Open Letter to Vanderbilt University Regarding Student Suspension

Anti-Israel Vanderbilt Students

Open Letter to Vanderbilt University Regarding Student Suspension was a letter titled "An Open Letter from Faculty to the Vanderbilt Administration regarding the suspended student activists and freedom of expression on campus" in April, 2024 demanding the reinstatement of suspended students.,

Three students Devron Burks, first-year Jack Petocz and sophomore Samuel Schulman — "were arrested for assault and bodily injury to another, which is classified as a misdemeanor."

Background

Vanderbilt University Footage Dated March 26, 2024

Excerpt from The Vanderbilt Hustler dated March 27, 2024:

"Around 21.5 hours after it began, the sit-in inside Kirkland Hall over students’ ability to vote on the VSG BDS amendment ended at approximately 6:34 a.m. CDT. Two students left at various times last night due to medical or family emergencies, while the remaining 25 students forcibly left — with three being arrested — this morning after being woken up and escorted out by VUPD officers.

The email included a link to a video showing security footage from this morning when protestors initially entered the building. In the video, an officer unlocks and slightly opens a door to speak to protesters. After a moment, one protester pulls the door open widely. A Community Service Officer attempts to block the entrance by spreading his arms across the doorway. Students push against the officer to enter the building. The CSO wraps his arms around multiple students’ chests and shoulders to attempt to prevent them from entering. A few students push the officer into the building, permitting other students to enter. The officer continues to grab onto students even after they enter the building.

Excerpt from Fox News dated April 6, 2024:

"Several Vanderbilt University students have been expelled, one has been suspended, and more than 20 have been placed on probation after last month’s rowdy demonstration protesting the administration’s removal of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) initiative.

That’s according to the Vanderbilt Divest Coalition (VDC), the group which put forth an amendment to the Vanderbilt Student Government Constitution that would prevent government funds from going to certain businesses that support Israel.

The proposed amendment collected more than 600 signatures and qualified for a student ballot, but was removed by the university, prompting nearly 30 students to march into the halls of Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s office to hold a sit-in on March 26.

[...]

The sit-in protest lasted more than 20 hours. More than 30 additional students were on the steps outside the building protesting for hours even though they faced threats of suspension and forced removal.

Body of Letter

Chancellor Daniel Diermeier

Provost C. Cybele Raver

Office of the General Counsel

Faculty Senate President Andrea Capizzi

Vanderbilt prides itself on being a community that upholds democratic values, a place where students, faculty, and staff can debate complex ideas and meaningfully engage with urgent social issues. The university has also played a significant historical role in nonviolent protests, particularly student-led civil rights activism. Therefore, we, the undersigned Vanderbilt faculty, are deeply troubled by the suppression of student activism and speech on campus, most recently in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We hold a range of perspectives on this topic and on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign at the heart of the recent protests. However, in our shared view, the administration's response to student activism on this issue is inconsistent with Vanderbilt’s commitment to free speech and expression in a democratic society.

Over the past two weeks, the administration has responded to student protest in excessive and punitive ways, unduly restricting when, where, and how students can express themselves. The administration has confined student expression to a dwindling number of bulletin boards, locations, and approved time slots, with implications that should alarm the Vanderbilt community. We recognize that as a private entity, Vanderbilt has the latitude to set its own policies about free expression. But we are concerned that these rules seem arbitrary, shifting, and unevenly applied to student activists and other community members. We also contend that the criterion that student protests must not "disrupt" university operations is perniciously vague and expansive. Nonviolent protests aim at disruption to varying degrees. Thus, stipulating that protests violate handbook policy when they disrupt university operations potentially bans many meaningful forms of protest.

In the wake of last week’s protests, elected Metropolitan Council Members of Nashville and Davidson County sent two letters to the Chancellor raising serious concerns about the arrest of a reporter, student suspensions, and the general constriction of free speech on campus. The arrested reporter, Eli Motycka, has accused Vanderbilt of misrepresenting the events surrounding his arrest, asking for a public clarification and apology. We are troubled that the administration’s suppression of student speech on campus and its treatment of a peaceful journalist have threatened Vanderbilt’s standing and reputation within the broader Nashville community and possibly beyond.

