The Vanderbilt Hustler 1-21-15

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NOT A SIMPLE STORY

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015

VOL. 127, ISS. 3

Perspectives on Prof. Carol Swain’s controversial op-ed and community reactions complicate notions of free speech and safe spaces SEE PAGE 8

EDITORIAL

Don’t institutionalize intolerance The Editorial Board argues for the importance of protecting even ‘hateful’ speech in the Vanderbilt community PAGE 6

A history of civil rights at Vanderbilt After MLK weekend, professors reflect on activism and significant events of the past and present

NEWS

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Rape case update: McKenzie testifies Co-defendant Jaborian ‘Tip’ McKenzie told his story of the alleged assault from the stand Tuesday morning

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campus

QUOTE OF THE DAY “Students, faculty and staff said that we should observe the King holiday not with a day off, but with a day on.”

DR. FRANK E. DOBSON, BCC DIRECTOR

60 years of change

Following the university’s MLK Weekend of Action, professors weigh in on the evolving face of civil rights activism

1900s 1953 Vanderbilt admits its first African-American student, Joseph A. Johnson, to the Vanderbilt School of Divinity.

1960 Divinity School student James Lawson is expelled from Vanderbilt School of Divinity for his involvement in the civil rights movement.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

1966 Perry Wallace is recruited to play basketball at Vanderbilt, becoming the first AfricanAmerican athlete in the SEC.

1971 ZIYI LIU / THE VANDERBILT HUSTLER

Students participate in the MLK Freedom March, which concluded at Tennessee State University’s Gentry Center, where a convocation was held in Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s memory.

By SAARA ASIKAINEN AND ZOE SHANCER Managing editor, News reporter --------------------

Harry Belafonte, an 87-year-old civil and human rights activist, spoke to a packed Langford Auditorium last Tuesday evening as part of a Chancellor’s Lecture on the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Belafonte spoke about both the civil rights movement and its relevance to the activism of today’s student population.

“I get the sense that among the students something is happening that reminds me very much of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s on the campuses of America,” Belafonte said. “It’s a consciousness, a certain kind of fruition taking place in these university centers that have a higher level of consciousness of where we are going today.”

“Where is the next Malcolm? Where is the next Dr. King? Who is the next Fannie Lou? They’re out there,” Belafonte said.

vanderbilthustler STAFF

TYLER BISHOP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The panel was a prelude to this past weekend’s activities commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Students participated in service projects throughout Nashville and attended universitysponsored programming, including a march and teach-ins, and culminating in a keynote lecture from U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young.

Much like Belafonte, Young looked to the past and the future in detailing his extensive efforts as a civil rights leader and possibilities for current activists. Young’s speech served as the culmination of events for the Day of Commemoration.

Dr. Frank E. Dobson, director of the Black Cultural Center and co-chair of the university’s MLK Day committee, emphasized allyship, community-building and pushing outside one’s comfort zone as lessons from figures of past civil rights battles.

“When we talk about today’s movement, whether it’s the Occupy movement from a few years ago or whether it’s the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement of today, we can learn so many lessons

KELLY HALOM — CO-NEWS EDITOR ALLIE GROSS — CO-NEWS EDITOR PRIYANKA ARIBINDI — LIFE EDITOR MOLLY CORN — OPINION EDITOR ALLISON MAST — SPORTS EDITOR SAARA ASIKAINEN — MANAGING EDITOR KARA SHERRER — WEB EDITOR SOPHIE TO — CHIEF COPY EDITOR

The Theta Beta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi becomes the first African-American fraternity at Vanderbilt.

1972 Alpha Kappa Alpha becomes the first AfricanAmerican sorority at Vanderbilt.

2000s 2007 James Lawson returns to Vanderbilt as a distinguished visiting professor.

BOSLEY JARRETT — PHOTO DIRECTOR JENNA WENGLER — ART DIRECTOR PHIL DANTA — CHIEF WEB DEVELOPER MADDIE HUGHES — FEATURES EDITOR ANGELICA LASALA — SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR BEN WEINRIB — ASST. SPORTS EDITOR KAREN CHAN — ASST. ART DIRECTOR QUEEN STEVENSON — ASST. OPINION EDITOR ZIYI LIU — ASST. PHOTO DIRECTOR KATHY YUAN — ASST. PHOTO DIRECTOR

DESIGNERS

COPY EDITORS

ZACH BERKOWITZ ZOE SHANCER KATHY ZHOU HAN DEWAN AADITI NAIK CHRISTOPH SPROUL SHARON SI BRIANNA GALGANO

ALEXIS BANKS ANDREA BLATT RACHAEL GRAHAM WESLEY LIN KATHY YUAN

THE VANDERBILT HUSTLER ◆ WWW.VANDERBILTHUSTLER.COM 2010 James Franklin becomes the first African-American head coach for the Vanderbilt football team.

2011 Vanderbilt begins cancelling classes universitywide in the spring in observance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

2012 Emilie Townes is named the dean of the Vanderbilt Divinity School. She is the first African-American to hold this post.

2014 Derek Mason is named head football coach at Vanderbilt.

—Data provided by Vanderbilt’s ‘Celebrating Black History’ website.

from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s,” Dobson said.

A history of civil rights at Vanderbilt Bishop Joseph Johnson Jr. was the first African-American student to attend Vanderbilt. He was 39 years old, married and a pastor in his town at the time. He had already been accepted to more progressive northern universities but wanted to pursue his doctorate in divinity at Vanderbilt’s Divinity School due to its proximity to his family and church.

In 1953, the Board of Trust agreed to allow Johnson to matriculate into the undergraduate school for a year of baccalaureate work, although Johnson already had several degrees, including an advanced degree.

According to Dobson, Vanderbilt was essentially telling Johnson he couldn’t cut it. “‘Even though you have all these degrees already, we’re not going to let you into our divinity school to pursue the doctorate in divinity unless you prove yourself first, negro, with a year of baccalaureate work that you really don’t need,’” Dobson said, summarizing the university’s attitude toward him.

While he studied at Vanderbilt, Johnson was subject to the social patterns that governed the South at the time.

“He’s not using the restrooms, he’s not drinking at the water fountain and when it’s time for him to get off campus, he’s going off campus,” Dobson said.

