The Vanderbilt Hustler 04-16-14

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VOL. 126, ISS. 15

How a student-led initiative with a presence outside of Rand is sparking conversations about the true state of campus diversity

BY SAARA ASIKAINEN News reporter --------------------

A student movement that emerged at the end of March, Hidden Dores presently seeks to provoke productive discussion about the minority experience at Vanderbilt. The movement’s goals include addressing issues around race and diversity at the administrative, academic and student life levels. So far, Hidden Dores has organized two photo days in which students were invited to have their photo taken with a message written on a whiteboard.

The messages generally address these issues on campus, often through the lens of personal experiences. On Thursday, April 10, Hidden Dores also organized a “speak-out” public event at the Wall.

The movement does not have official leadership positions because it hopes to remain open to anyone, but as a measure of students actively involved, approximately 20 people are in the Hidden Dores GroupMe, a group text-messaging application.

— Continued on PAGE 2

OPINION

CollegiateACB and Vanderbilt’s rape culture A single anonymous online thread concerning an alleged rape at AEPi (and its attempts to out the victim) shows that rape culture is alive at Vanderbilt

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SPORTS

Football’s Johnny McCrary finds home The freshman quarterback faced tragedy in his first three semesters at Vanderbilt, but his football family helped him perservere

LIFE

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Unemployed? You’re not alone

If you’re still searching for work come graduation, the Center for Student Professional Development can help you land the job you’ve been looking for

PAGE 12 PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BOSLEY JARRETT / THE VANDERBILT HUSTLER

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campus Conversations center around student orgs, disillusionment and academics

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“(Microaggressions) make it difficult to live and exist in brown skins on this campus.”

AKANINYENE RUFFIN, FRESHMAN STUDENT INVOLVED WITH HIDDEN DORES

From photo days outside of Rand to a discussion event held in Crawford House, the Hidden Dores movement has energized a campus dialogue about the minority experience at Vanderbilt News reporter --------------------

— Continued from PAGE 1 Origins of the movement Inspired by conversations with friends and similar movements at other universities such as Harvard and Oxford, senior Jalisia Singleton decided to start a Facebook page titled Hidden Dores to provide a space to talk about shared experiences concerning racial and ethnic minority experience at Vanderbilt. The page quickly gained traction, getting more than 200 likes in only a few days. Some students involved with Hidden Dores felt the movement‘s momentum was something that had been building for a long time and that the flood of responses testified to that.

“We feel like, it’s kind of not talked about at all — people don’t want to address the fact that there are issues of race in America, and they specifically don’t want to address them here on campus,” Singleton explained. “And so it’s really frustrating to be a minority on campus and not have these issues talked about, because these issues are a large part of our experience here on this campus, so we wanted to just raise awareness and allow people to voice their opinions about their experiences.”

As she was starting the Hidden Dores project, Singleton reached out to fellow senior Amanda Brito because they had previously talked about the minority experience at Vanderbilt. Brito views the conversation about race at Vanderbilt as stagnant. “The situation is like sitting water — like do something — throw a pebble in there,” she said.

At the two photo days held by Hidden Dores so far, many students documented their personal experiences in being a minority student on campus. Available on the Hidden Dores Facebook page and Tumblr, many of the statements in the photos address hurtful microaggressions that have been directed at minority students. In one photo, a black student holds a sign reading, “‘It’s not going to be hard for you to get into Med School because you are black.’ — white and Asian female classmates”. In another photo, a student wearing a headscarf holds a sign that says, “‘When did you come to America?’ I was born and raised in Kentucky.” “(Microaggressions) make it difficult to live and exist in brown skins on this campus,” said freshman Akaninyene Ruffin, a student involved with Hidden Dores.

The students have made it clear, however, that the intent of the movement is not to attack anyone.

“The purpose is not to say, ‘Oh, you are such a bad person, white Vandy, we are mad at you,’” Ruffin said. “The purpose is to say, ‘This happened to me. I want you to see that I’m a Vanderbilt student, and this happened to me on Vanderbilt’s campus.’”

Students involved with the movement echoed that idea, saying that the aim of the movement is to allow minority students at Vanderbilt to articulate the ways in which their college experience differs from that of non-minority students.

Singleton said that promoting colorblindness, which she feels simply erases minority students’ cultural background and can make them feel “hidden,” is not the solution to the problems that some students face at Vanderbilt. Rather, she thinks that understanding the culture and

vanderbilthustler STAFF

ANDRÉ ROUILLARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

40%

PERCENTAGE OF ETHNIC DIVERSITY FOR ENTERING FRESHMAN CLASS

35% 30%

PERCENTAGE

By SAARA ASIKAINEN

25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

2012

2013

YEAR “Ethnic Diversity” refers to all non-white students. Data provided by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. background of minority students is key to preventing microaggressions.

Hidden Dores has sparked discussions in other corners of campus as well. On April 2, a discussion event was held at Crawford House, led by Faculty Head Dr. Paul Lim. The event was also attended

by Dean of The Ingram Commons Frank Wcislo, Faculty Head of Hank House Dr. Kyla Terhune and Faculty Head of Gillette House Dr. Frank Dobson. Around 60 students were in attendance and shared their experiences and views on diversity at Vanderbilt.

Lim gave a short speech to start off the event, in which he expressed that he

HANNAH SILLS — NEWS EDITOR KELLY HALOM — LIFE EDITOR ERIC LYONS — OPINION EDITOR ALLISON MAST — SPORTS EDITOR

BOSLEY JARRETT — PHOTO EDITOR JAMES TATUM — FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

would like to see the role of himself and Hidden Dores as starting a conversation about — rather than decrying — the situation around diversity on campus.

Lim also expressed how proud he was of students taking initiative to discuss these issues, and for the depth of conversation surrounding them, which he described as unprecedented in his eight years at Vanderbilt.

More recently, Hidden Dores organized an event they called a “speak-out” on the Rand Wall on April 10. The event featured spoken word poetry, personal testimonies, a statement of goals and speeches

by Lim and Dobson. The expressed goals

DIANA ZHU — DESIGN DIRECTOR JENNA WENGLER — ASST. DESIGN DIRECTOR SENIOR DESIGNERS DESIGNERS

ZACH BERKOWITZ KAREN CHAN ZOË SHANCER KATHY ZHOU ALEXA BRAHME WOODY GRIFFIN HAN DEWAN EMMA BAKER HOLLY GLASS

ALEX DAI — CHIEF COPY EDITOR COPY EDITORS ALEXIS BANKS KATY CESAROTTI WESLEY LIN

BRITTANY SHAAR KARA SHERRER SOPHIE TO

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Diversity in Greek Life based on Spring 2014 enrollment

4.2 9.5 50.5 35.8

3.9 5.9 60.4

All Greek 29.8

3.9

17.5

IFC

77.6

100.0

NPHC

1.0 20.9 78.1

Panhellenic

White Minority International Not Specified Data provided by the Office of Greek Life included: increasing conversations about race as part of the first-year experience and Visions; establishing a more culturally challenging curriculum; increasing attendance at cultural and service events; redesigning MOSAIC to address issues of diversity on campus; and increasing representation in VSG and the administration.

Non-Greek

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Disillusionment with diversity For many of the students participating in the current dialogues, the process of disillusionment with the minority experience on campus started during freshman year. Many expected to come to a university with a diverse student body where minority students mix with each other and non-minority students.

But once on campus, these students felt confronted by a social order in which different groups did not mix with each other — sometimes to the point of outright rejection.

When asked if she would describe acclimating to the minority experience at Vanderbilt as “disillusioning,” Akaninyene Ruffin agreed. “It was very big process of disillusionment and disenchantment and just angst, and I felt like I had been lied to for a very long time,” she said. “And that’s just how Vanderbilt is. Yeah, we have this diversity, we have such a diverse campus, but what is there about bringing these communities together?”