Some of the administration’s actions of the last month include:

• Sending misconduct warnings to students who posted flyers seeking signatories in support of adding a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions referendum to the Vanderbilt Student Government ballot;
• Canceling the referendum after the students secured over 600 signatures;
• Canceling a previously approved permit for an outdoor protest wall exhibit, citing planned groundwork on Rand Yard;
• Issuing a new map, not available to the public, that entirely surrounds Kirkland Hall with no-protest and silent-protest zones, thereby rendering outdoor protest and speech a conduct violation;
• Arresting a reporter attempting to cover campus protests;
• Denying student activists access to bathrooms or food during their 21-hour peaceful sit-in at Kirkland;
• Arresting four students in connection with the sit-in, who were jailed and criminally charged with assault and vandalism;
• Issuing interim suspensions to 26 students who participated in the sit-in, during which time they are barred from campus and denied access to campus housing, meal plans, and healthcare as well as core educational activities, including classes, labs, and performances, at a particularly important time of the semester;
• Surveilling student activists who have not been suspended, and urging them not to continue their protests, as well as mistakenly suspending at least one student known for their on-campus activism who was not actually present at the sit-in;
• Sending emails to the entire campus claiming that Kirkland Hall was closed to the Vanderbilt community for construction, even though this construction was declared completed weeks ago and numerous faculty and staff have had meetings there;
• Contravening procedures outlined in the Student Handbook by instructing suspended students that they may not submit letters from faculty, thereby constraining students’ ability to share “all relevant information” about their previous conduct and circumstances surrounding the alleged violation;
• Exposing these students to the possibility of extreme sanctions—such as reportable probation, suspension, or expulsion—that would be both disproportionate to their peaceful protest activity and would chill their protected speech and that of other students going forward.

We write to affirm our support for the students involved in the March 2024 protests.

We reject the implied characterization of student protest activity as a threat to community or institutional safety.

We call on the administration to repeal all suspensions and criminal charges against the students and immediately reinstate their access to campus housing, meal plans, healthcare, and educational activities.

Finally, we urge the administration to align its policies with its values regarding free speech, expression, and democratic activities, including protest.