Despite the discrimination Johnson endured as a student, Dobson noted that his admission to Vanderbilt was a landmark event in the university’s history.

“Now the fact of the matter that he was still a second-class citizen on this campus is undeniable, but once you let him in, it’s no longer a white school,” Dobson continued. “It’s still basically 99.9 percent (white), but once you let him in, things are going to change.”

Dobson said Johnson knew his entrance into the university

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would pave the way for other black students. A decade after his initial enrollment, eight African-American undergraduates would enter Vanderbilt in the fall of 1964.

“I think he knew, in spite of the fact that on the surface he was kowtowing to Southern traditions, I think he knew that he was also instituting change, and I cannot imagine that he also did not know that he was still going to be met with all kinds of animosity, rancor and the like,” Dobson said.

After completing the year of baccalaureate work in 1954, Johnson earned his Ph.D. in New Testament theology in 1958.

Following in his footsteps was Reverend James Lawson, who enrolled in the Vanderbilt Divinity School in the same year.

Lawson played an important role in organizing Nashville nonviolent direct action, including sit-ins and the desegregation of downtown department stores and lunch counters, with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, according to Dennis Dickerson, James M. Lawson Jr. Professor of History.

Lawson’s involvement in nonviolent student workshops led to his expulsion from the university in 1960.

“Because of his pivotal, and, I would argue, indispensable involvement in the nonviolence student workshops, at the urging of one of the trustees, James Stolman, he was expelled from the university, and that became a very explosive issue in the city,” Dickerson said.

Although his expulsion was met by resistance from both Vanderbilt Divinity School and medical school faculty members, he left Vanderbilt to earn his divinity degree from Boston University.

Years later, Chancellor Harvie Branscomb personally apologized to James Lawson for allowing this to happen. Lawson returned to Vanderbilt as a visiting professor and honoree for the academic year 2006-07.

Also significant to Vanderbilt’s history was the recruitment of Perry Wallace to the school’s basketball team in 1966. Wallace was the first African-American to play in the Southeastern Con— continued on PAGE 5

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WEDNESDAY,JANUARY 21, 2015

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‘I thought it would all just go away’ Co-defendant Jaborian McKenzie and other key witnesses give their stories from the stand in the rape trial against two former Vanderbilt football players

By TYLER BISHOP Editor-in-chief --------------------

Trigger warning: The following includes content pertaining to a specific campus sexual assault. It may be triggering to some readers.

Jaborian McKenzie did not know Brandon Vandenburg before June 22, 2013. But what both sides are calling a “chance encounter” between the two — along with Brandon Banks and Cory Batey — altered the course of their lives.

McKenzie took the stand Tuesday morning in the trial against two of the four defendants: Vandenburg and Batey.

As he answered questions from Assistant Attorney General Tom Thurman, he described what he could recall from Vandenburg’s dorm room during the alleged assault.

McKenzie said Vandenburg was “amped” as they entered Gillette Hall. He said Vandenburg provided the other three men with condoms and egged them on. He said that Vandenburg claimed he couldn’t get a “hard-on” because he had used too much cocaine, so he didn’t partake in sexual acts with the alleged victim — other than slapping the behind of the alleged victim when Batey worried that she might wake up. And McKenzie said he himself “didn’t touch” the alleged victim, either.

But during cross-examination, Batey’s attorney Worrick Robinson pressed McKenzie on how his story had changed over the course of five interviews with police — ultimately leading to the story he said he told on the stand Tuesday. McKenzie admitted to lying about what had happened at first, but said he eventually told police the truth.

“It’s hard to tell on your brother when something like that happens,” he said. He referred to Banks and Batey as his brothers because they were his best friends.

After a few interviews with police in June and July of 2013, Mckenzie said he thought it would all “just go away.”

But after conversations with lawyers and having the opportunity to see some evidence provided during discovery — the pretrial sharing of information and evidence between parties — he talked to police with the hope of being given “consideration” for a lesser penalty.

During the opening statements, defense attorneys asked the jury to consider the motivation that McKenzie — and Banks, should he take the stand — might have to give information favorable to the state. McKenzie now plays football for Alcorn State and has a daughter.

Some commentators have said Robinson’s cross-examination of McKenzie gave the defense the first momentum it has had since the trial began because it drew attention both to inconsistencies in his testimony and the potential he has to cut a deal with the state.

Also while on the stand, McKenzie confirmed the defense’s characterization of college culture as full of binge drinking. He said it is not uncommon to see drunk students being helped into their room, and confirmed that Batey and Vandenburg were both drunk at the time of the alleged assault. But he also said Vandenburg “knew what he was doing.”

JOHNPARTIPILO PARTIPILO/ /THE THETENNESSEEAN TENNESSEAN JOHN

Jaborian McKenzie testifies in the rape trial against Vandenburg and Batey. The trial is taking place in the Justice A. A. Birch Building in downtown Nashville.

McKenzie also said Vandenburg’s roommate was asleep and did not leave his top bunk during the incident. The roommate, who is a current student, was the next witness to take the stand. He said he remembered waking up to conversations about sex and pornography.

He said he woke up, looked over and saw the alleged victim on the bed, and left to stay in a friend’s room. He never reported what he saw.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. However, he later gave information to investigators. He confirmed on the stand that he signed an immunity agreement.

Two others testified on Tuesday: Charly Castelbuono, a forensic scientist for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation; and a wide receiver on the Vanderbilt football team.

The Hustler will be in the courtroom throughout much of the trial and will post updates via Twitter @vandyhustler.

For full coverage, visit vanderbilthustler.com.

EDITOR'S NOTE The Vanderbilt Hustler will never name a victim or alleged victim of sexual assault — or otherwise provide identifying information about them — without their consent. In our coverage, we additionally will not name fellow students — our peers — who are involved in the case without their consent.

REVIEW OF THE CHARGES Cory Batey, Brandon Vandenburg, Brandon Banks and Jaborian McKenzie face five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. Vandenburg additionally faces tampering with evidence and unlawful photography charges.

Banks and McKenzie were severed from the case against Vandenburg and Batey a few months after being indicted. McKenzie said he is testifying with the hope of “consideration” for a lesser penalty. It is unclear whether the state will call Banks to the stand.

