Ayaan Hirsi Ali Speaks Bravely and Freely about Islam
Last month’s IMPACT Symposium brought a relatively unknown but highly
influential contemporary figure to campus. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a
Somalian-born former Dutch MP, spoke on the first night of the annual
series, which had the theme this year of “Middle East vs. West.” This
theme could very well have been designed with Hirsi Ali specifically in
mind; the former Muslim speaks and writes about the incompatibility
that exists between Western liberal society and the restrictive culture
of Islam, particularly in areas that implement or attempt to implement
sharia law.
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Patricia Foulkrod’s The Ground Truth tells the story of the Iraq War veteran’s recruitment, training, combat experience, and return home through the testament of several former soldiers, sailors, and Marines who have experienced many forms of physical or psychological injury while in Iraq. The film was shown on February 19 as the inaugural presentation of the Iraq War Series. The month and a half-long series is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Students, Project Dialogue, and the University Lectures Committee, with support from the Film Studies program, the Philosophy department, Sarratt Art Studios, Vanderbilt Speakers Committee, and Vanderbilt Student Communications (this paper’s parent corporation). 
For about one year, the Vanderbilt undergraduate student body has been subject to the relatively limited governance of Vanderbilt Student Government. This organization was created by merging of the former Student Government Association and Interhall in an attempt to combine traditional student government with residence hall government. Now, after almost one year with Cara Bilotta at the helm of VSG, the outgoing president has some crowning achievements under her belt; nevertheless, a few of her campaign promises fell through. Now that the new VSG presidential candidates are echoing some of these same failed policy ideas, it calls into question whether VSG can really accomplish all it says it will.
On January 14, Vanderbilt University was graced with a visit from calypso singer and social activist Harry Belafonte, a man Interim Chancellor Nick Zeppos called a “remarkable individual” who has “contributed much to humanity.” Beyond his marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his organization of the Freedom Rides and other Civil Rights-era events, the King of Calypso made an appearance on what Zeppos remarked was perhaps “the best episode of The Muppet Show.” 
Enough has been said about the Valerie Plame controversy to warrant it a nice spot in the “Why Won’t This Story Die Already?” file. Indeed, after President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s jail sentence in June and the dismissal of Joseph and Valerie Wilson’s civil suit against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, Libby, and Richard Armitage (the revealed “outer”) in July, the story had all but completely faded from public discussion. Mrs. Wilson released her own account of the affair in a book titled Fair Game in October, but it was only through her publicity of the book that the issue was even raised again. Thus, the announcement by the Vanderbilt University Speakers Committee (VUSC) that Valerie Wilson would be coming to campus to speak about her experience appears misguided at best and sinister at worst.
In an effort to better indoctrinate students’ minds with liberal propaganda and buzz words, Residential Life held their inaugural Vandiversity Week last month. Sponsored in part by the Dean of Students, the Dean of Commons, and VSG, as well as the standard diversity-promoting groups like the Black Cultural Center, the GLBT Resource Office, VU Lambda, and the Office of Active Citizenship and Service (Do the Affirmative Action and Diversity Awards ring a bell?), Vandiversity Week promoted itself as a “great week of dialogue and discussion.” 
According to Interim Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos, the Commons “will be a place of belonging for all first year students to exchange ideas and together invigorate each other’s minds and imaginations.” This bold vision for Vanderbilt University freshman and, ultimately, the entire undergraduate community, has reached the brink of realization this fall with the opening of the Commons Dining Center, the near-completion of the Dean’s Residence, and the final College Hall, Ingram House. The first major step in the transformation of the Vanderbilt experience as envisioned by former Chancellor Gordon Gee, Zeppos, and the Board of Trust is almost ready to roll. The culmination of years of planning and millions of dollars is upon our campus, yet something seems flawed in what many observers have deemed a positive change for Vanderbilt. 
Every Vanderbilt University student living on campus is being watched. No, this writer hasn’t become a crazed conspiracy theorist over the summer. The fact is that somewhere in your resident hall, a little black dome with a conspicuously embedded security camera protrudes from a ceiling or wall, and it is watching you. 
Hustler readers received a bit of a surprise on April 2nd, when the front page of Vanderbilt’s student newspaper featured a large picture of Klint Peebles, a model at Lambda’s 12th Annual Fashion Drag Show, held on March 30th. The event, put on by the Vanderbilt Lambda Association, a GLBT advocacy group, also had participants from Nashville Pride, Nashville Cares, Out and About, and Tennessee Equality Project. According to Lambda president Kristen VanDenBossche, about six hundred people attended the fashion show on Alumni Lawn, including students from Belmont, Lipscomb, Fisk, and TSU. The show, which featured entertainment from models dressed in drag and had a highly publicized special guest appearance by the Lady Chablis, a drag queen entertainer from Savannah featured in the book and movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. VanDenBossche explained that Lambda met its major goal of “provid[ing] a fun event for the entire campus to enjoy, and giv[ing] people a taste of a type of performance that not everyone is used to seeing on campus.” It would appear that the 2007 Fashion Drag Show was a success, but at what cost to the university’s reputation and (pardon the pun) pride?