Many students felt that the MOSAIC program contributed to a misperception about the state of diversity on campus. MOSAIC is an annual overnight program for admitted students designed to attract prospective students from underrepresented racial or ethnic backgrounds as well as students interested in social justice efforts.

Sophomore Rebecca Chong was one the students who participated in MOSAIC before making the decision to come to Vanderbilt. A biracial student from Jamaica, she had moved to Orlando, Fla. and attended high school there.

Chong feels that she experienced a kind of cognitive dissonance when she participated in the program because she knew that it was not representative of the everyday experience for minorities at Vanderbilt, but was still surprised by the reality she saw as a student.

“You got to walk around campus,

you lived on the Commons — you could see it that it was like, you’re only really seeing a part of it, and people knew that,” she said concerning MOSAIC. “You knew that, but you still didn’t know that. It was this weird in between until you actually lived it yourself.”

For some students who came from very diverse high schools, where different student groups integrated well together, the diversity experience at Vanderbilt was surprising.

Ruffin noted that this predicament applied to herself and many of her friends. “(Many of my friends) came from places that were really diverse.

They came to Vanderbilt because it was so diverse, and they found out that diversity didn’t want them, that diversity didn’t mean integration, that it didn’t mean inclusion... it just meant, ‘We need you as a percentage point so we can send out and get more people like you to feel excluded here,’” she said.

Diversity and student orgs Problems with the minority experience at Vanderbilt also manifest in student organizations, according to many participants in these ongoing conversations. Provost Richard McCarty recognizes that one of the areas where this is most prominent is Greek life.

“I’m not saying that any of our Greek organizations are overtly discriminatory, but I’m looking at the outcomes,” he said.

Under president Kiersten Chresfield’s leadership in the past year, the Multicultural Leadership Council has expanded to create a new program called Bridging the Gap. As part of the program, representatives of the MLC visit Greek houses with suggestions for ways to collaborate on cultural programming.

According to Chresfield, Rebecca Chong has been instrumental in reaching out to the Greek community. Chong herself had decided to become a bridge between different factions of the student body when she felt she had to choose between them.

“There were very underlying definitions of where people kind of associated with structurally, and I didn’t really realize that,” Chong explained.

“I was like, ‘Why isn’t it normal for Greek people to do cultural organizations — why is there a divide in the first place?’” She also identified a division between VSG and the MLC. Through her involvement in a Greek organization and the VSG cabinet, in addition to serving on the MLC executive board, Chong hopes to become a bridge between these campus groups and work to decrease the perceived division.

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History of diversity issues Rosevelt Noble, a senior lecturer in the sociology department, is currently conducting research into the history of black students’ experiences at Vanderbilt. He described the experience of disillusionment as historically common among those students.

“It’s sad to say there are some commonalities,” Noble said. “You would think that from 1969 to 2009 we would expect to have a lot of differences, but there are a lot of commonalities in that experience.”

As part of a presentation of his research, Noble juxtaposed clips of two students who graduated in 1969 and 1970 with a student from Class of 2008. All three students referenced Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” a novel published in 1952 addressing issues facing African-Americans in the early twentieth century, as relevant to their experiences.

“I think on some level that whole ‘rendered invisible’ phenomenon still exists and is still kind of describes pretty accurately, or summarizes pretty accurately, what has kind of been a big part of the AfricanAmerican experience at Vanderbilt,” he said.

Noble thinks it is a positive thing that students are finally speaking out about the issue and trying to change the culture at Vanderbilt, even if he wishes that the Vanderbilt movement hadn’t needed the momentum from other schools to get started.

“I think that there’s always been kind of this unique experience that I think that a lot of students leave having never really talked about — leave never really having expressed in some way, shape or fashion. And on some level I think that it can be therapeutic to at least feel like you got that out, you said something about it, you didn’t kind of let yourself walk across the stage and just never come back to the university because just felt so disenfranchised from it while you were there,” he said.

Academics and diversity Several students have commented on the inadequacy of the AXLE requirements ability to foster genuine conversation around issues of race at Vanderbilt. They have suggested adding a cultural competency class to the mandatory curriculum.

Provost McCarty and Dean of Students Mark Bandas both said that changing the curriculum is up to the faculty. However, McCarty noted that students also play a role in adopting a new curriculum, and that adding a new requirement could cause backlash among a student body that prefers not to have its choices — Continued on PAGE 4

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constricted.

McCarty also cited the perspectives and international AXLE requirements, among other courses, as academic venues that already encourage students to explore diversity. However, students have criticized how these courses do not make students engage with issues of race and ethnicity specifically at Vanderbilt.

While discussion may continue about implementing a required cultural competency course, Rebecca Chong has taken one step further and created her own major, Multicultural and Diversity Studies. The decision was inspired by her own experiences as a minority student at Vanderbilt and a freshman seminar course she had taken with Professor Donna Ford. She now describes it as the best decision she could have made.

Her eventual aim is to make her major into an interdisciplinary department in the same way that Medicine, Health and Society grew into a full-fledged program.

Visions as a partial solution While a required cultural competency class may not be added to the curriculum, many students and administrators see Visions as having potential to provide a forum for discussion about

‘‘

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The next is the step that is up to students, and that’s for students to have the insights and, I’ll use the word courage, to step out of his or her comfort zone, and take a little risk for a big reward.

these issues.

Wcislo identified three central questions based on students’ concerns: “Is there a module in Vanderbilt Visions that explicitly takes on the question of race? Does True Life explicitly take on the question of race? How would a Visions group be made to be more welcoming to racial minorities?”

He said that these questions would be taken into consideration when the Visions program is evaluated in the summer.

Dean Wcislo said that the Commons Reading for the Class of 2018, Jesmyn Ward’s “Salvage the Bones,” was chosen specifically because of its intersectionality. The novel deals with four siblings and the surrounding community in the days preceding Hurricane Katrina and takes on questions of race, sexuality, womanhood and masculinity, ethnicity and climate change.

’’

Wcislo hopes students will engage with the text but also knows that the choice is entirely up to the students.

McCarty agreed that Visions is one of the arenas where conversations around diversity could be had and additionally views the College Halls as being able to serve in that role on main campus. He sees the residential system as encouraging students to deal with the issues and each other as part of the holistic learning experience. At the same time, however, McCarty realized the limitations of the changes the administration can implement.

“There’s a point at which faculty and administrators can’t legislate what students do on their own time,” he said.

He sees the administration’s role as creating a diverse student body both through the incoming class and transfer students, pointing out that the student body is much more diverse than it was

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ten years ago. After that, he feels that students must take a central role.

“The next is the step that is up to students, and that’s for students to have the insights and, I’ll use the word courage, to step out of his or her comfort zone, and take a little risk for a big reward,” McCarty said.

Making waves on campus While the community reaction has been divided, students involved in Hidden Dores say they welcome both negative and positive feedback.

Some students associated with Hidden Dores have experienced negative backlash. Ruffin was approached by a student from her hall at 1 a.m. who was upset by some of the messages from the group’s photo days.

“My mom always says that a hit dog always squeals, and so there has been some squealing by people saying, ‘Oh, there’s so much hatred, there’s so much resentment,’” Ruffin said. Not deterred by these responses, she wanted to emphasize that the intent of the movement is to create lasting change and improve the experiences of future students as well.

“There’s an excitement there that is way more important than the hit dogs that are squealing,” Ruffin explained.

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VSG Report Card: Escamilla administration An evaluation of how well the Escamilla administration executed the initiatives on its platform, with details about platform highlights

By CHARLOTTE GILL Senior news reporter --------------------

DINING Accomplished: 0 In-progress: 0 Not accomplished: 2

Vanderbilt Student Government was unable to expand Taste of Nashville options to include Tin Roof, Starbucks or Au Bon Pain, but Escamilla said he hopes VSG will be able to include a grocery store.

