Certain students’ rights are being violated at Vanderbilt, according to Adam Kissel, vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). He spoke Wednesday evening to the Vanderbilt community about current rights issues at the school, as well as at other colleges and universities across the country.
The talk turned toward hot-button issues at Vanderbilt, including the university’s BYX fraternity chapter’s alleged exclusion of a member based on sexual orientation and if it should violate discrimination policy. Kissel addressed FIRE’s stance on the issue, using an analogy to explain.
“If I’m part of the chess club, I can’t exclude someone because he’s of a different race. But if I’m part of the Muslim club, I can exclude you because (you are) not a Muslim,” Kissel said. “Do you really want to go after the Muslim club because they won’t let a Muslim in? Freedom of association is also the freedom to not associate.”
Kissel’s speech touched on multiple issues that have dogged students in the past, including resident life staff at the University of Georgia enforcing life morality, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis punishing a student-employee for reading the book “Notre Dame vs. The Klan,” and University of New Hampshire expelling a student for distributing a flier suggesting that female students use the stairs in order to avoid the “freshman 15.”
FIRE currently lists Vanderbilt with speech code rating of “red,” the lowest possible, due to Vanderbilt’s classification of “unwelcome flirting as harassment” as a form of sexual harassment. FIRE recognizes a brochure from Vanderbilt’s Opportunity Development Center as Vanderbilt’s official policy on the matter, though some students have been skeptical about FIRE’s stance on such sexual misconduct.
“I was mildly annoyed that he kind of skimmed over the ‘red light’ sexual harassment policy” said freshman Will Wigle, “During the entirety of his speech, ‘unwanted touching’ was not mentioned once.”
After the talk, Kissel told the Hustler that touching is categorized under conduct, not under speech, and therefore is not within FIRE’s sphere of influence. However, Kissel did note that people often use speech and conduct interchangeably when talking about policy.
“It is important to determine when speech becomes conduct, or conduct that has a speech component,” Kissel said. “For example, flag burning of any type would be supported by free speech; however, if the school’s code specifies that ‘nothing can be burned,’ then the issue is not about speech but rather conduct.”
However, Kissel said schools often do not take this all-or-nothing approach. “Frequently I see a double standard, where an administration will let criticism pass if the criticism supports its viewpoint.”
“If someone feels uncomfortable and violated, unable to walk across that part of campus, then they’ve been harassed and they should get that person in trouble,” Kissel said, “but if you haven’t actually harassed someone, then you shouldn’t be punished.”
FIRE also cites Vanderbilt’s Code of Conduct, as well as its policies on tolerance, respect and civility as a “yellow” speech code rating, reserved for the ban or regulation of protected speech.
“It’s great for a university to say that it trusts in its education so much that its students should have these values,” Kissel said, referring to the Code of Conduct.
“However, if Vanderbilt is handing them to you on the first day, and you have to say ‘we pledge to foster these values’ … if there is disciplinary force behind it, that is the opposite of a liberal education,” Kissel said. “We would like to see Vanderbilt say ‘here are the aspired value,’ and not that you have to have them.”
In defense of the university’s policies, Associate Provost and Dean of Students Mark Bandas said that the creed “is not part of our code of conduct and is not enforced by the University. No one can be disciplined for failing to uphold or abide by the creed.”
Students who attended the lecture felt that the talk was, overall, an interesting outlook on the contemporary issues in students’ rights.
The libertarian student organization Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) hosted the event, hoping that the talk would boost awareness of possible student rights violations on campus.
“Certain policies often infringe upon our rights as students, and (Mr. Kissel’s) speech is a big first step,” said first-year student and YAL President Kenny Tan. “It’s absurd to punish someone for freedom of expression.”
FIRE is a non-profit civil liberties foundation that, according to its mission statement, defends “freedom of speech and expression; religious liberty and freedom of association; freedom of conscience; and due process and legal equality” at university campuses nationwide.
If you would like to learn more information about FIRE or how FIRE assesses Vanderbilt University’s restrictions of student’s rights, you can visit their website at thefire.org.