Potential penalties: Aggravated rape: 15-60 years* Aggravated sexual battery: 8-30 years* Unlawful photography: 1-6 years Tampering with evidence: 3-15 years *Aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery are “100 percent” crimes, which means that if convicted, the defendant will serve the entire term they are given

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— continued from PAGE 3

Civil rights activism going forward ference (alum Andrew Maraniss’ biography of Wallace, “Strong Inside,” was published in December).

Wallace’s recruitment was particularly important because he was a Nashville local at a time when segregation meant total isolation of black and white communities from one another.

“For someone from Nashville to be recruited onto the team of the school across town was very significant,” Dickerson said.

“It was almost as though Vanderbilt was a thousand miles away when it was just a matter of coming several blocks over from where he lived.”

English Professor Michael Kreyling distinguished between African-Americans’ contributions — like those of Johnson, Lawson and Wallace — from those of acclaimed writer Robert Penn Warren, Class of 1925.

When the civil rights movement began, Warren got in his car with a tape recorder and headed south in the early ‘60s with a commission from “Life Magazine.” He began talking to figures considered “race leaders” — mostly African-American students, ministers, professors — and people on the street and recorded their thoughts on race in America. His aim was to document the

country’s “great national angst.”

“When he puts his book together, he keeps asking everybody he talks to, ‘You don’t really want to be separatist, do you? Are you American first or American as equally as you are black?’ and he keeps trying to get the answer ‘yes’ out of it,” Kreyling said. “It makes a really interesting reading that he’s trying to interpret the term ‘African-American’ with that term ‘American’ still as the predominant half.”

An archive of the recorded conversations exists online and an edited version by the same name was turned into a manuscript titled “Who Speaks for the Negro?” “(Warren is) really important in the historical context of the 1960s as representing that figure that we all sort of recognize now, the white southern liberal, the Atticus Finch of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ who is good-hearted in a sense. He wants racial harmony, but he isn’t quite ready emotionally or intellectually to understand what exactly it is going to cost him to get that,” Kreyling said.

Recent developments and continued activism A recent historically significant development in the university’s leadership was

Emilie Townes’ inauguration in 2013 as the first African-American dean of the Divinity school. Townes is the first African-American to head any school at the university.

According to Dickerson, also of note is that there are two chairs named for AfricanAmericans, one in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine in honor of Levi Watkins and one in the College of Arts and Science’s history department in honor of James Lawson.

Another contemporary player in the race conversation at Vanderbilt was law professor Robert Belton, who passed away in 2012.

Belton was a senior African-American faculty member and a distinguished civil rights lawyer who taught at Vanderbilt for over 30 years. A portrait hangs in the law school in his honor.

In recent years, discussions about race have also become prominent among students. The university cancelled classes for MLK Day across all schools starting in spring 2011 following a push from faculty and students.

“That came to be because there was a concerted effort on campus,” Dobson said.

“Students, faculty and staff said that we should observe the King holiday with not a day off, but a day on. The whole notion was

that undergraduates will no longer attend classes on that day, they will devote time to community service, but also to learning and growing.”

Dobson said the King holiday has grown since 2011 and become a “campus-wide event.” He was elated at the expansion of programming and increased attendance.

“If you look at the calendar, you see things going on in the Medical Center and throughout campus,” Dobson said. “Yesterday, of course, we had very, very strong attendance from the Greek population, which is great.”

Dobson acknowledged a spirit of activism developing on campus recently. The Hidden ‘Dores movement, Vanderbilt Students in Solidarity’s response to Ferguson and the weekend’s protests against Carol Swain’s oped are cases in point.

“I think one of the interesting conversations that’s coming to the fore is what does it mean to be an activist today in 2015?”

Dobson said. “It’s not the same as in 1963. I would suggest it’s different. Your generation is changing what it means to be an activist.”

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

opinion

“Knowing that such vilifying commentary originated from a member of the Vanderbilt faculty made the attacks painfully personal.”

EDITORIAL BOARD

Don’t institutionalize intolerance Administrative action against Swain would infringe on the university’s commitment to free expression in the Vanderbilt community EDITORIAL

T

THE EDITORIAL BOARD is composed of the editor-in-chief and the four section editors of The Vanderbilt Hustler.

The opinion expressed represents the view of The Vanderbilt Hustler.

he students of Vanderbilt have expressed shock and outrage over the course of the past six days about the broad condemnation of Muslims in Professor Carol Swain’s opinion piece published in The Tennessean. She wrote that Islam, unlike other religions, is an “absolute danger to us and our children.” Following its publication, many Muslim students found one another, hoping to alleviate their fear by sharing their reactions. Some gritted teeth; some wept; some simply stared at their screens. Knowing that such vilifying commentary originated from a member of the Vanderbilt faculty made the attacks painfully personal.

Swain has undoubtedly abused her position as an academic at a respected institution by perpetuating a myth that seeks to shut down debate and discourage the legitimacy of the place that Muslim individuals hold in American society. Her poorly supported argument and unprofessional conduct on social media following the backlash against her editorial is a stain on the reputation of of our institution. In fact, many feel that Swain’s actions have created an environment that feels unsafe to some of her students.

For all of these reasons, the gut reaction of some on our editorial staff — like that of many other students — was to call for administrative action against Swain.

Section IV, Ch. 1, Section A of the faculty manual states that grounds for disciplinary action include “gross personal misconduct rendering the person unfit for association with students or colleagues.” Many whom we’ve spoken to feel that her actions meet this standard.

But what would disciplinary action against Swain say about the value we place upon problematic opinions on our campus?

vanderbilthustler EDITORIAL BOARD TYLER BISHOP, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF editor@vanderbilthustler.com

KELLY HALOM

PRIYANKA ARIBINDI

NEWS EDITOR news@vanderbilthustler.com

LIFE EDITOR life@vanderbilthustler.com

MOLLY CORN

ALLISON MAST

OPINION EDITOR opinion@vanderbilthustler. com

SPORTS EDITOR sports@vanderbilthustler.com

‘‘

Beyond conflicting with our commitment to the values of the First Amendment, taking action against Swain would not be without other consequences.

’’

Sophomore Jeffrey Greenberg pointed out in a guest column that “the First Amendment has no function if it falters in the face of disagreement.