VSG chose not to pursue a voting system for food nights at campus dining centers.

ACADEMIC OFFERINGS AND TRANSPARENCY Accomplished: 3 In-progress: 2 Not accomplished: 1

Upon approval from Provost Richard McCarty, new teacher evaluations should be available to students by next year.

Planning has begun for new types of class options, basically seminars, to offer life, technical or test preparations and will be continued by Tanner Owen and Fletcher Young in next year’s VSG administration.

While offering free blue books and opening the libraries for 24 hours were successful, VSG never created a Google calendar version of all syllabuses attached to Vanderbilt Gmail.

STUDENT PARKING AND CAMPUS SECURITY Accomplished: 1 In-progress: 2 Not accomplished: 3

VSG increased the number of cameras and Chief Security Officers in parking garages.

VSG was unable to decrease the price of F spot parking, provide marked spots for parallel parking on Greek Row and introduce a “bad weather” Vandy Van. However plans are underway for the “Commodore Touch Card Initiative,” a proposal to replace card access to buildings with fingerprint identification-systems. According to Director of Housing Operations Jim Kramka, the Office of Housing and Residential Education is exploring a small project to compare the benefits of finger print readers versus those of card readers.

STUDENT LIFE Accomplished: 1 In-progress: 1 Not accomplished: 2

VSG transported about 200 students to the University of Tennessee game and the bowl game this year. Escamilla said that plans for shuttles to the Georgia game next year are already underway and transportation will probably be provided for one additional game next season.

Plans to create an online marketplace for buying and selling books, furniture and appliances were dismissed in order to avoid cutting into the Barnes and Noble bookstore’s revenues.

After learning about the liabilities and ineffectiveness of cell-phone charging stations at other SEC schools, VSG decided not to purchase chargers.

SUSTAINABILITY Accomplished: 4 In-progress: 0 Not accomplished: 3

Timers were not placed in the showers of College Halls; however, the Green Fund provided shower times for The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons.

The university is in the process of converting the school power plant from coal to natural gas for both environmental and economic reasons.

GREEK LIFE Accomplished: 0 In-progress: 0 Not accomplished: 3

The administration discouraged VSG from exploring alternative alcohol policies. According to Escamilla, implementing an alternative policy would “not (have been) feasible without potentially violating Tennessee state law.”

STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS Accomplished: 3 In-progress: 1 Not accomplished: 1

To address rehearsal space for performing arts groups, VSG has renovated the sound system in Sarratt Student Center and

increased reservation times for the rooms in Memorial Gym. VSG has also doubled the funds allocated to co-sponsorship of the month, as well as increasing the total amount for general co-sponsorships.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY IN VSG Accomplished: 7 In-progress: 1 Not accomplished: 2

VSG has focused on partnering with the Faculty Senate for initiatives such as the Experience Vanderbilt Fund and Assessment on Greek Life. Efforts to establish a relationship with the Business School, Law School and Medical School essentially never materialized.

VSG has simplified the Co-Sponsorship of the Month process with a new application and greater publicity on the VSG weekly email.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES Accomplished: 0 In-progress: 0 Not accomplished: 2

VSG had plans for a professional development seminar that were never in place. VSG also did notpursue learning and networking opportunities with alumni at professional development monthly forums.

SCHOLARSHIPS Accomplished: 1 In-progress: 0 Not accomplished: 0

Scholarships for service trips and unpaid summer internships will be implemented via the Experience Vanderbilt fund, part of the partnership between VSG and the Faculty Senate.

CONNECTING VANDERBILT STUDENTS TO NASHVILLE Accomplished: 1 In-progress: 0 Not accomplished: 0

VSG’s Passport to Nashville program had a number of participants, and VSG plans to coordinate with CityVU and VenUe to plan Nashville outings for students next year.

Chelsea Mihelich contributed to this report.

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For some, opening of Warren and Moore creates housing headaches

The increased number of available beds means that fewer seniors were approved to live off campus, resulting in a trickle-down effect on underclassmen’s housing options

By MATT LIEBERSON News reporter --------------------

While many students were excited about the opening of Warren and Moore colleges in the fall of 2014, others, ranging from rising seniors to sophomores, were frustrated with the effects of the increased bed count.

Construction of Warren and Moore — known collectively as the College Halls at Kissam — began in the summer of 2012 after the six dormitories located on Kissam Quadrangle had been demolished. The new buildings cost approximately $115 million.

The first point of contention was rising seniors’ off-campus housing registration process. In the past few years, a greater number of seniors than usual had been allowed to live off campus because of the ongoing construction of Warren and Moore — with the beds previously located at Kissam Quadrangle unavailable,

there was less space on campus to house students.

Although students were aware that Warren and Moore would be opening in the fall, this year’s reduction in off-campus approvals still came as a surprise to many seniors. After the decisions were announced, an online petition was circulated asking for more seniors to be allowed to live off campus. The petition had more than 700 signatures from members of all classes as of April 15.

Associate Director of Housing Assignments Alison Matarese made it clear that the off-campus approvals of recent years were an aberration.

“A common misconception is that there was a change in the policy,” Matarese said. “Vanderbilt has a residential requirement that people live on campus.

The difference in bed space and people on campus is the amount of people that we allow off campus.”

One frustrated rising senior, Caitlyn Falco, was miffed about the results of her off-campus application.

“I was trying to go off campus with a friend of mine,

and she got accepted while I didn’t,” Falco said. “After decisions came out, we were told we should have done a conditional application to be accepted or declined together. We never saw this in the information online, and we weren’t told this beforehand.”

She also expressed dismay with the residential requirement for students to live on campus, stating her belief that seniors should have more latitude.

“I know that the policy is to fill all of the dorms, but after three years on campus I think seniors should really be able to live wherever we want,” Falco said.

The early deadline for Warren and Moore may have also contributed to housing problems, as some students applied for the new buildings simply because it was the first application opportunity, which meant that others who actually wanted to live there had less of a chance.

The housing effects of Warren and Moore’s opening weren’t limited to the senior class. Rising juniors, who traditionally would have a better chance at getting

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suite-style living in dorms like Carmichael Towers, Morgan or Lewis, were less likely to be accepted to those areas because more seniors needed oncampus housing options. Subsequently, when rising sophomores filled out ballots, the online system said that no sophomores would be afforded singles.

Matt Marra, a rising sophomore hoping for a single, was left in a precarious position.

“I was going to apply for a single, but when I went to the online application I was told there were none, without time to find a roommate,” he said. “Now I’m on a waiting list to see what opens up for next year.”

If sophomores can’t live in singles, Marra would at least like to see a system in which students who don’t list a roommate on their ballot could select their preferred housing location and then be randomly matched with another single-person ballot.

Senior Director of Housing Operations Jim Kramka says he understands some of the commotion.

“People hear things from the classes before them,” Kramka said. “Everyone forgets the process is fluid.

It’s never the same each year, so what one person got one year is never the same as what is available the next year.”

Kramka and Matarese say they know that students have many claims on their attention, but still feel that students have some responsibility to be aware of changes.

“People can always come to the housing office with questions, but we can’t put everything in the brochures and emails,” Matarese said. “We try to put information out, but it so often gets lost in everything else students have to deal with. We have to work on how to communicate with students successfully.”

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ERIC LYONS / THE VANDERBILT HUSTLER

Warren and Moore Colleges add 657 beds to Vanderbilt’s housing. But with the new residence halls opening in the fall, some students have found difficulty in getting their desired housing locations for the upcoming year.

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opinion THE

RANT Something got you peeved? Irked? Honked off? The Rant is your place to anonymously vent your spleen on any issue you want. To get your rant on, visit the InsideVandy.com Opinion page.

