NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A Catholic student group says it will leave the Vanderbilt University campus at the end of the year over a controversial school policy which bars the group from requiring its leaders to be Catholic.
“The discriminatory nondiscrimination policy at Vanderbilt University has forced our hand,” Vanderbilt Catholic chaplain Father John Sims Baker said in a March 26 statement.
“Our purpose has always been to share the Gospel and proudly to proclaim our Catholic faith. What other reason could there be for a Catholic organization at Vanderbilt?” he asked. “How can we say it is not important that a Catholic lead a Catholic organization?”
The university policy prevents student groups from requiring their leaders to hold specific religious beliefs, The Tennessean reported. It has an “all-comers” policy, which means that groups must be open to all students and must allow every student member to run for office.
Leaders of Vanderbilt Catholic say the rule makes no sense. They will not comply and instead will become an independent off-campus ministry.
“We are a faith-based organization,” five leaders from the group’s student board said in a March 25 letter, arguing that affirming the policy would be “to lie” to the university.
“A Catholic student organization led by someone who neither professes the Catholic faith nor strives to live it out would not be able to serve its members as an authentically Catholic organization.”
Beth Fortune, vice chancellor for public affairs at Vanderbilt, said in response that school officials “regret, but respect, their decision.”
Fortune said the university believes the “vast majority” of its more than 400 registered student groups will comply with the policy “easily.”
Vanderbilt Catholic is one of the largest student religious groups at the university. It allows non-Catholics to be members, though not leaders.
“It has become quite clear to the Vanderbilt Catholic students that we either stand for something or fall for anything,” Father Baker said. “We choose to stand for Jesus Christ, and we expect that our leadership do the same.”
He pledged that the organization will “make a greater effort to reach out to all Vanderbilt students and all college students in Nashville.”
Registered campus student organizations receive many benefits. They may use the Vanderbilt University name and may use university meeting rooms and facilities for free or reduced rates. They also receive free organizational consulting and training from administrators, the university’s website reports.
They are eligible to apply for funding from various campus sources. Registered organizations have access to free publicity in publications and may use campus bulletin boards and kiosks to promote organizational activities.
The Christian Legal Society and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes have also opposed the university’s policy.
Trish Harrison, campus minister for the Graduate Christian Fellowship, said her group can’t sign the policy “in good conscience,” The Tennessean reports.
The group’s leadership has not decided whether or not to try to register without signing the policy.
The Vanderbilt Baptist Collegiate Fellowship, affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention, will apply for registered status, as it allows anyone to be a member or apply for a leadership position.
Twenty-three members of Congress signed an Oct. 6 letter in opposition to the policy, saying it is “common sense” for a student group to select leaders that best represent its mission.
Vanderbilt University re-examined adherence to its policy after a November 2010 incident in which the Christian fraternity Beta Upsilon Chi asked an openly homosexual member to resign. The member filed a discrimination complaint against the group, prompting the university to investigate.
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Well, that’s that, and good for them. Unfortunately it leaves the campus culture that much less vibrant. Good going, Vandy.
Beth Fortune, vice chancellor for public affairs at Vanderbilt, said in response that school officials “regret, but respect, their decision.”
Yeah right! If you really regretted it, you’d get rid of this nonsensical policy.
One more school to strike from my daughter’s college list. Bigoted a**h***s.
well, that crosses that University off my list for my kids to go to.
“Vanderbilt University re-examined adherence to its policy after a November 2010 incident in which the Christian fraternity Beta Upsilon Chi asked an openly homosexual member to resign. The member filed a discrimination complaint against the group, prompting the university to investigate.”
The Radical Homosexual wedge is a ‘dream tool’ for attacking religion, faith, free speech, freedom of assembly and the very texture of ordinary American life in the name of ‘rights’. Strip everything away and an entire campus presence and ministry is driven away to ‘satisfy’ a sworn enemy of said ministry.