The most vile, hate-filled speech is the most important to defend.” He concluded that “the only way to defeat an ideology is to face it and dismantle it piece by piece — not by locking it in a cage, which only allows hatred to fester and grow — but by exposing it and disinfecting it in the sunlight.”

If Swain’s expressed beliefs about Islam are indeed an ideology ingrained in the minds of some of those who share our classrooms, how might we ever foster dialogue that helps reshape opinions if we are intolerant of problematic (and yes, even hateful) positions?

Beyond conflicting with our commitment to the values of the First Amendment, taking action against Swain would not be without other consequences. The university has already faced

The Vanderbilt Hustler Opinion page aims to stimulate discussion in the Vanderbilt community. In that spirit, columnists, guest columnists and authors of letters to the editor are expected to provide logical argument to back their views. Unreasonable arguments, arguments in bad faith or arguments in vain between columnists have no place in The Hustler and will not be published. The Hustler welcomes reader viewpoints and offers three methods of expression: letters to the editor, guest columns and feedback on vanderbilthustler.com.

The views expressed in lead editorials reflect the majority of opinion among The Hustler’s editorial board and may be supposed to represent the opinion of The Vanderbilt Hustler at the time of publication. They are not necessarily representative of any individual member.

Letters must be submitted either in person by the author to The Hustler office or via email to opinion@vanderbilthustler.com. Letters via email should come from a Vanderbilt email address where the identity of the sender is clear. With rare exception, all letters must be received by 2 p.m. on the Sunday prior to publication. The editor

criticism from some about the nondiscrimination policy that caused more than a dozen religious organizations to voluntarily leave campus three years ago. If the administration were to fire a tenured professor for publicly expressing a sentiment that is (unfortunately) held by a significant number of people, the university would undoubtedly be under fire from alumni and others. Swain would be held up by far-right conservatives around the country as proof that “liberal propaganda” dominates elite universities and that conservatives are under attack from the “PC police.”

It wouldn’t be the first time Professor Swain has leveraged tension with the university to garner public attention. While Swain’s brand of conservatism can come as a shock to many students from more liberal backgrounds, for students from certain areas of the country, Swain’s sentiment is disgusting and disappointing, but not particularly shocking.

So what do we do?

We must recognize that Swain’s speech has ironically highlighted exactly what we value about a place like Vanderbilt: to be pushed beyond boundaries and exposed to new ideas fosters intellectual growth, creating the active citizens the university strives to produce.

We can make our commitment to our Muslim peers clear and apparent in more productive ways, independent from the university. Speak out, write and continue to show support for fellow students. You can even turn your back on speech you find hateful or refuse to enroll in Swain’s classes.

But top-down institutional change often has little effect on actual discrimination — and no disciplinary action against Swain would be an end-all solution to anti-Islamic sentiment on campus.

Censorship does not breed tolerance.

reserves the right to edit and condense submissions for length as well as clarity.

Lengthy letters that focus on an issue affecting students may be considered for a guest column at the editor’s discretion.

All submissions become the property of The Hustler and must conform to the legal standards of Vanderbilt Student Communications, of which The Hustler is a division.

The Vanderbilt Hustler (ISSN 0042-2517), the official student newspaper of Vanderbilt University, is published every Wednesday during the academic year except during exam periods and vacations.

The paper is not printed during summer break.

The Vanderbilt Hustler allocates one issue of the newspaper to each student and is available at various points on campus for free.

Additional copies are $.50 each.

The Vanderbilt Hustler is a division of Vanderbilt Student Communications, Inc. Copyright © 2014 Vanderbilt Student Communications.

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‘Muslim Lives Matter’: A(nother) Christian commentary Chair of the Faculty Senate weighs in on Carol Swain’s controversial op-ed

I PAUL LIM is the chair of the Faculty Senate and a professor in the Divinity School. He can be reached at paul.lim@vanderbilt. edu.

really do wish to be writing something else, even an overdue book review for a history journal or book chapters whose deadlines will come right before the Super Bowl XLIX; or one of several recommendation letters due imminently, ranging from tenure-track professor positions to student VUceptor positions, or a plethora of emails that are “stale” by now. Instead I have to write against the position of a fellow professor at Vanderbilt, who also happens to be a Christian, in a putatively similar way as I am.

Since last Friday, much of my time has been spent on the “Swain affair.” I read her op-ed piece in The Tennessean, reread it in disbelief and read it yet another time with much sadness, indignation and longing for the day, of which the Hebrew Prophet Isaiah wrote so poignantly, when “they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks,” when nations will not “train for war anymore.” As someone who teaches Reformation history each spring, I am acutely aware of the power of words to destroy and to split asunder the unity within Western Christianity, viz., the very real presence of rhetorical spears and swords that cut deeply into the psyche and soul of the people in 16th-century Europe.

I am afraid I saw that in my colleague’s sweeping generalizations about Islam. The notion that all Muslims are crypto-terrorists is simply indefensible.

What if someone were to declare that all Christians are homophobes? Such one-size-fits-all theological dicta simply don’t square up with reality. Fundamentalists — whether they are found on the right end of the religious or political spectrum, or the left — inexorably prove to be their own worst enemies in that their own polemical invectives always boomerang back, inescapably “come home to roost,” to borrow the words of one of the prophetic voices I admire deeply.

I went to the rally on Saturday; I even spoke with the very author of the op-ed piece that evening; and perhaps most movingly, on Monday night, I spoke with and learned from the perspectives shared by 50 or so Vanderbilt undergraduates (about two-thirds of whom were Muslim students) gathered in the semi-

nar room of Crawford House, a place I have called home for the past seven years as a faculty head of house on The Ingram Commons. We talked extensively about the cost of the freedom of speech, the lived reality of Islam as embraced and practiced by a number of Muslims — many of whom are U.S.-born citizens (not in Hawaii or somewhere else fictitious) — expressing their sense of dismay, disappointment and discomfort generated by the words such as Islam being unlike “other religions in the United States,” and since it presents an “absolute danger to us,” we are thereby in desperate need of instituting “serious monitoring of Islamic organizations.” At the end of the night, I wrote in my journal: “Muslim Lives Matter,” in the same way that we have been fighting for equity and equality for all lives here in America, their color, culture or creed notwithstanding.

