Derecognition

Campus Ministry at Vanderbilt: Seven Years After Derecognition

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 14:41:45 +0000

Gordon Govier

Campus Ministry at Vanderbilt: Seven Years After Derecognition

Seven years have passed since ��ñ�� chapters were among almost a dozen campus ministries that were derecognized by Vanderbilt University. Students who are graduating this spring have no memory of what it was like before derecognition, and yet ��ñ�� staff at Vanderbilt report their work continues with both challenges and successes.

When ��ñ�� chapters are derecognized—kicked off campus is another way of describing it—the chapters don’t disappear. Chapter leaders adjust to operating without the official stamp of approval and the benefits that official recognition provides, and stay the course with Bible studies, prayer meetings, and evangelistic outreaches.

Derecognition has most typically affected ��ñ�� when colleges and universities institute nondiscrimination policies mandating that membership, or more specifically leadership, in recognized student organizations must be open to all students regardless of religious belief. ��ñ�� welcomes all students into chapter activities but believes leadership should be reserved for students with demonstrated leadership qualities, including adherence to traditional Christian doctrines and standards of morality.

“God is still at work, even if the situation is not ideal,” said Rachel Harmon, an ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister with Greek students at Vanderbilt, and a recently launched Black Campus Ministries chapter. Colin Fagan, who works with graduate students, agreed. “The many frustrations with regard to the policy change I would say are minor grievances,” he noted. “It’s nothing that would be a significant hindrance to our ability to do ministry.”

One of the main reasons that campus ministry continues at Vanderbilt—despite the derecognitions—is that the Office of Religious Life kept the door open to all groups without regard to status. “We told the Christian derecognized groups, ‘We’re here to help you. We’re sympathetic and we want you to succeed,’” said Mark Forrester, who directed the office as chaplain for six years, and served as the Methodist chaplain for 18 years before that. He left his job at Vanderbilt late in 2018.

Mark said that the office realized that a fair assessment of most of the derecognized groups showed that they had been good citizens on campus; they had not violated past policy. “We didn’t want them to go away,” he said. “They were still serving the significant need of a wide range of students.”

The derecognition was difficult, but Mark maintains that religious life on campus is vibrant. “There is a significant presence of religious devotion, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and otherwise,” he said. He supports Vanderbilt’s nondiscrimination policy, which was behind the derecognition, but doesn’t like the way it was implemented. He said his office was not consulted on the policy change; it looked to him like the university administration viewed religious life as more of a liability than a gift to be cultivated.

Kristen Wilkinson, who works with the Asian American Christian Fellowship (AACF), ��ñ��’s largest chapter at Vanderbilt, says students who are now far removed from the original derecognition decision are sometimes confused over the current situation, particularly when the rules change, such as room reservation requirements sometimes do. The AACF chapter hosts small group Bible studies and has a regular large group meeting.

“I see the campus status affecting them in more subtle ways,” Kristen said. Their unrecognized status “feels like confirmation of a common issue of Asian American voices being stifled and their needs not being taken seriously.”

Rachel came to Vanderbilt four years ago with the goal of planting a chapter for Greek students. Fifty percent of Vanderbilt undergrads are involved with a fraternity or a sorority. However, as some of the Black students she was working with discovered the broad scope of ��ñ��’s campus ministry, they told her, “We love being Greek, but the huge need at Vanderbilt right now is something reaching Black students.”

So after a semester of Bible studies and other preparatory steps, a launch night for a Collegiate Black Christian (CBC) chapter was held on campus last spring. The room filled up and then there was a line out the door. The chapter got off to a strong start.

The CBC chapter continues to grow, without official recognition. Specifically, that means they are allowed to reserve rooms and meet on campus. However they have to wait until all of the recognized student groups have made their room reservations and then pick from what’s left. They cannot use Vanderbilt’s name in the name of their chapter. They cannot participate in student organization fairs or apply for funding. And they cannot co-sponsor an event with a recognized student organization.

