To the Editor:

We are Vanderbilt! Just one year ago, Vanderbilt’s student body read with horror the libelous, sexist and racist writings posted on the gossip website Juicy Campus. Rather than ignoring the anonymous authors’ sentiments, the community responded with mass signings of a powerful creed that bound each member of Vanderbilt together in a responsible, moral collective. The Creed stated, “We are dedicated to supporting one another within our community. We make a lifelong commitment to channeling service, knowledge and experience toward the betterment of humanity.” In the wake of decency’s victory over Juicy Campus, it seems important for the Vanderbilt community to reflect on these words and reaffirm its commitment to the Community Creed.

I don’t need to remind anyone that America is going through tough financial times. The cloudy storms of depression have moved from a distant thought on the horizon to a full-blown tempest overhead. The White House reports that over 600,000 Americans lost their jobs in the past month, and these numbers don’t necessarily reflect the total suffering felt by temporary and immigrant employees. More locally, Vanderbilt’s endowment dropped over 600 million dollars in the past six months, from 3.5 billion to 2.9 billion. These losses are significant and rumors of job cuts amongst Vanderbilt’s lowest-paid employees have proliferated in accordance. In his e-mail to the student body, Chancellor Zeppos claimed it was his “intention to avoid major layoffs” but made no guarantees regarding the status of Vanderbilt’s staff. While these words were positive political steps for the University to take, they were but words. It is time for the administration to act on the Creed, to reaffirm the Staff’s place in the Vanderbilt community and to ask the collective community to sacrifice its excesses so that no worker needs to see their job lost or their hours cut.

In light of the financial crisis, it would be remiss to say the University’s expenditures do not need to be cut; the endowment is a critical source of funding for the school’s everyday activities. However, it would be equally as ignorant to ignore the financial bubble that Vanderbilt creates around its students. The economic depression of the outside community is almost invisible between West End and 21st Ave. Rather than reinforcing the barriers that separate the at-risk worker from the university scholar, Vanderbilt’s students stand ready to protect these worker’s rights. This past week, over 500 hundred students signed a petition stating, “As a community, we cannot place the burden of this financial hardship on our low-wage workers, who are most economically vulnerable.” Simultaneously, members of the campus group Living Income for Vanderbilt Employees met with Dean of Students Mark Bandas to express their concerns about potential job losses. Certainly these students’ fears are well in line with the Community Creed the University encouraged them to sign just one year ago. The students spoke then, and they will speak now. Just as Juicy Campus fell to collective morality, job cuts should and will lose out to communal sacrifice.

Josh Rogen
Sophomore, Peabody College
Vanderbilt Students of Nonviolence