Hopefully the campus will still be quite vibrant, as Vanderbilt Catholic is still going to be present and active on campus. We simply won’t have some of the benefits afforded to registered student groups.
Another Catholic entity pushed out of the mainstream by the forces of ‘tolerance’. That they will no longer have the same access to university facilities, etc. is clearly discriminatory. It also makes Baptist Collegiate Fellowship look ridiculous for not supporting basic rights.
Political correctness run amok.
pretty soon religious communities of the Catholic Church will be forced to accept people from different religions…the democrat party that catholic people vote for is coming full circle..WHEN ARE YOU LIBERAL SO CALLED CATHOLICS GONNA WAKE UP???....GOD HIMSELF IS GOING TO STRIKE OUR SORRY COUNTRY AND WORLD AND REALLY WAKE IT UP
Glad the group is standing up for themselves. Stay strong and meet elsewhere. Let Vanderbilt lose students.
Non Illegitimi Carborundum…do NOT go gentle into that good nite…get one of numberous lawyer groups around the country who know you have the right to the free exercise of your religion, whether Vanderbilt respects the Constitution or not, and Vanderbilt will follow the law once a court forces it to…and you will be on campus per omnia saecula saeculorum
Thanks for this article. God’s blessings upon Fr. Baker and may your Catholic Group (off-campus) THRIVE! This discriminatory nondiscrimination policy only applies to religious groups. Soooo, Vanderbilt permits discriminatory practices in all other groups. Posts may read: Choir: needs a leader/MUST be able to sing and read music; or, Sports (any): needs a leader/MUST have thorough knowledge of and AGREE with every rule (for those who do not follow all rules will be booted out.) Oh my Goodness! Whatever happened to common sense, to using reason that God blessed us with and which separates us from other animals? How sad, how foolish, how far we continue to stray. Again, God bless Fr. Baker!
Wow, does that mean a Christian can take over Hillel, or the similarly structured Jewish student group at Vanderbilt?
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I will cross off Vanderbilt from my (honors, full tuition-paying) children’s list of acceptable colleges. What a shame…
Self-respect and respect from others comes from taking a logical stand. This student group is doing the right thing.
They made the right decision. What makes a group a group or an organization an organization? Commonly held belief systems. Socialism will be the death knell of this once great country. “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal share of misery.” Winston Churchill
I am currently wrestling with my own convictions of belonging to a union that supports a socialist administration. But then so does 54% of “Catholics”. I was away from the Catholic Church for yrs. and never really had an inkling of what it was until I started to read and to also listen to many Protestant ministers. I no longer attend Mass. I found that there are more Protestants than Catholics in the church. Evangelicals have no fear of speaking the truth. And they seem to have no problem voting that way either. I believe in the doctrine of the church and it’s dogma’s. But I’ve never met a Catholic that actually didn’t support protestant beliefs! Beginning with homosexual “marriage”, embryonic stem cell research and of course artificial birth control. Not only that, the Church seems to be a partner with the very politcal party out to destroy it. The Democratic Party. “The common good comes before the private good.” Sounds christian doesn’t it? Goerring said that. He said it’s the main belief of the National Socialist Party, otherwise known as the Nazi Party. If Jesus Christ were a proponent of socialism, He wouldn’t have ASKED the rich man to give away all his riches, He would have taken them and redistributed them.
No surprise here. Our so-called houses of higher learning are guilty of reverse discrimination by having policies that call for the elimanation of religious organizations of any kind. To bad that no one seems to want to step up and challenge them in court. Today at almost all Universities the very word “Religion” is frowned apon. Organizations are prevented from doing what their constitutional rights grant them the right to do. Such things as co-ed living quarters, free sex, and all the drugs and alcohol you can buy flourish. Is it any wonder that our country is in a steep decline?
How I would like to see the entire Christian/Catholic community transfer to another university and hit Vanderbilt where they will listen—in their pocketbook.