It is truly ironic that a lot of us at Vanderbilt were waging this fight during the weekend commemorating the indefatigable work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a tireless champion of dismantling structures of prejudice and wholesale denial of the ontological goodness of all creatures of God, of all colors. Not only do Black Lives Matter in the sight of the Deity of Abrahamic traditions but all Jewish, Islamic and Christian, indeed all Lives — simpliciter — matter, for all these three traditions adhere to their converging theological anthropology that all humans are created in the Imago Dei, the Image of the all-merciful Creator. In our time of continuing wars and rumors thereof, we need voices that would lead to ultimate peace. As a religious historian, I am deeply aware of the fact that religious and racial differences have often led to violence, war-mongering and unjustifiable conquests.

If Dr. Swain truly believes that Islam is undeserving of the label “American,” what are the logical consequences of many of her/our American Muslim students for whom the only passport they ever had was exactly the same as hers? Are they second-class citizens? Should we have a separate “Muslims only” section for them? What of the increasing number of Muslim international students who come to these shores to learn what American tertiary educational

CARTOON

CHRISTOPH SPROUL is a junior in the College of Arts and Science. He can be reached at christoph.s.sproul@ vanderbilt.edu.

institutions have to teach them about equality and open dialogues? I do believe that my colleague, Carol Swain, does desire open dialogue, for Christian charity demands that I give people the benefit of the doubt. But, dear Carol, how you wrote your op-ed piece and continued on your Facebook page is not the way to win friends and influence many people!

But what now? As infelicitous and (potentially) harmful as Dr. Swain’s use of language was, we must now confront whether she should not be allowed to express her views, however repugnant they may be, and however heretical they appear to the orthodox cultured despisers of all fundamentalisms? I have bitter personal experience with such issues. I grew up without my father as he was incarcerated as a “political prisoner” in South Korea during the military dictatorship in the late 1970s. One thing I’ve learned as a result of being fatherless for three years was that minority reports and marginal voices should never be simply snuffed out. In the same way that I would defend the freedom of expression — until my dying day — of the artists of Charlie Hebdo to express their artistic freedom to lampoon figures usually held in esteem, I would have to accord the same latitude to someone I strongly disagree with, whether they be Carol Swain, some new atheists who think that all religious people are incorrigible bigots, or a neo-Nazi skinhead, who are experts in caricature and not deep and substantive analysis.

Freedom of speech without a genuine desire for dialogical engagement, and without respect and openness for the possibility of my views being challenged, even changed, will lead to a rhetorical Wild Wild West, with “might makes right” as an unavoidable upshot. I am sure that’s not what Dr. Swain desires. I surely do not. *Paul C.H. Lim is also an associate professor of the History of Christianity in the Divinity School; an affiliated professor of history, religious studies and Asian Studies in the College of Arts & Science; and the faculty head of Crawford House on The Ingram Commons.

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specialfeature

BETWEEN BRATS AND BIGOTS

By Angelica Lasala, Social media director, and Aaditi Naik, News reporter

“

I hope that none of us, pro or con, view Professor Swain as a simple story.”

Douglas Fisher, associate professor of computer science and Warren College faculty head, does not give speeches often. He acknowledged this reserve in his opening remarks at the “CampusWide Protest Against Hate Speech Published in The Tennessean” on Saturday, Jan. 17: “I’ve always been hesitant to speak out on social issues, mostly because the academic and engineer in me feels compelled to understand the larger context as best I can before opening my mouth.”

And yet, Fisher’s self-proclaimed “disdain for oversimplicity” was enough to break his silence.

He spoke up for the Muslim students and residents he had worked with for almost 30 years, the academic rights and freedoms he was entitled to as a professor and the responsibility faculty members have to ensure student safety. He spoke out against a Jan. 15 op-ed written by a fellow faculty member that, in his view, oversimplified the tenets of a “loving, gracious, peaceful, constructive and honorable” people.

In the same vein, the themes underlying Fisher’s response — the tension between rights and responsibilities chief among those —

Students gathered Saturday to protest against hate speech and intolerance. Chanting “Vanderbilt united will never be divided,” the land Hall to make their feelings known to the administration. are hardly simple.

Professor Carol Swain, author of the op-ed in question, wrote the following comment on her Facebook page: “I’m sure my colleagues know me a lot better than the spoiled brats who instigated the protest.” Demonstrators responded with signs that read, “Too much of a #spoiledbrat for your bigotry” and “Better a brat than a bigot #spoiledbrats.”

Between brats and bigots, however, exists a wide spectrum of viewpoints from students, faculty and community members — a spectrum that eschews a simple story for a more complex narrative.

This narrative begins with Swain.

The second of 12 siblings raised in poverty, Swain dropped out of high school, married at 16, became a teenage mother and struggled with substance abuse. Overcoming these adversities, she earned her GED and subsequent advanced degrees, joining Vanderbilt’s faculty in 1999. Though currently on sabbatical, Swain teaches in both the Political Science Department and Law School.

Her research focuses on “race relations, immigration, black leadership and evangelical politics,” namely as they pertain to conservative voices in the U.S. Swain’s op-ed for The Tennessean, titled “Charlie Hebdo attacks prove critics were right about Islam,” argued that the U.S. “must remove the foxes from the henhouses and institute serious monitoring of Islamic organizations.”

She wrote, “It becomes clearer every day that Islam is not just another religion to be accorded the respect given to Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Baha’i and other world religions.”

In a Jan. 18 statement on her Facebook page, Swain acknowl-

edged that the language she used in the piece came across as more inflammatory than she intended: “I reread the Tennessean op-ed that has generated so much controversy. It is stronger than I remembered and could have been written with a milder tone. I wrote the article immediately after the Charlie Hebdo massacre and it was published more than a week later. It was not directed at ‘peaceable’ Muslims.”

Still, in her email correspondence with The Vanderbilt Hustler, she emphasized that this statement is not meant to serve as an apology.

“I feel no special obligation to engage in politically correct speech. I think it is unfortunate that hate speech has become whatever makes a non-Christian uncomfortable,” Swain said.

“Professors should help their students learn to engage ideas. Any student who is threatened by a discussion of ideas cannot fully benefit from a liberal arts education. Any university that is afraid of ideas should close its doors.”