QUOTE OF THE DAY “Trying to compare the relative validity of one problem to another can quickly snowball out of control. After all, how are we supposed to determine what’s a ‘real’ or justified problem when different things are difficult for different people?”

KARA SHERRER, IN “BEYOND #FIRSTWORLDPROBLEMS” ON INSIDEVANDY.COM

The girl that ratted How one online thread brought out the worst in Vanderbilt Warning: This column contains potentially offensive language.

Check out this week’s Rant on our Twitter account @InsideVandy.

Why the hell do the Wyatt computer labs automatically lock at 6 p.m.? I stepped out for a bathroom break and had to call an AC for assistance.

If Vandy Dining wants me to use a tray, make it so that I don’t have to walk all the way from DNR to the tray return, stand in line, then walk back towards Buttrick to go to class.

Can’t Rand brunch just have grab and go waffles again? I’m not going to wait in line 15 minutes for half a waffle.

I wish people would stop talking about graduation. I’m emotional already, so let’s just all agree to stop saying the g-word.

Angry shout out to you, girl at Rites in the transparent white sundress, for showing me more than I ever needed to see of your entire naked body.

Shout out to everyone who drives like a speed demon in the Rec parking lot and almost hits my car coming around corners.

SLOW DOWN! If only Bamboo Bistro served build your own Banh Mi instead of the prewrapped ones.

(Editor’s note: Take note, Dining.)

Why can’t we see the library cafe menu on the dining website?

I might watch VTV if I could get decent audio quality when I tune in. Seriously, half the time there isn’t sound at all!

vanderbilthustler EDITORIAL BOARD ANDRÉ ROUILLARD

TYLER BISHOP

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF editor@insidevandy.com

INSIDEVANDY DIRECTOR director@insidevandy.com

HANNAH SILLS

KELLY HALOM

NEWS EDITOR news@insidevandy.com

LIFE EDITOR life@insidevandy.com

ERIC LYONS

ALLISON MAST

OPINION EDITOR opinion@insidevandy.com

SPORTS EDITOR sports@insidevandy.com

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ANDRÉ ROUILLARD is a senior in the College of Arts and Science and editor-in-chief of The Hustler. He can be reached at andre.p.rouillard@ vanderbilt.edu.

R

ape culture” is a vague term. What is “rape culture?” How can we have a culture centered around the act of rape? Where can we find it, if it exists? What does it look like?

Who is a part of it? And how can we at Vanderbilt even define this term if we don’t even see what it’s supposed to be describing?

Well, it’s out there, online. It looks like thin black text on a gray background. It lives in an anonymous college gossip forum.

In a thread on CollegiateACB.com (an anonymous discussion board fueled ostensibly by members of Greek life) entitled “girl that ratted,” the elements that make up rape culture are on full display. The discussion within deals with a charge of rape at AEPi that was filed in February and reported on by The Hustler last week. This one thread seems to have unearthed all of the unsavory and dark and dangerous aspects of Vanderbilt’s campus culture that persist in preventing this place from being a safe place for women.

In the thread, the original poster begins by asking the anonymous userbase to post the name of the girl who “ratted” on AEPi and “got them on probation.” The anger over the destruction of a way of life is palpable.

What evolves in the subsequent posts goes beyond the usual “frattier-rankings hottest freshman best ass Sig Nu” drivel that usually dominates the site — the thread is a revolting mixture of speculatory ad

hominem attacks, victim intimidation, Greek Life chest-thumping and debate over whether or not the victim was, in fact, raped by someone at the AEPi fraternity house.

Over the course of the thread’s three pages, the victim is referred to as “crazy,” a “crazy bitch,” “manic depressive,” “psycho,” “NASTY AS SHIT” and “a no good CUNT,” among other things. Posters call into question her truthfulness, her mental stability and her sexual promiscuity, all while rumors swirl amongst the electronically-shielded posters.

A Vanderbilt student is named in this thread, and these words and names target her. And to be clear, she is a target: A user on the second page asks for confirmation of the name posted on the first.

The focus of the thread quickly jumps to matters of real concern for its participants: the implications for AEPi and Greek Life, a focus that is maintained throughout 44 posts.

The consensus seems to be that the victim has “snitched.”

This repeated use of the word “snitching” in the thread implies that the victim has revealed a secret that should have been kept hidden behind closed doors — under the rug and on floors that stick like flypaper and stink of old beer. She has tattletaled and transgressed against an entity larger than herself, an operation to keep Greek Life’s stimulant-fueled heart beating while the perceived vultures circle overhead. The original poster issues a rallying cry: “we need to stick together and prevent shit like this from being OK.” The alleged victim would seem-

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 InsideVandy.com.

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ingly be better served to allow the party to continue and keep her secret under wraps for the good of the Greek community. The message is: Force a smile, grab another beer, look your assailant in the eye — and don’t say a word.

It would be “fucked up” to do otherwise. The story would be enough to “get IFC to fuck all frats over.”

What’s especially “fucked up,” apparently, is the allegation that the victim went “unprovoked” to IFC to file a report. She wasn’t caught stumbling drunkenly down Kensington, brought into student accountability and asked to supply the name of the place where she was drinking — in which case, according to some posters, it would be understandable to throw the fraternity under the bus. No, this victim did the unthinkable: She was assaulted and reported the crime to someone who could help her seek justice. To quote one poster, “its honestly a shame this is what the school has come to. have some integrity ladies.”

It reads like cruel satire.

It gets worse: The thread has a sickening self-reinforcing logic.

Several posters in the thread allege that “nobody got raped” because the news would have been so major that anyone paying attention would have heard about it.

If this thread is any indication of the response that awaits a rape victim at Vanderbilt who comes forward, then it is easy to understand her keeping her painful secret locked up tight. To do otherwise is social suicide at best, and a living nightmare at worst. What incentive could she possibly ever have

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to make her story public? Come forward and your name will be posted, your secret revealed, and your sexual history put on display. You will be viciously ridiculed and discredited — and there is nothing you can do about it.

And despite the debate over the actual events that occurred at AEPi on Feb. 14, a discussion of the “he-said, she-said” dynamic of sexual assault allegations is beyond the scope of this column. What matters most is the fact that this thread was created to publicly identify, shame and intimidate this victim by a community of which she is a member.

It sends a public message. It says, “We know who you are and what you did, and this is what we think about it.” If a victim hasn’t

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014

pressed charges, does anyone think that she will now? What is this thread whispering to the other women who will be sexually assaulted during their time here?

If all of this isn’t rape culture made manifest, then I don’t know what is. I’m not going to waste my limited word count railing against the enabling power of anonymous message boards and social media, the insularity and cliquey-ness of Greek life, or other favorite targets of those who write on this subject but who don’t pay witness to it. This single, 44-post thread is a glimpse into a rape culture that is alive and well here at Vanderbilt. It’s alive in dorm rooms, Greek houses, classrooms and public spaces. It is a culture that commits rape and then comes together

to shut down its victim.

“Consider yourself lucky if no one finds this thread,” warns one user. Well, now no one can: The thread was deleted from the website on Monday after 8 p.m. However, you’ll be able to find the entire thread saved on our website, with the name redacted.

It is plain now that there are groups of individuals at this prestigious, beautiful, diverse institution darkening its classrooms and hallways and making it a less safe and accepting place for the women in attendance. After all of the steps forward that Vanderbilt has taken in my four years here, this thread represents one hundred steps backward. I am deeply ashamed to share classrooms, professors and the name on my soon-to-be-printed

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diploma with the students represented in this cesspool of destructive gossip and selfserving intimidation. I’d like to think we at Vanderbilt, the lucky few, are better than this — but now, I’m not so sure.

EDITOR'S NOTE Visit the online version of this article on InsideVandy for fully saved and readable web versions of the now-deleted CollegiateACB thread.

