Twelve days after being indefinitely postponed, Vanderbilt Student Government’s Dinner with the Chancellor was canceled today. Both changes were made by Student Affairs. 

VSG Programming Director Leo Huang, a junior, emailed selected students today informing them of the cancelation after VSG tried identifying alternative dates for the event. Huang quotes his correspondence with Student Affairs, in which the office states it was “not able to find a time on [the Chancellor’s] calendar within this spring semester that would be appealing to any of the guests.” 

The initial postponement was issued one day after the Kirkland Hall sit-in, during which students forcibly entered the building in an attempt to speak with Diermeier about the administration-canceled VSG BDS referendum. Huang stated in an email to The Hustler that the cancelation notice did not mention the sit-in. 

VSG President Sam Sliman expressed scorn over the cancellation of the event.

“Whoop-de-f***ing-do — who could have possibly seen this coming?” Sliman said. “[Diermeier] is an egotistical narcissist with no interest in interacting with the Vanderbilt community. As soon as it was [postponed] indefinitely, we knew that it would be another example of Chancellor Diermeier making himself inaccessible to students.” 

Sliman said Student Affairs and the Office of the Chancellor did not communicate with selected students or VSG to determine whether available times on Diermeier’s calendar were “appealing.” Student Affairs and Traci Ray, associate dean for student engagement and leadership, did not immediately respond to The Hustler’s request for comment about how times were determined to be unappealing to selected students. 

“I’m not mad, just disappointed that this is what we’ve come to expect from Diermeier. I hope that next year this event will return,” Sliman said.