So, for example, when Veritas Forum, an organization that sponsors campus dialogues exploring truth and other philosophical issues, brings an event to Vanderbilt, all of the cooperative support from ��ñ�� chapters is unrecognized. Only officially recognized campus groups are listed in the program.

“We have to be careful how we market that,” Colin said about ��ñ��’s involvement. “Some of the boundaries are clear, others are not so clear. Navigating the grey space can sometimes be tricky.”

��ñ��’s grad chapter at Vanderbilt is currently in a rebuilding stage and Colin said it would have been helpful to have access to a student organization fair. Rich Zeigler, another ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister who works with international students agreed. “The main thing that has changed is our ability to go to the Religious Life Fair and meet students who may be looking for a Christian group on campus,” he said.

Colin said ��ñ�� staff have countered that situation by partnering more robustly with local church communities. Students inviting other students to get involved, either personally or through social media, has also been effective. And grad students appreciate the opportunity to meet off campus, since they spend so much time on campus. “When it comes to an opportunity to do something off campus, they’re like, ‘Yes, please, let’s be away from here for some period of time for our own sanity,’” Colin said.

Brian Pugh, another ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister who works with medical school students, also meets more frequently off-campus than on-campus with his students. “The only annoying thing about the policy is the advertising prohibition,” he said. But once he has student email addresses, it’s easy to stay in contact.

All in all, ��ñ�� has seven chapters which continue to meet at Vanderbilt, including a faculty chapter. Don Paul Gross, a Regional Director for ��ñ��’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries, who lives in Nashville, said, “God is not limited, and we see him continue to work at Vanderbilt.”

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CSU Derecognition – The First Month

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 18:33:58 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

CSU Derecognition – The First Month

New Student Outreach (NSO) season at the beginning of the school year is always busy, but for ��ñ�� staff and student leaders on California State University (CSU) campuses, NSO was crazy busy this year. CSU derecognized many chapters because ��ñ��’s leadership selection process requires that their chapters be led by Christians, which violates CSU’s new non-discrimination policy.

So our chapters on most of the CSU campuses continue to operate but without the ability to participate in student organization fairs and enjoy the other perks of official recognition, such as free use of on-campus meeting spaces. CSU chapter life has gotten more creative but also more expensive.

Creatively, the use of backpack banners has become a new way to contact students and tell them about ��ñ��. A photo of Sonoma State students wearing backpack banners (above) taken by Jenny Klouse and posted on Facebook was shared on the ��ñ�� webpage and then picked up by a number of news outlets.

Even though CSU has so far been unyielding on the new policy in spite of widespread criticism (more on that later), and some chapters need outside financial assistance to cover the cost of room rental, campus ministry continues. Some of our staff have had positive experiences with campus officials and we have already seen great responses from students to the gospel message this year.

A Warm Campus Welcome

Gent Grush at CSU-Los Angeles dropped off a student on campus with banner backpacks, flyers, and contact cards, and went to park. “Upon my return I discovered we had already been asked for papers for our group’s presence on campus. We had none. I thought we were busted,” he said. “I began to talk with the woman asking for papers and introduced myself when she responded, ‘Oh you’re Gent!’ And then she gave me a huge hug.”

It turns out that this was the person that Gent hadbeen calling almost daily since early August to secure rooms and promotion space on campus in the face of derecognition. “She immediately began to help us know what we can and cannot do and extended much grace because of her understanding for our situation,” he said. “She personally walked me to the Public Affairs Office to help me apply as a non-profit group to promote on campus. She was a blessing, a person of peace in the midst of the changes on campus.”

On the way to the Public Affairs Office the pair stepped onto an elevator, that also happened to be occupied by the CSU-LA president, William Covino. “She introduced me to the president and shared with him that I represented ��ñ�� on campus,” Gent reported. “I shook his hand and he said thank you for serving our students.”

Students Respond to the Gospel Message

After all of that, the CSU-LA ��ñ�� students easily made contact with 25 new students in their first
hour and a half on campus as a non-profit group. The new contact methods seemed to work well on other campuses too; at California State University-Fullerton 338 students filled out contact cards.