Professor Paul Stob, an assistant professor of communication studies who teaches a course called Rhetoric of Religion, also espoused the necessity of open discourse. Though he disagreed with Swain’s op-ed, Stob defended her ability to write it, citing the importance of free speech and academic freedom.

“Even the ones (op-eds) I hate, I’m all about allowing those to be expressed, because when we don’t allow people to express their opinions, the truth becomes stilted and jaded and the truth is not able to emerge,” Stob said. “The philosopher John Stewart Mill said, ‘When we don’t have free speech and free expression, truth becomes not a living thing but it becomes dead dogma.’”

Voicing his concerns with Swain’s Tennessean piece, Stob

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e protesters marched from Library Lawn to the steps of Kirkexplained that her use of ideographs solely pertinent to Western beliefs and systems of governance weakened her argument.

“We have to get past these relatively simplistic distinctions between freedom and not-freedom, between Western governments and Islam, between American Christianity and religions of the rest of the world,” Stob said. “That’s just not going to help us get anywhere.”

Although Stob disagreed with Swain’s assertions, he does not find preventing Swain from expressing her beliefs to be a productive option. He cited an opinion by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1927 about free speech: “The cure for bad speech, meaning speech that we don’t agree with, speech we don’t like, is more speech, not enforced silence.”

Stob continued, “It’s more speech, it’s more dialogue. It’s us, people who don’t agree with her, responding to her and saying why we think her op-ed is problematic, why we don’t think her views accurately capture the society that we live in and the stakes of the debate we want to have.”

Stob qualified his views by saying that the right to unrestricted speech comes with “certain trade-offs — certain people will not like what others have to say.”

For sophomore and protest organizer Farishtay Yamin, a hostile campus environment is not a worthwhile trade-off. Yamin emphasized the importance of campus being a universally safe space for students.

“The core issue is that under the pretense of free speech and academic freedom of expression, a faculty member is allowed to insult her own students ... the university should have a policy saying that direct attacks on the student body by faculty members or

professors are not acceptable,” Yamin said. “There should not be a single place on this entire campus where any minority group feels unsafe.”

Born in the United States, Yamin recalled being bullied as a child post-9/11. Her father transferred jobs because of workplace discrimination. By contrast, Yamin found her Vanderbilt experience to be a welcoming one, complete with the freedom to “say what was on (her) mind without being scared.”

After Yamin read Swain’s op-ed, it was hard for her to describe how much pain she felt.

“I just want the campus to promise me that this is never going to happen again. That we’re never going to allow a professor to attack students ever again,” Yamin said. “These numbers (of protesters) were not to show Carol Swain but the university and other professors who might consider publishing this kind of hate speech that these are the amount of students that will stand up and say no and consider your hate speech to be unacceptable.”

And Yamin won’t stop until these ideals materialize.

“I just want to say that if the university fails to promise its students protection from being attacked by faculty members, there will be more protests,” Yamin said.

Emilie Townes, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School, commented that students and faculty alike are responsible for maintaining a university atmosphere that welcomes the free expression of diverse ideas and belief systems.

“I think it’s very important that the students — not just the faculty, but the students — stand up for their friends, their colleagues who are in any religious tradition that is being persecuted (or) demeaned … particularly when that religious community is a minority on campus, “ Townes said. “You need tangible, strong allies.

And I think, if nothing else, that alone creates the safe spaces.”

She spoke to her experiences working with religious professionals in the classroom.

“I think the whole point — well, not the whole point, but an important part — of being a Divinity School is that you open up the faculty, staff and students into the possibility of expressing what they think, what they believe ... but also with close attention to listening to one another, learning from one another and not assuming what we think and what we believe is truth all by itself,” Townes said.

Townes also addressed a key point of Swain’s op-ed from a theological perspective. Swain wrote, “Islam has absolutely nothing in common with Christianity, nor is it a worthy part of the brotherhood of man (she) long felt was characteristic of the Abrahamic religions.” According to Townes, the Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Islam and Christianity — share similar stories in their respective texts, although different traditions have grown out of that shared lore.

“I have to respectfully disagree with Prof. Swain that Islam stands distinct — I think unfortunately in all of the Abrahamic traditions, you have elements or groups within those traditions that I would call the ‘radical fringe’ that really don’t represent the group,” Townes added. “And to consider them as representative of all the

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inherence of the religious tradition would be a mistake.”

Victoria Jackson, former “Saturday Night Live” cast member and self-proclaimed “friend of Carol Swain,” spearheaded a two-person counterprotest against Saturday’s demonstration.

“Sharia law cannot coexist with the Constitution,” Jackson said at the protest. “That’s my message.”

She recounted Saturday’s events in a blog post titled “Vanderbilt Administration Silenced Me at Pro-Islam Rally”: “Then, with my one Tea Party friend in the crowd, Matt and his red/white/ blue guitar, holding my cell phone to record the moment, (the record button was never pushed, but Channel 5 and lots of other cameras got the whole thing,) and me standing there alone with no microphone, I began shouting, ‘Freedom of Speech,’ like 20 times, and the Muslim Brotherhood handlers went around telling the crowd to turn their backs on me. They obeyed like sheep to a sheep herder.”

Jackson also wrote another blog post, “Facts Proving Vanderbilt’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) is Terrorist Front Group,” accusing the organization of furthering terrorist agendas.

Sarah Haseen, president of the Muslim Student Association, refuses to fight fire with fire.

“We serve as a home for Muslim students on campus, and we felt the need to protect the integrity of our members and our legacy in the most peaceful way possible to ensure our faith is represented accurately in its forgiving and loving nature,” Haseen said.

On Sunday, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) published an official statement in The Vanderbilt Hustler reiterating that “although Professor Swain has allowed the actions of a few individuals manipulating religion to shape her views of an entire faith that makes up 23 percent of the world population, (they) will not allow her views as a Vanderbilt affiliate to shape (their) views of Vanderbilt.”

In MSA’s official statement, the organization clarified that it was not directly affiliated with the protest.

“The MSA has never been a very political organization,” Haseen said. “Also, we felt that the protest is, in fact, more powerful when driven by the student body as a whole … Many of our members were in attendance individually, but we cannot, as an organization, take an official stance.”

