Indivisible Vandy, a chapter of the national Indivisible organization, ramped up its organizing efforts after Vanderbilt announced it would provide feedback on the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” offered by President Donald Trump’s administration. It plans to hold events and begin a long-term effort to encourage students to vote and be more politically engaged, according to three members — sixth-year Ph.D. candidate Maxwell Hamilton, junior Carolina Kelly and sophomore Zofia Sante Hunter — in an interview with The Hustler.
Indivisible was one of the major organizers of both the Hands Off! and No Kings protests — with this year’s No Kings protests being one of the largest protests in United States history. Indivisible’s mission is to support grassroots movements against Trump’s agenda and to support progressive policies.
The Indivisible Nashville organization coordinated the local No Kings demonstration and works closely with Indivisible Vandy, which Hamilton founded last year. The chapter has become more active since the compact was introduced, and its recent efforts have focused on persuading Vanderbilt to reject the compact. It helped organize a rally that marched from Wyatt Lawn to Kirkland Hall on Oct. 8 against the compact. The group is also helping plan an upcoming rally against the compact at Kirkland Hall on Nov. 4.
Hamilton said the chapter hopes not to have an antagonistic relationship with university administration but that the administration’s lack of a definitive answer in response to the compact is not sufficient.
“The vast majority of the other schools who were offered the compact have rejected it, and it’s very disappointing that the university, ostensibly in the interest of institutional neutrality, would even consider it,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said they are working with a network of organizers from the eight other universities who were sent the compact to coordinate a national-level strategy.
Hunter said the government’s ability to have potential oversight power over class curriculum drove her participation in Indivisible.
“I believe that the quality of my degree and the quality of every Vanderbilt degree [held by] alumni would drop if we were to sign on with this compact,” Hunter said.
Hamilton said when he was looking to start organizing, he saw Indivisible as an organization that successfully mobilized people. He said he initially wanted to be at the disposal of the larger Nashville chapter but chose to start Indivisible Vandy so that they would not have to abide solely by the goals of the Nashville chapter.
“I wouldn’t think of us as underneath them but as sort of this subgroup of Nashville Indivisible,” Hamilton said.
Indivisible Vandy is not a registered student organization on campus and relies on the larger organization for funding. The national organization reported on its Form 990 that it provided both direct funding and strategic messaging to local groups to help them organize events and mobilize their communities.
“They have been, I think, giving us a lot of good advice and just committing resources and helping us with recruiting organizers,” Hamilton said.
In the interview with The Hustler, Kelly said Indivisible Vandy also plans to increase engagement with undergraduate students in its chapter, specifically with its voter registration drive for the upcoming special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, which encompasses Vanderbilt.
“For the voter registration drive, we’re planning to collaborate with some other undergrad student orgs to really drive up the numbers of how many students we have registered,” Kelly said.
