‘The purpose of the university is to encourage debate, not settle it,’ Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said during a panel discussion.
A pro-Palestinian student group at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee demanded that the school denounce, divest from, and cut any connections to Israel in December—to which Chancellor Daniel Diermeier promptly responded, “No.”
“I sent a letter that those demands are inconsistent with institutional neutrality,” Diermeier said, as he recalled during an Oct. 22 panel discussion assembled by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni in Washington.
Several weeks later, 27 students stormed the front entrance of the administration building, injuring a security guard. They went upstairs and attempted to enter Diermeier’s office, only to find the door locked. So they sat down in the hallways and refused to leave. Then they asked for food and access to nearby restrooms, which were…