Since Saturday’s demonstration, a wide range of opinions has emerged on social media, in publications and in casual conversation — yet even across these opinions, agreement on a practical solution is hard to find. And if an easy answer existed, this would be a simple story. But it’s not. Reconciling the myriad perspectives elicited by Swain’s op-ed is difficult and necessary work. How will the university develop a compromise that upholds responsibilities without suspending rights, that promotes safety without stifling dialogue?

However loudly they’re shouted, slogans like “Vanderbilt united will never be divided” and “To reach peace, teach peace” cannot capture the implications of Swain’s piece and its responses. But they can capture the idea of a movement. And that’s something.

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A different kind of Sesh Vanderbilt seniors Daniel Rossett and Sean Hoag launch an app for ondemand tutoring on campus By Christie Bok, Life reporter While hanging out in his roommate Sean Hoag’s kitchen in Atherton, California over the summer, senior Daniel Rossett presented him with an entrepreneurial idea: a peer-to-peer tutoring app that would provide students with ondemand help from other students at their own school. Rossett explained that he had recently pitched the idea to his high school friend, Zach

Saraf, a computer science major at Stanford University who was eager to code the app.

“I thought it was a really good idea that could be super-successful and I definitely wanted to hop on board,” Hoag said.

The concept behind Sesh itself is straightforward, with the aim of providing students with 24/7 access to personal tutors. In addition to its

cost of 40 cents per minute as opposed to the average rate of a professional tutor at $46 per hour, the app lets get fast help from their peers who have taken the same courses.

“Everything happened really fast,” Rossett said. “Within a week of sharing the idea with Zach,(our team) met for the first time to discuss name ideas and the functionality of the app.”

While the group focused on their individual summer internships, they also worked on obtaining capital and incorporating their venture, with 11 investors along with family and friends raising $50,000 for its initial funding.

According to Hoag, the intimate knowledge that the student gains is what differentiates Sesh from traditional tutors. “We think students can benefit from Sesh on both sides. From the tutor’s perspective, you’re getting $20 an hour on demand to teach in a class you’ve already aced, and from a student’s perspective, you’re getting direct help from someone that has been successful in the class that you’re struggling in.”

The app’s location and messaging feature also help Sesh stand apart by allowing for the students and tutors to meet on campus just minutes after booking a session.

“Sesh is unique,” Rossett said. “There are no other tutoring services out there that accommodate the schedules that college students have and their patterns of studying. We think we can change that.”

Students signing up for Sesh receive their first 30 minutes free, and similarly, tutors are not paid for the first session, to ensure they’re proficient inthe material. Sesh also holds its tutors to a high academic standard and requires that they submit a transcript before joining the team, and

maintain a 4-star or better rating on the app itself.

The interaction between the tutor and student is key in determining these ratings, as tutors receive a rating on their ability to be helpful, friendly and knowledgeable after each session.

Additionally, students have the option to “favorite” a tutor, which allows the app’s algorithm to quickly match the student with a specific tutor the next time they schedule a session.

Since returning to campus for their senior year, Rossett and Hoag have focused their time on marketing, organizing campus representatives and getting tutors on board. Orange backpacks with Sesh’s white backpack logo have already become visible around Vanderbilt’s campus, and in addition to social media, this is the app’s primary marketing strategy.

Rossett and Hoag plan to work on Sesh fulltime after they graduate and will continue to spend this year marketing Sesh at Vanderbilt as well as expanding it to other schools, with a goal of launching the app at 50 colleges by next year.

Currently, there are 222 tutors signed up on Sesh, 80 of whom are at Vanderbilt, but campus reps at 12 additional schools including USC, Northwestern and Tulane will launch Sesh so long as they meet the minimum threshold of tutors, which is around one percent of enrollment.

Both Rossett and Hoag share their enthusiasm, saying: “We’re excited. All the work we’ve put in was to get to launch, and now that we’re here, we cannot wait to start building teaching communities through Sesh.”

Sesh will be available for free on the App Store by the end of January.

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sports Festus Ezeli Height: 6-11 Weight: 225

THE BIG STAT Number of blocked shots by Festus Ezeli in his Vanderbilt career, making him the all-time leader in Vanderbilt history

Damian Jones Height: 6-10 Weight: 248

(2009-10) Redshirt sophomore season: 3.8 points 3.2 rebounds 1.3 blocks

16.1 points 7.13 rebounds 1.8 blocks

Jeff Roberson Height: 6-6 Weight: 206

Jeffery Taylor Height: 6-7 Weight: 225

4.5 points 3.4 rebounds 1 assist

(2009-10) Sophomore season: 13.3 points 5.2 rebounds 1.7 assists

John Jenkins Height: 6-4 Weight: 220 (2009-10) Freshman season: 11 points 2.2 rebounds 1 assist

Riley LaChance Height: 6-2 Weight: 194 12.9 points 3 rebounds 2.7 assists

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The new crew The Commodores are in a position to be as talented and as competitive as the team Kevin Stallings built just a few years ago

By ALLISON MAST Sports editor --------------------

Following the men’s basketball team’s first conference game against Auburn, Tigers Coach Bruce Pearl compared the group that beat his team 64-52 that night to a Vanderbilt team that made history: “This team just reminds me a lot of Jeffrey Taylor when he was a freshman. I remember all those guys that were young. Tinsley, Ezeli, it looks like the same group.”

The group of players mentioned by Pearl went to three consecutive NCAA tournaments and beat No. 1 Kentucky in the SEC Tournament in 2012. Following the conclusion of that 2011-12 season, three members were selected in the NBA Draft — John Jenkins by the Atlanta Hawks, Festus Ezeli by the Golden State Warriors and Jeffery Taylor by the Charlotte Bobcats.

Although the team, one of the youngest in the country, has struggled through the early part of its SEC schedule, Pearl’s comment still applies. Although they may fall short of the 2011-12 team’s accomplishments, their raw talent and potential recall those former players at the beginning of their Vanderbilt careers. Damian Jones, Jeff Roberson and Riley LaChance resemble Festus Ezeli, Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins, respectively.

