Progressive checklist: year in review
Issue date: 4/15/09 Section: News/Features
At the beginning of this year, we published a progressive wish list. It included several changes we wanted to see on campus, including divestment from Sudan, a revived living wage movement, and increased recycling facilities. While we didn’t get many of the things we wanted, we saw many indications that Vanderbilt is continually moving in the right direction.
Expanded financial aid
Zeppos announced the newly expanded financial aid initiative called “Shape the Future,” which aims to eliminate unsubsidized student loans, right before the bottom fell out of the economy. Despite budget cuts, the administration seems committed to raising money for the financial aid fund, having already raised $1.6 billion towards the $1.75 billion dollar goal.
Revived living wage
While the Living Wage movement seems to have lost a lot of the momentum it had going into the union negotiations of 2007, they have become substantially more organized with their latest campaign against wage cuts. A press conference to kick off the campaign was fairly savvy, embracing the language used by the administration itself to communicate the importance of community solidarity in hard economic times. The group’s willingness to engage the administration politely, has been a more effective strategy when trying to bargain from a position of little power. Finally, the administration’s willingness to work with the group represents a substantial shift from past experiences, when LIVE was unable to work with the administration.
Increased student political engagement
The biggest progressive victory of the year was, naturally, the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Polls showed that a majority of Vanderbilt students actually supported Obama’s campaign - which is fairly surprising, on a campus as right-leaning as ours supposedly is. Furthermore, we saw many students mobilized and excited about the election on all sides of the political spectrum, which can only be a good thing on a campus that is generally politically apathetic.
Revised sexual misconduct policy
At the beginning of the year, a special panel released a revised student conduct policy relating to sexual misconduct. These changes clarified many of the issues surrounding sexual assault and consent. We hope that this policy will make it easier for students to obtain justice through student conduct.
Things we’re still waiting on:
Holiday for MLK day of service
Divestment from Sudan
Glass recycling drop-off point
Expanded financial aid
Zeppos announced the newly expanded financial aid initiative called “Shape the Future,” which aims to eliminate unsubsidized student loans, right before the bottom fell out of the economy. Despite budget cuts, the administration seems committed to raising money for the financial aid fund, having already raised $1.6 billion towards the $1.75 billion dollar goal.
Revived living wage
While the Living Wage movement seems to have lost a lot of the momentum it had going into the union negotiations of 2007, they have become substantially more organized with their latest campaign against wage cuts. A press conference to kick off the campaign was fairly savvy, embracing the language used by the administration itself to communicate the importance of community solidarity in hard economic times. The group’s willingness to engage the administration politely, has been a more effective strategy when trying to bargain from a position of little power. Finally, the administration’s willingness to work with the group represents a substantial shift from past experiences, when LIVE was unable to work with the administration.
Increased student political engagement
The biggest progressive victory of the year was, naturally, the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Polls showed that a majority of Vanderbilt students actually supported Obama’s campaign - which is fairly surprising, on a campus as right-leaning as ours supposedly is. Furthermore, we saw many students mobilized and excited about the election on all sides of the political spectrum, which can only be a good thing on a campus that is generally politically apathetic.
Revised sexual misconduct policy
At the beginning of the year, a special panel released a revised student conduct policy relating to sexual misconduct. These changes clarified many of the issues surrounding sexual assault and consent. We hope that this policy will make it easier for students to obtain justice through student conduct.
Things we’re still waiting on:
Holiday for MLK day of service
Divestment from Sudan
Glass recycling drop-off point
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