Greek and anti-Greek

Why social pressure against conformity is still social pressure

I

CHARLIE WOODLIEF is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Science. He can be reached at charles.a.woodlief@ vanderbilt.edu.

transferred to Vanderbilt this year as a sophomore, and after giving it serious thought, I decided not to get involved with Greek life. At the end of the day, that decision was a really a question of economics.

What were the costs of rushing? What were the benefits?

Which outweighed the other?

In my case, I had multiple commitments already: Arts and Science coursework, a program at Blair, extracurricular involvement and having to situate myself on a campus with which I was a year less familiar than my classmates. The majority of people I felt myself gravitate toward happened to not be in the Greek system, and I was able to find avenues for all the social benefits conveyed by Greek life elsewhere. Greek life definitely seemed appealing in a way, but all things considered, it didn’t make economic sense.

Having been at Vanderbilt for a year, I’ve seen how much gravity the question of Greek or not-Greek carries. It’s a weighty decision, and it can seriously impact the shape your “Vanderbilt experience” takes. I was conscious of this to some extent before coming here, but from the conversations I’ve had, it’s clear to me that the decision whether or not to be involved in Greek life often rides on considerations fundamentally different from my own. Namely, many people consider Greek life chiefly a moral rather than an economic issue.

Because they carry moral connotations, questions about the role of Greek life on campus will often visibly cause anxiety. Compare it to how everyone in a classroom winces if someone brings up abortion or gun control. There’s such tension behind it that people are reluctant to touch the subject publicly for fear an uncomfortable confrontation. As a result, most conversations about Greek life only occur between people who know they’re like-minded.

Furthermore, I think people generally enter in-depth discussions only when they’re concerned by a topic somehow, because no one really tries to examine an issue that doesn’t “bother” them in some sense. For Greek life at Vanderbilt, this means that people who are discussing its role in-depth usually are doing so because in way or another, they take issue with it.

Tying things together: I think most serious, critical conversations about the role of Greek life happen exclusively among people who both aren’t in it and dislike it.

In this context, I’ve heard some intense criticism made against the Greek system. I’ve heard it called conformist, racist and homophobic. I’ve heard “sorority girl” used as a slur, and I once even heard someone say that every male involved with a fraternity is an “emotionally constipated cinderblock.” Serious animosity here.

These criticisms all reflect an attitude that, in my experience, is common among people outside the Greek system. It’s certainly not shared by everyone, but there is an ambient feeling that the Greek system is a stifling force on campus. Among its critics, it’s seen as a pressure to measure up to an unfair ideal, a power that judgmentally dictates social standards.

It’s to the critics of Greek life that this piece is mainly addressed. I can honestly say that the largest social pressure I’ve experienced in my year at Vanderbilt is not to measure up to a Greek standard, but rather to an antiGreek standard. Let me explain: Often, when people feel ostracized by a social hierarchy, they will take whatever value standard they feel governs that hierarchy and turn it upside down to create a new, retaliatory hierarchy, effectively defined in opposition to the original social structure. The classic example is the group of felons who create a jailhouse social ladder based on whose crime was the “hardest.”

They feel condemned by society in varying degrees owing to the varying severity of their crimes, so they turn the severity of their crimes into a measure of their rank.

I find this dynamic widely in force at Vanderbilt, especially surrounding the Greek system. Among Greek life’s critics, there’s a large contingent that, for a number of reasons, feels excluded from what they see as a hierarchy and inverts the perceived hierarchy into a new exclusionary hierarchy. I remember being told in my first month here: “You seem like you’re not one of those fraternity clones; you’d fit in well with us.”

Ironically, that contingent then pressures others to authenticate themselves with anti-Greek social credentials, exactly mirroring the judgmentality it’s allegedly rejecting. For a campus that’s charged with such severe Greek exclusivism, it’s odd that the only times I’ve ever felt truly judged were when I’ve mentioned that I was willing to even consider joining Greek life, like it’s some war crime.

Obviously this is not to say that all skepticism toward the Greek system stems from a retaliatory impulse. In fact I think a healthy caution toward it is actually an attitude you’ll find in the majority of its participants. My point doesn’t concern skepticism toward Greek life; it concerns what happens when opposition to it becomes a social ladder.

For the sake of argument, let’s just imagine all the standard complaints against the Greek system are true.

Even on that supposition, there’s no benefit to giving a negative standard authority by using it as a reference point for our values. If there really is widespread exclusionary pressure at Vanderbilt, then isn’t adding more exclusionary pressure already too costly to justify? There’s no sense to Vanderbilt’s non-Greek world aspiring to be an anti-Greek world in the way it so often does. If nothing else, it’s just bad economics.

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014

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Rights of the wrong Tennessee’s recent bill reinstating the electric chair threatens to undermine the moral credibility of the state

I

ERIC LYONS is a senior in the College of Arts and Science and the opinion editor of The Hustler. He can be reached at eric.c.lyons@ vanderbilt.edu.

f you watched Sunday night’s “Game of Thrones,” you might have felt that justice had been served as one of television’s most infamous villains met his demise after drinking poisoned wine. As the character succumbed, he suffered from violent convulsions, his skin turned purple and his blue eyes bulged red. Twitter erupted with its own delighted #PurpleWedding reception, and a Los Angeles Times columnist called the death “glorious.” One would be hard-pressed to label this fictional case of retribution as disproportionate by any means given the unspeakable acts of torture and countless murders carried out in this royal monster’s name.

But what if today’s real-life murderers on death row — such as the 81 inmates housed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, not eight miles from our campus — were to meet a similar fate, this time in your name and mine?

— In 1989, Dennis McGuire raped, choked and murdered Joy Stewart, a pregnant Ohio woman. The tragedy of McGuire’s crimes go beyond than the act itself: A year after the death of his wife and unborn child, Joy’s husband committed suicide. In January of this year, the state executed McGuire using an untested combination of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone.

Father Lawrence Hummer has worked with death row inmates for the past two years and witnessed McGuire’s execution. “I was aghast,” Hummer wrote in The Guardian. “What I saw was inhumane.” Hummer watched McGuire gasp for air with clenched fists as his stomach swelled. The priest compared the dying man to “a fish lying along the shore puffing for that one gasp of air that would allow it to breathe.” Records as to how long McGuire writhed in pain vary between 24 and 26 minutes.

(Hummer points out that a “normal” execution by lethal injection typically takes around five minutes.)

Federal public defender Allen Bohnert told the press that he sees McGuire’s death as a “failed, agonizing experiment.”

McGuire’s apparently botched injection in January was not the only execution to raise eyebrows that month. Almost 20 years ago, then 19-year-old Michael Lee Wilson and three accomplices robbed a Tulsa Quiktrip. Wilson himself worked at the convenience store, but that did not stop Wilson and his cohorts from brutally beating the cashier — his own co-worker, a 30-year-old husband and father — to death with an aluminum baseball bat. 54 blows in two minutes. The court sentenced Wilson and two other defendants to death, and Oklahoma executed Wilson in January of this year.

It seems that Wilson desperately wanted his last words to inspire positive, perhaps redemptive, memories for the benefit of his family members present at the execution. “I love everybody,” he began. “I love the world. Love my daughters for me.

I’m going to miss you always.” But those were not to be Wilson’s final words. After being injected with a fatal drug, he spoke one last time: “I feel my whole body burning.”

— In a widely circulated piece for The Tennessean, Brian Haas identified these two January executions as Exhibits A and B for his case that lethal injection has the potential to amount to cruel and unusual

‘‘

Even as support for the death penalty shrinks across the country, a 2013 Pew study revealed that capital punishment is favored nationally by nearly two-thirds of white Protestants — a demographic particularly powerful in Tennessee politics.

’’

punishment. Haas’ concerns come in the wake of two disturbing developments. First, starting in December, the state has undertaken an unprecedented effort to schedule 10 executions between now and November 2015. (Note that Tennessee has only executed six people since 1960.)

