Featured photo via Sidelines Archives
Story by Noah McLane
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Hundreds marched on Vanderbilt’s campus Wednesday evening to pressure the university to heed demands made by Vanderbilt Divest Coalition (VDC), a student-run group responsible for the encampment in front of the Kirkland Administration Building on Vanderbilt’s campus.
The march came just over a month after students began to camp in front of the administration building as a response to the arrests and expulsions of three students at a sit-in at the chancellor’s office.
According to the group’s Instagram account, the coalition describes itself as “Vanderbilt students fighting for divestment from militarism and the illegal Israeli occupation.”
The groups demands are as follows:
- Reinstate the referendum that would divest student government funds from companies associated with Israel.
- Drop all disciplinary action against the students arrested and charged for the sit-in.
- Disclose University investments to create more transparency.
- Divest university endowment from companies “complicit in the Israeli genocide.”
Wednesday’s march was organized in part by VDC. Several students and two faculty members spoke at the protest.
Ezri Tyler is one of those students, a member of the encampment and one of the 27 students evicted for occupying a campus building.
Tyler said she was at the protest because “I am a human who wants to end the continued occupation, apartheid and genocide.”
Taking part in the protest was a calculated risk for Tyler and her fellow student-activists.
The students who were evicted from the chancellor’s office are “subject to increased sanctions as well as 15 months of disciplinary probation,” according to Tyler, even saying “we will be further penalized for protesting.”
But to her, any punishment that may await her is worth the cause she supports.
The March
Visitors to Centennial Park who followed the sound of chants and irregular drum beats Wednesday afternoon would have eventually come upon a contingent of demonstrators bathed in greens and reds from the Palestinian flags slicing through the air.
Some held signs that read things like “Support Students against Genocide” and “End the siege.”
At the vanguard, students donning keffiyehs, traditionally worn by Palestinian farmers during the Ottoman Empire, held two huge signs. One read “Honk for Peace” while the other said “#weekforPalestine” and had an image of the Palestinian flag superimposed atop a global map.
The crowd swelled as it moved down West End, escorted by Metro Nashville Police officers who stopped traffic and honked at by cars passing the group on the other side of the road.
Eventually, the crowd veered off of West End and onto Vanderbilt’s campus, marching past a sign that read “Must Show Vanderbilt ID to Demonstrate on Campus.”
Despite campus police being observed putting these signs up less than an hour before the march began, the rule was not enforced.
As the protestors weaved through campus en route to the Wyatt Center for Education building, curious observers peeked out of doors and windows as campus police kept a watchful eye on the crowd.
Not all who marched were Vanderbilt students, some were there with their families, some were alone and even a handful of MTSU students attended to show solidarity.
“Being there let us vocalize our solidarity and power, and it indeed felt powerful to be a part of the demonstration,” said Alice Guo, one of the MTSU students in attendance.
The pro-Palestine movement at Vanderbilt has been constant yet relatively small, according to students at the encampment who wished to remain anonymous.
Ezri Tyler is encouraged by the turnout, saying ““We have the support of students and faculty … I just wish administration felt the same way.”
Noah McLane is a contributing writer for MTSU Sidelines.
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