@Joseph Metrick: Where do you live? I know plenty of real Catholics. Perhaps a move to a more “faithful to the magisterium” diocese would do you good. I will pray for you, because it sounds like an uphill battle!
Dear Joseph Metrick-Please please please do not forsake the Mass-go and find a Mass that is reverent and worshipful-in the Mass you will not only encounter Christ, you will receive Him-and with Him you will get through all this. I know….....the Mass has helped me thru everything…and try daily Mass…I have found that no matter what the parish, often they don’t mess with daily Mass the way they do with the Sunday entertainment spectacles. Everyone in this thread, pray for Joseph as I will every day, esp at the Offertory of each Mass we attend.
My son was valedictorian at his Catholic high school, which is a top feeder school to Vanderbilt. He was accepted at Vanderbilt and Notre Dame and visited both campuses. At Vandy the weather was warm and students in shorts and fraternity/sorority shirts threw frisbees. A male student in a dorm “mooned” our group as we passed by. At Notre Dame the cold lake-effect snow swirled around the statues of Moses, Jesus and Our Lady high atop the administration building. Students wearing Notre Dame sweatshirts tossed footballs and stopped to ask us if we needed directions or had questions. I tried to remain neutral and was thrilled when he chose Notre Dame which has a chapel in every dorm. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in engineering and remains a devout Catholic. Students at Notre Dame are much more conservative than the publicity-seeking liberal professors who like to criticize the Church.
What I feel is that the American Universities and even the Government do not think deeper what is real secularism. They become a kind of “mad” when the word “Religion ” is uttered. When there is freedom of opinion, faith, expression , how can any sensible authority say that a Catholic should not lead a catholic organisation. It is like telling that Govt. of U.S.A. should be headed by Alqueda devotee.
Joseph, I’m Catholic and I believe what the Church teaches. You probably attended liberal dioceses. I’ve come back to the church within the last 2 years and have read a lot of bad stuff that has happened since the 1970’s in the Church. This article reminded me of a book I’m reading about how liberal professors are undermining the church in so called Catholic universities. This article seems to prove that.
Potpourri, I guess I am glad you had a good experience, but no university that calls itself Catholic, and then invites the most pro-death ghoul ever to occupy the White House to give its commencement address, while having Catholic pro-life protestors arrested, will ever get a dime of my money or custody of one of my precious children!
Thnak you Jennifer M I try terribly hard to understand why the Catholic church and its affiliates find the need to pacify the Democratic Party. They are against the most important teachings of the church! If abortion is murder, why would you invite a man to speak at your university that SUPPORTS it! I’m begging someone to explain this to me. To read the names of so-called Catholics in positions of political power and to see how they totally disregard the teachings of the Church that they purportedly adhere to is a disgrace. Do any of these people actually know what the teachings of the church are? The Catholic church needs to convert Catholics to Caholicism before it tries to convert anyone else.
Reminds me of days at Vandy many years ago.
This is quite amazing. There is a bit of backstory to this organization which makes it’s current situation all the more frustrating. This is an organization that was barely in existence 10 years ago when I was a freshman. We pined for, prayed for, and dreamed of a strong Catholic Campus ministry. After I left Vandy, I heard the great news about the incoming FOCUS missionary group and Father Baker’s chaplaincy. The Vanderbilt Catholic Organization prospered tremendously… to becoming one of the largest student organizations on campus! There are so many Catholics on that campus and it is also a fertile spiritual ground for conversion… they’ve had many converts! It makes this move on the University’s part all the more insidious and sad. God will use it I’m sure, but it strikes me to the heart knowing all the good it has done and the practically nothing it came from. It is God’s work, and He will find a way. I truly hope that incoming Catholic students will still have easy access to the community, as we had to look more and more to the protestant groups for Christian fellowship when the Catholic Community was lacking. The Catholic Community and the incoming students will certainly be in my prayers.
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