As these new contacts attended Large Group meetings, many responded to the gospel. At Sonoma State, 27 students made first-time or adult decisions to follow Jesus the first week. The next week 15 more students came to faith in Christ at Sonoma.

Derecognition Derided

While campus ministry continues at the CSU schools, the CSU situation has received a lot of media attention, overwhelmingly in support of ��ñ��. The links to news stories and commentary on our CSU derecognition resource page expand on an almost daily basis; the much anticipated coverage by the Los Angeles Times gave a balanced treatment of the issue.

Here are quotes from some of the other coverage:

“The bigger, and ongoing, issue is the continual sanitization of unacceptable religious voices from universities. It’s ironic—those who champion nondiscrimination, in the name of nondiscrimination, are creating rules that push out those who “discriminate” based on biblical belief statements.”

- Ed Stetzer, The Exchange, a Christianity Today blog

“This is a group known for such high-pressure tactics such as inviting students to inductive Bible studies. Presuming one likes people who tend to be thoughtful, respectful, and service-oriented, these are about the least annoying evangelicals non-Christians are likely to meet. On the other hand, IVCF chapters want Christians to lead those Bible studies. The nerve. Seriously, anyone who cannot stomach these evangelicals needs to rethink that lip service about diversity and inclusion.”

- John Turner, The Anxious Bench, a Patheos blog

“’Derecognition’” might finally be the catalyst on our campuses to see the gospel run like wildfire.”

- Matt Reagan, Desiring God blog

“CSU has helped set off what is likely to be a chain reaction of embarrassing events destructive to free thought, free inquiry and free association at America’s colleges and universities.”

- Editorial, Orange County Register

“Attendance and membership should be open to all, but the basic tenets of a group’s existence are at risk to be altered if people with differing opinions are allowed to come in and assume leadership. The authentic character and values of these groups must be protected.”

- Editorial, Deseret News

“…the policy is a gratuitous insult, forcing groups to deny their core values and sign symbolic statements they don’t really believe. It’s a way for the university to pledge allegiance to diversity without embracing pluralism.”

- Virginia Postrel, Bloomberg View

“This policy guts the free association right that was enshrined in the First Amendment precisely to protect minority or unpopular views.”

- Harvey Silverglate, The Wall Street Journal

“The very existence of the religious organization is tied up in the selection of those who teach its message and practice its doctrines. Once the state begins interfering with those decisions, the ability to exercise one’s religious beliefs freely is fundamentally undermined.”

- Professor Stephen Bainbridg, UCLA School of Law

“This notable exception—that sororities and fraternities can discriminate on the basis of gender—is illustrative. The university seems to accept that the essence of a sorority and fraternity is gender, while refusing to recognize that the essence of a religious club is, well, religious belief. Just as a sorority required to admit men would no longer be a sorority, so a religious club run by non-believers would cease, by definition, to be itself.”

- Karen Swallow Prior, The Atlantic

“When colleges and universities enforce ‘inclusion’ by excluding some religious voices, they cripple the spirit of free inquiry and robust debate that should be at the heart of their mission. The ‘marketplace of ideas,’ it should be remembered, is not confined to the ‘marketplace of ideas we like.’”

- Charles Haynes, Senior Scholar at the First Amendment Center (in a widely syndicated column entitled “Welcome to College, Where Religious Freedom Goes to Die”)

“The ‘all comers’ logic tramples on these principles. It ignores a commonsense recognition that the university ought to be about inquiry, not orthodoxy. That is a loss for the university, and a loss for us all.”

- John Inazu, Library of Law and Liberty

While ��ñ�� was the first campus Christian group to be derecognized, other Christians groups such as Chi Alpha and Athletes in Action are also being derecognized. In addition, a grass roots student coalition called CSU Student Organizations for Free Association (CSU SOFA) has sprung up on two CSU campuses to seek an end to CSU Executive Order 1068. Please pray that sanity will prevail and that the CSU policy will be rescinded or changed to allow faith groups to choose leaders who hold to the group’s beliefs.

News Keywords

Derecognition

CSU

California State Universities