'We Are Vanderbilt' demonstrates campus unity-Student leaders are often called on by friends, fellow students and administrators to publicly comment on general issues relating student life and relevant topics of concern to the student body as a whole. Other times, issues are so immediate and have such impact on individual students that student leaders are compelled to take initiative themselves. Last week's "We are Vanderbilt" campaign represents a great example of such an initiative, designed by students in reaction to an issue that has caused tremendous pain and suffering to a segment of our community. Mike Warren's Friday column, "VSG pledge makes lame attempt to 'save' us all,” incorrectly categorizes the effort as an indictment of our campus as being overrun with racism and religious intolerance, an assertion that couldn't be further from the truth.
Like Warren, we (Vanderbilt Student Government) recognize that hatred and intolerance, cornerstones of many topics on Juicy Campus, are views limited to a minority of individuals who cowardly post written attacks on the website. By no means do we believe the initiative was needed to "save Vanderbilt's soul;” quite the contrary, it was needed to reassure community members personally abused or offended by the postings that the university stands with them and not behind the acts of spineless cyber abusers.
Juicy Campus is not indicative of widespread hate at Vanderbilt; instead, it is a symptom of a smaller issue: With anonymity as their protection, a few individuals are being allowed a forum for libeling individuals in our community and expressing hatred towards racial, ethnic, homosexual and religious populations. For weeks, the students hurt most by this violation of free speech have lacked a forum conducive to expressing their disgust and rejection of this intolerance within our community. On the university's part, silence at this point would have been implicit approval of this intolerance and hatred, and it was important that we provide the affected people with an outlet for publicly voicing their views.
Further, Warren's insinuation that VSG acted unilaterally in initiating the "We are Vanderbilt" campaign discredits the efforts of many individuals across campus working to craft a university-wide response to perceived intolerance and hatred in our community. Without the initiative and hard work of VUcept President Lauren Page Black, Multicultural Leadership Council President Joann Lee, Black Student Alliance Vice-President Courtney Williams and multiple university staff members within the Office of the Dean of Students, Office of the Dean of the Commons and Office of Greek Life, the campaign would have failed to achieve its purpose of facilitating a united campus response to the acts of a hate-spewing minority.
Instead of characterizing "We are Vanderbilt" as a reaction to widespread intolerance within our campus, Warren should have acknowledged the true purpose of the campaign: to provide an opportunity for students to reaffirm their commitment to the values set forth in our Community Creed and offer individuals disgusted by online cowardice an outlet for publicly voicing their disdain for hatred in our community. The "We are Vanderbilt" campaign wasn't intended to dramatically unite our campus under an illusion of respect and acceptance; it simply proved we were together all along.
No comments:
Post a Comment