Students at Vanderbilt University joined a number of other colleges in staging a walkout over campus race relations Monday.
While it was meant as an act of solidarity with demonstrators at the University of Missouri, the students also said they had concerns with how Vanderbilt handles race.
In complete silence, about 200 students marched in single file from the Central Library to Kirkland Hall, the administrative building on campus. They each delivered a list of 14 demands to the chancellor, then chanted outside the building. At the direction of two student leaders, the protestors said: “We are Vanderbilt, and we will not be silent.”
Akaninyene Ruffin, a junior who helped lead the protest, said this comes a year-and-a-half after members of a student activist campaign called Hidden Dores first spoke with the administration about instituting tangible changes — such as hiring more faculty of color.
Hidden Dores’ mission, according to its Facebook page, is to “draw attention to the racial and ethnic minority experience on a predominantly white campus.”
“The administration has not been necessarily proactive in addressing these goals until very recently, and the way they have been doing it has often cut students out of the equation,” Ruffin said.
More:Here’s a PDF of the group’s demands.
Although organizers intended the walkout to be a surprise to administrators, Vanderbilt chancellor Nicholas Zeppos was waiting outside of his office and thanked each demonstrator one by one as they walked by.
Beth Fortune, the school’s vice chancellor of public affairs, said Zeppos and several committees are already addressing the group’s concerns.
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