Second, to paraphrase Haas, the state has attempted to cloak its execution protocol in secrecy with the passage of a bill signed by Gov. Haslam last April. The bill conceals the records of how the state obtains its lethal pharmaceuticals. Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) spokeswoman Dorina Carter explains that the entities capable of supplying the state with the chemical are “unwilling to do so without the protection of confidentiality.”

Missouri, Georgia and Oklahoma — where Wilson was executed — each have similar laws in effect. In late March, an Oklahoma district judge ruled that such a law was unconstitutional because it denied courts vital information about execution protocol.

The states have had problems obtaining the proper pharmaceuticals to carry out the death penalty for years. After Italian authorities shut down a major sodium thiopental factory in 2011, states adjusted and began using pentoarbital, a barbituate employed in the euthanasia of pets that causes fatal respiratory arrest. That same year, Lundbeck — a Danish manufacturer of Nembutal, the only form of pentobarbital approved for sale in the U.S. — restricted access to the drug in states that use lethal injections. Tennessee officially adopted pentoarbital in September 2013, but according to Carter, Tennessee currently lacks the necessary pharmaceuticals to carry out the scheduled executions.

— In the meantime, the state is considering another perhaps even less humane alternative. Last Wednesday, Tennessee senators voted 23-3 to reinstate the electric chair as an option in case (1) the state cannot access the pharmaceuticals required for lethal injection or (2) lethal injection is ruled to be “cruel and unusual” and thus unconstitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction. The House will likely vote on the companion bill before the legislative session ends this week.

Tennessee’s last electrocution was also its first since 1960. In 2007, Daryl Keith Holton, a man with a history of mental illness who was convicted for murdering his three sons and stepdaughter,

requested death by the chair; the state obliged. The Nashville City Paper reported that Holton’s hands “turned pink” and his body “tensed severely and arched from the chair.” The City Paper noted that Holton did not seem to be visibly bleeding in the manner that has become a “hallmark” of several publicized electrocutions, most famously that of Florida inmate Allen Lee Davis. In 1999, photographs of Davis’ burned and bloodied face spread across the internet, and Florida switched to lethal injection the following year.

Several states offer the electric chair to inmates, particularly those convicted before lethal injection became the standard. Reuters reported that the bill would make Tennessee the first state to “revert” to electrocution by legal mandate. In 2008, the Supreme Court of Nebraska — at the time the only remaining state to rely solely on electrocution — ruled that the “intense pain and agonizing suffering” caused by the method qualified as “cruel and unusual” punishment. It’s worth remembering that the only Tennessee Supreme Court justice to ever lose her seat was McWherter appointee Penny White after she voted to overturn a death sentence in the 1996 State v. Odom case. Before White’s retention election, voters were urged by then-governor Don Sundquist, Sens. Bill Frist and Fred Thompson, and a flood of mailers to “Vote for capital punishment by voting NO” to White. Then, as now, the death penalty was exceedingly popular among Tennesseans and Southerners generally. While there is little question that the new bill would be challenged if passed, it is far from a foregone conclusion that the Tennessee Supreme Court would come to a ruling similar to Nebraska’s.

Even as support for the death penalty shrinks across the country, a 2013 Pew study revealed that capital punishment is favored nationally by nearly two-thirds of white Protestants — a demographic particularly powerful in Tennessee politics. Still, many Americans oppose methods that seem “cruel and unusual.” The DPIC’s (Death Penalty Information Center) Richard Dieter suggests that if average Americans observed the process, executions would be “so unpopular that nobody would be able to withstand the firestorm of publicity.” Rep. Johnny Shaw (D-Bolivar) thinks we should seek “a more humane way” than “to just fry somebody.” Rep. Darren Jernigan (D-Nashville) seemed shocked by the recent bill, calling the electric chair more “barbaric” than even the gas chamber or death by firing squad.

Perhaps, like more than one online commenter, you’d like to point out that in even the worst of these cases, “the bastards already got off too easy” compared to the suffering of their victims. From what I can surmise, you’d be right. McGuire’s 26 minutes of pain cannot compensate for the lives he destroyed.

But then again, little can.

Last week, the sponsor of the electric chair bill, Rep. Dennis Powers (R-Jacksboro), told the press, “Our job is not to judge. Our job is to arrange the meeting between the (defendant) and the Creator, for Him to judge.” But if Powers is right, and if Tennessee must have the death penalty — and it shows no signs of going away anytime soon — the state should strive to avoid torturing inmates with the authority and tax dollars of its citizens.

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AROUND CAMPUS

Three-peat for North House North House was recognized as the winner of the Commons Cup on Sunday, April 13 at the Commons Carnival. The award celebrates the house’s accomplishments in the areas of academics, sustainability, service, community involvment and athletics. This was North House’s third consecutive win.

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GO DO

2014 THIS Meloroo The Melodores will performing their spring show on Saturday, April 19 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 20, at 5 p.m. On April 19, the group will be accompanied by InterChorus from DePaul University and on April 20, they will be joined by Vanderbilt BhangraDores and Tongue ‘n’ Cheek, Vanderbilt’s comedy improv troupe. Tickets are $8 on the card at the Sarratt Box Office.

Need a job? It’s not too late.

For seniors graduating in less than a month, the job hunt can be particularly stressful. Assistant Director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Student Professional Development Dorrie Presson offers tips for seniors who are still searching for work after graduation By Kelly Halom, life editor In the last week of classes, seniors still searching for jobs may be experiencing a heightened state of panic as they prepare to leave Vanderbilt without concrete plans in place. But Dorrie Presson, assistant director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Student Professional Development, has one thing to say: It’s not too late.

Presson notes that with an influx of seniors seeking the center’s services after spring break, the second half of second semester can be a particularly stressful time for students aiming to enter the work force but have not yet accepted job offers.

“Sometimes they stress about the stress, and sometimes the stress leads you to not take any action, and that leads to more stress,” Presson said. “Any time you’re in this mode of high stress, high pressure, just doing something, taking action, moving forward is a good remedy.”

Presson offers tips on what action to take if you’re still on the job hunt rather than allowing the stress to envelop you:

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Know how to tell your story

The Center for Student Professional Development often coaches students about communicating their experiences and relating them to the jobs they seek.

“What you’re trying to do as you’re searching for your internships or jobs is to connect the dots from your experiences outside the classroom — in service organization in volunteerism in student organizations — to the position,” Presson said.

According to Presson, even if a student has yet to have an internship or work experience, on-campus involvement or work in the community can demonstrate one’s abilities and potential for the position. Knowing how to communicate the challenges and successes of any role can improve the quality of an application. The Center for Student Professional Development offers an array of services, such as mock interviews, to coach students on how to communicate their story better.

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Be self-aware

Not only must students understand how their story relates to their employer, but they must also be able to identify their strengths in that story. Presson tends to ask students, “Do they know what their strengths are? Do they know their interests and values — their transferable skills? Can they articulate those?”

But understanding your strengths is only the first step. Knowing where you want to use those strengths can be more difficult.

“If you don’t know what you’re looking for, that’s a real challenge in the job search,” Presson said.

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Leverage your network

Presson notes that students often rely too heavily on online postings, sending off their resumes without giving much thought to where these end up.

“People hire people, so it’s important that we help students realize the value of connecting with individuals in those companies they’re pursuing,” Presson said. “If you just apply online, you are one of many hundreds or more of these applications coming in, so we really help students understand their own personal network and how to leverage the Vanderbilt alumni network, because that’s critical.”

In order to better leverage the Vanderbilt network, students can access DoreWays, which lists job postings specific to Vanderbilt students, and VUConnect, which connects students to alumni working with desired companies. Even if there are no job postings for a certain company, Presson encourages students to reach out to an alumnus at that company, as making these connections can often help students find opportunities in the field.

