The Card is about to give students some major discounts.

Today, Vanderbilt Student Government officially kicks off its Dorebusters program, a group of store vendors that will provide discounts to Vanderbilt students. It primarily features businesses located around the Green Hills, West End and Hillsboro Village area, said Sloane Speakman, the co-chair for VSG’s campus services committee.


View InsideVandy: Map of Dorebusters Participants in a larger map

“The effort started last semester. It was the campaign idea of a senator (Maria Crist),” Speakman said.

Over the summer, the committee started the process of coming up with an initial list of vendors to talk to by thinking about stores they and other students frequent.

“I thought about where do I go, where do I shop,” Speakman said.

Out of the original list of about 50 businesses, VSG has secured contacts with 19, Speakman said. Students simply go to the store, which will soon be marked with a sticker indicating it is participating in the program, and show their Vanderbilt ID to get the discount.

Some vendors did not get back to VSG in time or were reluctant to join the program in the first year without knowing its popularity, Speakman said. The current stores, which cover a range of interests, from Climb Nashville to Nashville Ballet, are under one-year contracts.

“Our initial outreach was to stores, not restaurants,” said Lucie Rhoads, the public relations director. Speakman added that many stores they contacted, like American Apparel and Blockbuster, are already popular with students.

Andrew Morse, the other campus services co-chair, wrote in an e-mail that he’s expecting to see the list of businesses grow.

“As publicity about this new program gets around campus and the Nashville community, we are looking forward to expanding our list of participants to bring more discounts to the student body,” he wrote.

The question of which vendors will be contacted next remains up in the air. President Wyatt Smith noted many of the stores currently in the program fall outside the range the Taste of Nashville program covers, a plus for those students who often venture beyond campus limits.

Whether or not Taste of Nashville and Dorebusters will remain mutually exclusive programs remains to be seen. Smith added VSG is trying to provide the best service possible to students.

Rhoads said students would have the chance to provide feedback and give input as to where they think VSG should look to expand the program.