Carol Swain

Vanderbilt's recent run of misfortune has included the deaths of several current and former students.

There may be a spiritual connection between these incidents and Vanderbilt's hostility toward orthodox Christians.

Vanderbilt's policies deprive its campus of the vibrant Christian influence that once existed here.

I am often asked what it’s like to be a high-profile, black, conservative woman on the Vanderbilt University campus. At times it is challenging, but I am encouraged by the support I have received from students, faculty and administrators since returning from my sabbatical. In case you missed the hoopla, I was almost run off campus in 2015 by student protesters and petitions denouncing me for bigotry and hatred. All this was because of an opinion piece I wrote for The Tennessean about the Islamic faith and the need for Muslims to fully integrate themselves into our society. I became the target of harassment and a petition demanding I be suspended until I submitted to mandatory sensitivity training. That’s a rather odd request of a first-generation college graduate and a person of color who grew up in poverty, attained tenured positions at Princeton and Vanderbilt and had her research cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. My Christian faith, not my race and gender, shapes the perspective I now share with you about Vanderbilt, where I have taught for 16 years.

Vanderbilt excels in many ways, but in other areas, such as religious freedom and free speech, its policies have made it difficult for some students to thrive spiritually and mentally. Start with a series of untimely deaths that secular-minded people will dismiss as coincidental. In 2016 one current student (Taylor Force) and two former students (Justin and Stephanie Shults) have been killed in separate terrorist attacks. Force died March 8 during a school trip to Israel. Two weeks later, the Shultses died in the Brussels airport bombing.

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Those deaths must defy actuarial tables for one university, which happens to be in denial about the threat of radical Islam. In April, two undergraduate students were found dead in their respective dorm rooms. We grieve their deaths and pray for their parents and loved ones. We also wonder if more could have been done for them. In a recent Tennessean cover story , Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos touched on the deaths, saying, “It’s one of those things where the loss is so heavy. For me as a chancellor to lose a child — it’s really the worst thing to happen.”

There’s more. Going back a year or two, the university has been embroiled in a rape case involving Vanderbilt football players. There’s even the quirky: Last year a tree inexplicably fell on a group of prospective students and their parents touring the campus, injuring 10. It was not a windy day, and it happened right outside the admissions office.

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Vanderbilt’s run of misfortune includes problems at its medical school and affiliated hospital, as well as an embezzlement case at the law school. Non-Christians will scoff at the possibility of a spiritual connection between these series of unfortunate incidents and Vanderbilt University’s hostility toward orthodox Christians, as evidenced by its 2011 adoption of a “non-discrimination” policy that has resulted in 14 Christian groups losing their recognition as student groups.

At Vanderbilt there apparently is “bad” spirituality (orthodox Christianity) and “good” spirituality (Wicca, Buddhism and Islam). Case in point: Vanderbilt’s embrace of Wicca in August 2011 came several months after imposing its discriminatory policy toward Christian groups. Is there a spiritual connection between Vanderbilt’s treatment of Christian groups and the tragedies? We will never know. Still, I would like to see Vanderbilt reconsider policies that deprive its campus of the vibrant Christian influence that once existed here. Darkness flourishes where there is no light.

Carol M. Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, is the creator and host of Be the People TV. Learn more at http://bethepeopletv.com and www.carolmswain.net.