring.”
“We have plenty of opportunities for our students to engage with free speech without breaking fundamental university rules. So this was something else, and I’m not quite sure what they’re trying to do. There was an attempt to occupy something,” Diermeier said. “I don’t know, maybe they have to explain what they were doing. That’s their business. But from our point of view, our free speech, just like I said, is still alive and well.”
He said the decision to remove the student referendum, and the response to the subsequent demonstrations, could not count as a free speech issue because the university was abiding by state law.
“The funds that (student government) uses are university funds, not their money,” he said. “So student government is subject to the Tennessee law, which prohibits boycott activities. … We will not take that risk.”
Diermeier said the response from the university supports the school’s dedication to “institutional neutrality,” and was in line with the school’s values.
According to Vanderbilt policy, while demonstrations are allowed – along with media presence to cover the event – the private campus does, as a matter of policy, “define time, place and manner of limitations” for protests, and recently stated that it requires preapproved clearance from administration for journalists to come on campus.
When asked if this media policy has ever been publicly accessible, Vanderbilt spokespeople confirmed that the policy “does not live online,” as their practice has been to “share it with members of the media directly either by request or as needed.”
University responses to demonstrations have not been consistent throughout Vanderbilt’s history. In 2015, a student group called the Hidden Dores held a similar protest, marching into Kirkland and handing petitions directly into the former chancellor’s hands.
No students were arrested, suspended or removed, and no reporters detained. The petitions led to multiple changes on campus, including the removal of the word Confederate from the title of Memorial Hall.
When asked what changed in student free expression standards between then and now, Diermeier said he would “need to look at the details” of the incident. But Diermeier said he is concerned about the arrest of a Nashville Scene reporter covering the protests in late March. He said that was undoubtedly a First Amendment issue.
“It bothers me,” he said. “I want to know whether the arrest was an overreaction, or whether it was justified based on the policy, and if that’s the case, whether or not we want to change the policies.”
No charges were filed against the reporter, who was quickly released from police custody.
The arrest drew heavy pushback from the community, including from 20 Metro Council members who signed a letter addressing the issue and urging the university to embody the free speech principles it promotes.
The university on April 4 announced the hiring of an outside attorney to review the arrest of the reporter and the campus media access policy.
Just days before the sit-in, 34 faculty members expressed their support of the student group in its quest to return the referendum to the ballot.
Following the sit-in, more than 160 faculty members released a second statement urging the administration to “align its policies with its values regarding free speech, expression, and democratic activities, including protest.”
Meanwhile, Shawn Reilly, who received an undergraduate and two master’s degrees from Vanderbilt, was a member of multiple social justice groups on campus, and helped to organize a similar sit-in with a very different reception in 2016.
“I helped organize some actions at Vanderbilt regarding naming the campus a ‘ sanctuary campus’ in 2016, when (then-President Donald) Trump had announced a registration for Muslim folks and potentially deporting undocumented folks,” Reilly said.
According to Reilly, students involved in that sit-in were allowed to use the restrooms and have food delivered into the building, two things they were not permitted during the recent sit-in.
“There was not a hostile situation,” Reilly said. “It couldn’t be a more different story than what we saw happen at Vanderbilt last week.”
Reilly said the “free speech brand” that Vanderbilt has been promoting over the past few years doesn’t seem to align with the lived experiences of people trying to exercise those rights.
“We definitely felt that student protesters had more rights and support on campus previously than what I’ve seen in the last week,” Reilly said.