Signatories

• Colin Dayan, Robert Penn Warren Professor Emerita and Professor of English and Law
• Terry Maroney, Professor of Law; Professor of Medicine, Health and Society; Robert S. and Theresa L. Reder Chair in Law
• Vera Kutzinski, Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of English, Professor of Comparative Literature
• Helmut Smith, Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of History
• Marshall Eakin, Distinguished Professor of History
• Michael Bess, Chancellor's Professor of History
• Joel Harrington, Centennial Professor of History
• Jefferson Cowie, James G. Stahlman Professor of History
• Bruce Barry, Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Professor of Management of Organization Studies
• Joerg Rieger, Distinguished Professor of Theology and Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair in Wesleyan Studies of Theological Studies
• Bruce Morrill, Edward A. Malloy Chair in Roman Catholic Studies
• Dennis Dickerson, Reverend James Lawson Chair in History
• Rogers Hall, Wachtmeister Family Professor, Emeritus of Teaching and Learning
• Lynn Enterline, Nancy Perot Professor of English, Emerita
• Anthony Reed, Professor of English
• Jonathan Gilligan, Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences
• Jeff Bennett, Professor of Communication Studies
• Daniel Cornfield, Professor of Sociology
• Celia Applegate, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of History
• William Caferro, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History, Classical and Mediterranean Studies
• Jane Landers, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History
• Tony K. Stewart, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities, Emeritus of Religious Studies & Asian Studies
• James Hudnut-Beumler, Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious History
• David Blackbourn, Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Chair Emeritus of History
• Kathryn Schwarz, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English
• Daniel Sharfstein, Dick & Martha Lansden Chair in Law
• Sohee Park, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology
• Phillis Isabella Sheppard, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair and Professor of Religion, Psychology and Culture, Executive Director of James Lawson Institute
• James Hudnut-Beumler, Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious History
• Paul DeHart, Professor of Theology,
• Brian Christens, Professor of Human and Organizational Development
• Fernando Segovia, Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament, Divinity School
• Brooke Ackerly, Professor of Political Science
• Laurel Schneider, Professor of Religious Studies and Graduate Department of Religion
• Mark Schoenfield, Professor of English
• Rachel Teukolsky, Professor of English
• Ingrid Brunk, Professor of Law
• Edward Fischer, Professor of Anthropology
• Emily Greble, Professor of History and German, Russian and East European Studies
• Jennifer Fay, Professor of Cinema & Media Arts and English
• Richard McGregor, Professor of Religious Studies
• Yoshikuni Igarashi, Professor of History
• Gerald Figal, Professor of History and Asian Studies
• Roger Chalkley, Professor Emeritus of Molecular Physiology
• Candice Amich, Associate Professor of English
• Carwil Bjork-James, Associate Professor of Anthropology
• Dominique Behague, Associate Professor of Medicine Health and Society
• Laura Carpenter, Associate Professor of Sociology
• Ashley Carse, Associate Professor of Human and Organizational Development
• James McFarland, Associate Professor of German
• Brandon Byrd, Associate Professor of African American & Diaspora Studies and History
• Betsey Robinson, Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture
• Aimi Hamraie, Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, and Society
• Jessie Hock, Associate Professor of English
• Paul Kramer, Associate Professor of History
• Jana Harper, Associate Professor of the Practice of Art
• Nicole Hemmer, Associate Professor of History
• Paul Lim, Associate Professor of the History of Christianity of History and Religious Studies
• Linda Sealy, Associate Professor Emerita of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
• Vivian Shaw, Mellon Assistant Professor of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies
• Anna Castillo, Assistant Professor of Spanish of Spanish and Portuguese
• Leah Lowe, Professor of Theatre
• Edward Wright-Rios, Professor of History
• Beth Shinn, Professor of Human and Organizational Development
• Douglas Perkins, Professor of Human & Organizational Development
• Lutz Koepnick, Professor of German Studies and of Cinema and Media Arts
• Arleen Tuchman, Professor of History, Emerita
• David Carlone, Professor of the Practice of Human and Organizational Development
• Lesley Gill, Professor of Anthropology, Emerita
• James Epstein, Professor of History, Emeritus
• Vivien Fryd, Professor Emerita of History of Art and Architecture
• Kevin Leander, Professor of Teaching and Learning
• Meike Werner, Professor of German and European Studies
• Jaco Hamman, Professor of Religion, Psychology and Culture
• Anita Wager, Professor of the Practice of Teaching & Learning
• David Michelson, Associate Professor of the History of Christianity, Divinity School & Classical and Mediterranean Studies
• Isaac West, Associate Professor of Communication Studies
• Beth A. Conklin, Associate Professor of Anthropology
• Sara Mayeux, Associate Professor of Law
• Karen Ng, Associate Professor of Philosophy
• Kenneth MacLeish, Associate Professor of Medicine, Health & Society and Anthropology
• Samira Sheikh, Associate Professor of History
• Laura Stark, Associate Professor of Medicine, Health and Society
• Anand Taneja, Associate Professor of Religious Studies
• Ben Tran, Associate Professor of English and Asian Studies
• Catherine Molineux, Associate Professor of History
• Claire King, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Cinema and Media Arts
• Matthew Congdon, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
• Rebecca Epstein-Levi, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies
• Rebeca Gamez, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
• Julie Gamble, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Carmine Grimaldi, Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Arts
• Andres Pinedo, Assistant Professor of Human and Organizational Development
• Mark Sanchez, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies
• Krista Mehari, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Human Development
• ZZ Packer, Assistant Professor of English
• Lars Plate, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Biological Sciences
• Alex Dubilet, Assistant Professor of English
• Meng Zhang, Assistant Professor of History
• Ajay Batra, Assistant Professor of English
• Alex Bettis, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
• Jonathan Karp, Post-doctoral Fellow of Culture, Advocacy, and Leadership
• Simone Stirner, Assistant Professor of German Studies
• Lara Lookabaugh, Postdoctoral Fellow of Gender & Sexuality Studies
• Madeleine Casad, Senior Lecturer of Cinema and Media Arts
• Elizabeth Meadows, Principal Senior Lecturer of English
• Kristen Navarro, Senior Lecturer of Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Ellen McMahon, Instructor in Pediatrics
• Terry Jo Bichell, Lecturer of Biology
• Jose Luis Benavides, Lecturer of Art
• Jessica Lowe, Lecturer of Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Benjamin Legg, Principal Senior Lecturer of Spanish and Portuguese
• Helen Makhdoumian, Postdoctoral Fellow of English