Comparisons have been made between Ezeli and Jones from the moment the latter signed his Letter of Intent, but it now seems like Jones may become an even better center than the current NBA player. During his redshirt sophomore season, Ezeli was mostly a bench player, serving as AJ Ogilvy’s backup. His limited minutes are reflected in his stats, although he still managed to collect an impressive amount of blocks en route to becoming Vanderbilt’s all-time leading shot blocker.

Jones is already a defensive force near the rim, and he has already become a more versatile offensive player than Ezeli. Over the summer, he worked on mid-range shots, something he will undoubtedly

improve during his remaining years in Memorial. He has also made a three-point shot this season — something Ezeli never attempted in college. One thing Jones may lack is strength; his build is not quite that of an NBA center.

Taylor and Roberson share not only a first name but also a knack for perimeter defense. Following the Auburn game, Coach Kevin Stallings said of Roberson, “He's not afraid of a matchup. He's not afraid of a situation. He's going to try to do exactly what you've asked him to do.” This was a role filled by Taylor, who often defended the opponent’s best shooter. Each season, Taylor also worked on his own shooting and eventually became a lethal three-point shooter. Roberson, unfortunately, hasn’t been a major component of the Commodores’ offense, but it’s early in his career. He may come to resemble the complete Taylor; at the moment, his perimeter defense is a valuable asset that this team has largely lacked since Taylor graduated. Over time, a wingspan advantage could make Roberson an even bigger defensive weapon. Taylor was the only player in the 2012 NBA Draft whose wingspan was shorter than his height.

During his three years at Vanderbilt, the name John Jenkins became synonymous with lights-out shooting. His 48 percent mark from three-point range earned him a spot on the SEC All-Freshman team, and LaChance might receive the same honor at the end of the season. He has already received SEC Freshman of the Week honors twice, and he is currently leading all SEC freshmen in points per game. At times, LaChance has been unstoppable from beyond the arc. In the last 30 seconds of Vanderbilt’s game against Georgia, LaChance made three three-pointers to the keep the Commodores in the game.

Now that other SEC teams have started to guard him more heavily, he has shown an ability to score inside. Jenkins has the size advantage on the young Commodore, but LaChance often runs the point, something Jenkins hardly did at the two position.

*All statistics as of Jan. 19

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SPORTS

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Fisher-Davis on the rebound The freshman from Charlotte has become an offensive threat despite his quiet persona

By BEN WEINRIB Asst. sports editor --------------------

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Matthew Fisher-Davis dribbles up the court in an 83-56 victory over Trevecca Nazarene in November.

Vanderbilt’s guard-heavy freshman class has surpassed almost anyone’s expectations this season, especially with its impressive 3-point shooting. For most of the season, the team has had four shooters making more than 40 percent of their 3-point shots.

The leader of the pack, though? He doesn’t get much attention. That’s because he doesn’t even crack the starting lineup.

That would be Matthew Fisher-Davis, the 6-foot-5 shooting guard out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and he embraces his role off the Commodores’ bench.

“I actually enjoy it, doing pretty much whatever Coach Stallings says,” said FisherDavis, who is averaging 6.5 points per game on 43.1 percent shooting from three. “Coming off the bench is a lot of fun. I bring a lot of energy whenever I can.”

That mentality goes back to his high school days, even when he led Butler High

School with 22 points and 13 rebounds on 67.5 percent shooting from the field, 49.1 percent from beyond the arc and 96 percent from the line.

Fisher-Davis spent his freshman year at Butler before transferring to Charlotte Christian School, the alma mater of fellow sharpshooters Stephen and Seth Curry, whom he has met several times. Before his senior year, though, he returned to Butler’s talented guard-heavy team and continued to flourish.

“His unselfishness really made him one of our special players,” said Donald Kirby, Butler basketball coach. “He kind of had a servant leader attitude. He wasn’t one that liked to have a lot of the limelight. He doesn’t have a superstar mentality, and I think that was the biggest asset to him.”

Now Fisher-Davis is on a guard-heavy Vanderbilt team that’s far more talented, and a left foot injury before the season cemented his spot on the bench, making his transition to college even harder.

“It was tough,” Fisher-Davis said of his injury. “I didn’t necessarily get the number of reps I wanted to have, and I was making an adjustment to college freshman year … especially coming from a public school.”

Fisher-Davis’ injury kept him out of both exhibition games before the season, and he was heavily limited in practice to start the

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He has such a laid back demeanor that sometimes people mistake it for him sort of coasting or taking it easy until you go up against him. He doesn’t show a lot of emotion, but he’s got some fight.

year. He didn’t actually miss a regular season game until six games in against La Salle, but after only playing 11 minutes against Baylor the next game, he got back into form, and his shots started falling.

Now that’s he’s reaching full health, Fisher-Davis is averaging 2.2 three-pointers and 7.3 points per game on 50 percent shooting over his last eleven games, including at least one 3-pointer in all but one game.

“When he’s healthy he can make shots, and he makes them consistently,” said Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt men’s basketball head coach. “He’s got good range and believes he’s going to make them.”

“It’s easy to find a guy like him, especially because I know he’s going to knock down the shot,” said Wade Baldwin IV, point guard, who is also Fisher-Davis’ roommate. “I always joke with him all the time about you better hit that shot that I passed you so I can get an assist so we can both profit from the play.”

Fisher-Davis is often quiet, and it can appear to be reflected in his game at times. He’s

”

been used almost exclusively in catch-andshoot situations and has attempted less than a quarter of his shots from inside the arc. But don’t get that confused with him being lazy, says his old coach.

“He’s unique in his own way, but he’s as competitive as anyone I’ve seen,” Kirby said.

“He has such a laid back demeanor that sometimes people mistake it for him sort of coasting or taking it easy until you go up against him. He doesn’t show a lot of emotion, but he’s got some fight.”

Vanderbilt has been looking for a true long-range shooting threat ever since John Jenkins and Jeff Taylor left for the NBA three years ago. Fisher-Davis has a long way to go at a wiry 6-foot-5, 178 pounds and just a half-season of experience, but Stallings sees the value and potential in this freshman.

“When he grows into his body and gets some meat on his bones,” Stallings said, “he’s got the chance to be a good college player.”

*All statistics as of Jan. 19

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Fisher-Davis (5) celebrates during Vanderbilt's double overtime 79-74 win against the Yale Bulldogs.

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