College Voices: Safe (?) spaces

Vanderbilt’s nondiscrimination policy is all about inclusivity. But when can inclusivity become a problem?

In 2010, a series of allegations about discrimination prompted Vanderbilt to reevaluate its nondiscrimination policy.

The all-comers policy that emerged from this controversy supposedly levels the playing field by making any student that is interested in a student organization eligible for membership and leadership positions. But there are some notable discrepancies.

In reality, Vanderbilt’s non-discrimination policy does not apply to some student organizations. And this raises a lot of questions. Like how did allegations of discrimination from 2010 affect our current non-discrimination policies? Why can some organizations discriminate against members on the basis of sex? And when student organizations created to support marginalized groups are open to all students, what does this mean for their safe spaces?

In this episode, we explore how students on campus are able to express themselves while respecting Vanderbilt’s policies.

This episode was researched and reported by Blair McDonald. Blair McDonald is also our Managing Producer and Abhinav Krishnan is our Executive Producer. Our Audio Producer is Brynn Jones, Cara Kim is our audience engagement manager, and our logo was designed by Emery Little.

All of the music in this episode was produced by Axletree and used under a Creative Commons License.