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Remember the center resources even after you graduate

Though you may no longer be within a 15-minute walk from the Center for Student Professional Development, almost the entire range of its services are available to students up to two years after they graduate. Many recent alumni still use Skype for coaching sessions or even attend company information sessions and workshops.

“We want students to continue to engage with us if they’re still searching or maybe they take a job and it wasn’t a good fit for them,” Presson said.

The Center for Student Professional Development is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the center and available resources after graduation, visit http://vanderbilt. edu/career.

Upon graduation,

58.8 % of seniors plan on full-time employment.

Upon graduation,

31.4 % of seniors plan on further education.

Upon graduation,

53.9 %

of those seeking employment have accepted a position.

Upon graduation,

89.6% of those seeking graduate school, have accepted a program.

DATA PROVIDED BY THE CENTER FOR STUDENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT’S POST-GRADUATION REPORT 2013

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New clubs on the block Figure Skating Club The Figure Skating Club hosts weekly freestyle practice sessions at the Centennial Sportsplex for skaters of all experience levels.

“We wanted the club to allow anyone to skate, whether or not they had ever stepped on the ice before,” cofounder and sophomore student Jordan Barone said.

According to Barone, 15 members regularly attend practice sessions and more than 50 students have shown an interest in attending larger events.

“We are working with the rink to have at least one large event each semester,” she said.

For the first of these, the club plans to rent out the Centennial Sportsplex for any Vanderbilt student to skate for free.

Barone, a sophomore, and Jackie Cruz, a freshman, have been figure skating for their entire lives, but when they came to college, skating was much less accessible. Realizing how much they missed the sport, they formed the Vanderbilt Figure Skating Club at the beginning of the school year.

“We competed together on the same synchronized ice skating team for 12 years back home in Chicago,” Barone said. “We knew of a handful of other Vandy students who also had histories with figure skating, and after hearing how excited they all were at the opportunity to keep skating, we decided to make a club.”

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The Hustler looks at the newest clubs students brought to campus this year By Maggie Knox, life reporter If you saw the “Before I Die” installation outside of Rand Hall or the umbrellas floating outside of Sarratt Student Center, you may already be familiar with the Kefi Project. This public art organization, created by senior Kion Sawney, has installed 13 projects around campus this school year

Kefi Project

alone.

“The Kefi Project started as an idea of Kion’s about a year ago to create an organization dedicated to sharing art and spreading education beyond the classroom,” said junior Tamara Cecala, Kefi’s newly elected director.

“Kion and a couple of friends applied for and received a Curb Center grant to get the organization started,” Cecala said.

“They called it Kefi, which is a Greek word that roughly means ‘the joy of living.’

“The organization is centered around the idea of sharing public art with the campus and community. We like to do projects that will teach something, share student and faculty work, or inspire others.”

Kefi currently has around 20 members, and Cecala encourages anyone who wants to learn more to get involved.

“I want The Kefi Project to continue bringing art to students and opening dialogue about it,” she said. “Ultimately, I hope that the Kefi Project will continue to share the joy of life with the Vanderbilt community for years to come.”

After developing an interest in genetic engineering, freshman Ophir Ospovat quickly realized that Vanderbilt was one of the only top research universities that didn’t have a team for the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition.

Since Ospovat founded the Vanderbilt iGEM program this spring, it has grown to nearly 100 members, all doing everything from engineering bacteria to light up in response to environmental changes to creating a more approachable database for protein interaction.

In October, iGEM members plan to participate in an international competition at MIT. Though the program is new, Vanderbilt is the first university to register three different teams into a competition. About their prospects, club members are optimistic.

“We have a really dedicated group of people,” said freshman Kevin Cyr, iGEM microfluidics director.

Ospovat hopes iGEM will continue to grow and that teams will be able to present a new project each year.

“IGEM really gives people the chance to learn scientific procedures they wouldn’t normally get to,” he said.

IGEM

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OFF THE CHAINZ

This year’s Rites of Spring brought more energy and drew even bigger crowds than years past

By Kelly Halom, life editor

From Twenty One Pilots crowd surfing throughout their show to Steve Aoki ending his set in the midst of confetti cannons and fog to a packed crowd singing along with 2 Chainz on Saturday night, this year’s Rites of Spring brought a high-energy show that had attendees begging for more.

2 Chainz definitely brought the greatest fan base to the show, as students and Nashvillians alike packed into Alumni Lawn on Saturday night. Between encouraging the audience to calm down, asking who else believed in God and bringing a special guest — rapper and recent parolee Lil Boosie — on stage, his set was full of surprises. The crowd sang along to the rap star’s biggest hits and guest verses for the duration of the set and stayed cheering for an encore well after he left the stage.

Though 2 Chainz may have shown the greatest following, Friday night headliner Steve Aoki arguably produced the most energetic set, as Alumni Lawn transformed into a full-blown rave during his performance. Aoki’s set was full of the promised cake-throwing and champagne spraying for which fans have

come to know him, as he showcased his new album “Neon Light.”

Twenty One Pilots also stood out in the festival for their unique brand of music — melding together alternative rock, synth-driven club beats and even hip-hop to produce their sound. Not only did their music stand out, but the band’s set on Friday included countless impressive performance stunts, as band members Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun crowd surfed multiple times throughout the set, even playing the drums while doing so.

Showcasing their own style of up-beat, SoCal alternative rock, The Mowgli’s played a Saturday set jammed with crowd favorites from their major label debut, “The Great Divide,” including “Say It, Just Say It” and their hit single “San Francisco,” which closed out their set for the evening.

Other standout acts of the weekend included Nashville-based electropop duo Cherub and trap-rap representative Ace Hood. Though students may not have known every act at this year’s festival, the energy of the performances helped win over first-time listeners.

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1.Headliner Steve Aoki sprays the crowd with champagne during his performance on Friday night. 2. Headliner 2 Chainz plays to a packed crowd on Alumni Lawn on Saturday night.

3. Twenty One Pilots frontman Tyler Joseph stands atop the support beams of the stage as the crowd cheers him on. 4. Friday night headliner Steve Aoki basks in the crowd’s cheers. 5.

Jason Huber of Nashville-based Cherub plays before 2 Chainz hits the stage. 6. Eric Holljes of country rock group Delta Rae plays to Vanderbilt and Nashvillian fans alike on Friday night.

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THE BIG STAT Number of combined passing and rushing yards recorded by quarterback Johnny McCrary during the 2014 Black & Gold spring game.

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103

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Finding family in football

One year after his father unexpectedly passed away, the ever-happy, old-souled Johnny McCrary has a chance to be Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback

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

Johnny McCrary walks around campus wearing a black rope necklace with a turtle pendant. It’s not his first necklace, though; it’s really more of a replacement.

Last year, right before the annual Black

and Gold spring game, Greg McCrary dropped his son off at campus, giving him a gold necklace with Jesus’ face on the front and a turtle on the back. It was the last time Johnny would see his father before Greg’s unexpected heart attack.

McCrary wore the necklace around everywhere for nearly a year — even to practice — until one day it was torn off during a drill and lost on the field. Losing such an invaluable piece of jewelry was tough, but at the same time, it was symbolic for McCrary.

“I guess you could say my heart’s on the field,” he said.

The 19-year-old quarterback has an infectious personality. He’s got a smile a mile wide and exudes happiness with almost a childlike enthusiasm that one can see by just perusing his entertaining Instagram feed.

“You just have to smile because he’s such a joy to be around as a player and just as a person,” said Ray Bonner, McCrary’s football

coach from Cedar Grove High School in Decatur, Ga. “It’s unbelievable how he strikes joy in everybody that comes in association with him.”

At the same time, though, McCrary is also a bit of an old soul.

You can see this reflected in his musical taste. As he was growing up, his parents would always have the radio on 104.1 FM — jazz and R&B soul music. At first, McCrary hated it.

“I was just like, ‘God, I can’t wait to get out of the car because I hate it so bad,’” he said.

“But then I accidentally fell into liking it. In high school the music started getting pretty bad and harsh. They’re missing out on the point about music. It’s supposed to be music. Temptations, Stylistics, the Whispers — that’s music.”

You can even see his old soul in his nickname, “Big Daddy,” which his grandmother gave him when he was 6 years old, the same age he told her in church that he’d get her

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Right: A close-up of the turtle pendant McCrary wears that resembles the one his father gave him.

He wore the original necklace for nearly a year before it was lost at practice. a car, that she didn’t need to worry about anything.

But the avid Temptations fan is also mature beyond his years because he’s been

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through an incredible amount of life experiences in his 19 years.

McCrary grew up in Ellenwood, Ga., a tough Atlanta suburb with a crime rating of 21 (meaning that it is safer than just 21 percent of U.S. cities) and is sandwiched between College Park and Panthersville, which have crime ratings of zero and 12, respectively.

Ellenwood residents try to get out when they can, so when McCrary had the opportunity to graduate from Cedar Grove in the winter to enroll early at Vanderbilt, he jumped on it. Many of his other friends weren’t able to do the same — several passed away, got heavily involved with drugs or stayed to work at McDonald’s.

McCrary, the son of eight-year NFL tight end Greg McCrary, was the prized jewel of former Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin’s recruiting classes. At the time he committed in February 2012, he was Vanderbilt’s highest-rated recruit ever — the nation’s top dual-threat quarterback and 80th overall prospect, according to Rivals.com.

The coaching staff at Vanderbilt was hoping the young quarterback, who is the leading passer in DeKalb County history, could get a head start on his development, but it was equally important for McCrary to get acclimated to a totally different academic atmosphere.

Before coming to Vanderbilt, McCrary

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“Johnny has more of the prototype arm that is utilized in this system, but it’s a matter of him understanding everything else that goes along with it, which he’s made great strides in doing.” spoke to friends at different colleges who said they barely had homework in their first years. That led to what he describes as a “crash course” first semester.

“The first few days, I thought college was the best thing ever,” McCrary said.

“You move into your dorm, kiss your parents good-bye, you’re by yourself. The third day, I had my first essay in English 100, where I figured out college wasn’t the best thing. It’s tons of work here.”

Soon enough, McCrary got into the groove of things, especially around the time spring practice started in March.

But as quickly as things started coming together for the young quarterback, things fell apart.

The week before Vanderbilt’s Black and Gold spring game, Franklin called

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Redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny McCrary (2) and redshirt sophomore quarteback Patton Robinette (4) celebrate after a successful two-point conversion during the 2013 Black and Gold spring game. The Black team defeated the Gold team 17-15.

McCrary into his office to tell him that McCrary’s father had gone into cardiac arrest. Johnny made it to his father’s hospital, but there was no saving him. Greg McCrary passed away later that night.

This wasn’t the first time McCrary had experienced the passing of a loved one.

His mother died early on in his childhood, but he had never got to say goodbye. Getting to see the last few moments of his father’s life moved the younger McCrary.

“When you see death, it’s different than people imagine it and tell you about it,” McCrary said. “They pass away, and you get all regretful and think about all the stuff you should have done. That’s how it changes you. When I got back, it was like, treat everybody how you would treat your father or mother.”

Four days after his father’s death, McCrary played in the spring game, where he went 6-for-13 for 108 yards and a touchdown. His father would have wanted it that way; few things made him happier than seeing his son as one of the top young quarterbacks in the nation.

Days later, Vanderbilt football brought two buses full of players and coaches to Georgia to come to Greg McCrary’s funeral. At that point, it was apparent that his 100-some teammates and dozens of coaches had became Johnny’s family.

With the graduation of senior Austyn Carta-Samuels, the starting quarterback job is up in the air for the 2014 season.

There were rumblings among football administrators that Franklin planned to start McCrary this upcoming season, but with the new coaching staff, that goes out the window.

New offensive coordinator Karl Dorrell is changing the offense to a West Coast style, which puts a bigger emphasis on passing over running compared to the last coaching staff. Generally, Dorrell’s quarterbacks will look about 20 yards downfield, and if no one is open, they can dump off a pass to a tight end or running back.

With Josh Grady injured and potential LSU transfer Stephen Rivers still in limbo, Patton Robinette is currently McCrary’s biggest competition for the starting job.

The sophomore played in 10 games last year, starting three of them, but he doesn’t have the same athleticism as McCrary.

“Johnny has more of the prototype arm that is utilized in this system,” Dorrell said.

“But it’s a matter of him understanding everything else that goes along with it, which he’s made great strides in doing.”

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Johnny McCrary carries the ball during the 2014 Black and Gold spring game. McCrary split time with Robinette at quarterback as the Gold (offense) team beat the Black (defense) team 21-16.

Following Saturday’s spring game, head coach Derek Mason would not name a starter, but he did give the edge to McCrary, who finished 10-for-18 for 94 yards.

The biggest issue for McCrary going forward will be learning the entirety of Dorrell’s complex playbook. The week before the spring game, he estimated that he knew about 50 percent of the plays.

“Just wait until I master it,” said McCrary. “Then I can start making my own plays up and stuff, finding other little routes we can run and combinations and concepts.

“Probably the playbook is going to be my girlfriend. That’s what football is really to me. It’s my wife.”

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Baseball vs. Texas A&M The Commodores lost their series to the Aggies, dropping two of three games. Scattered hits and miscues ended a conference series streak that extended back to 2012

By Allison Mast, sports editor

3 UP Turner streak continues Third baseman Xavier Turner extended his hit streak to 22 games this weekend, collecting six hits over the three games.

Turner started the weekend with a RBI single in the fifth inning of Friday’s matchup. He added a single and a double on Saturday, and he was robbed of an RBI single on Sunday when his line drive hit second baseman Dansby Swanson, who was in between first and second.

Caught stealing Vanderbilt fell behind in the first inning on Sunday when Texas A&M tacked on two quick runs. The Commodores had an opportunity to tack on some runs of their own when second baseman Dansby Swanson and third baseman Xavier Turner hit singles. However, both runners were erased when they were caught stealing. Swanson has been picked off four times this season, and Turner has been picked off six times.

Sidewinder excels

Untimely hits The Commodores collected plenty of hits during the season, but the majority of them were ill timed. Vanderbilt had more hits than Texas A&M in two of the three games, yet the Aggies handed the home team their first home SEC series loss since 2012. Getting hits when runners are in scoring position continues to be an issue for the Vanderbilt offense, as it has limited production and placed greater pressure on the pitchers.

Swanson’s OBP

Wiel injured Redshirt sophomore Zander Wiel, who was injured during the Tennessee series, has not appeared at first base since. He was in the lineup on both Saturday and Sunday as the designated hitter, while freshman Bryan Reynolds, who has been in the outfield, has filled in at first base. Although he has done an admirable job in Wiel’s absence, the Commodores could use Reynolds at his natural position.

Junior reliever Brian Miller pitched five solid innings on Saturday, earning his first win of the season. He allowed two hits and one run, while walking one and striking out four. He came in for starter Jared Miller, who forfeited four runs in four innings of work. Brian Miller currently has a 0.84 ERA over 21 total innings pitched. He ranks second among Vanderbilt relievers.

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Second baseman Dansby Swanson argues a call at second base in a 4-2 loss to Kentucky on March 28. Defensive miscues hampered the Commodores against Texas A&M.

3 DOWN

While the Commodores have struggled to push runs across, second baseman Dansby Swanson has tried to give his team ample opportunities. After being injured for the majority of last season, Swanson’s on base percentage is .438, currently the highest on the team. He also leads the team in batting with a .359 percentage and had five hits over the weekend, three of which came in Saturday’s 8-5 victory.

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