As Vanderbilt's Ninth Chancellor, Daniel Diermeier started his inaugural Founder's Walk speech, student activists wearing orange beanies and carrying big white posters with big red letters began protesting silently behind him.

And then, from behind the trees, emerged a giant pink unicorn.

For many new students, this marked the beginning of a year-long movement to encourage the university to stop investing in fossil fuel companies.

In the first episode of our three-part series on divestment, we will talk to the students at the heart of these organizations to understand what they want, why this issue matters, and the challenges they currently face.

This episode was reported by Abhinav Krishnan, Trent Griffith, and Nandika Chirala. Abhinav Krishnan is also our Host and Executive Producer. Brynn Jones is our Audio Producer, Cara Kim is our Audience Engagement Manager, and Emery Little designed our logo.

All of the music in this episode was produced by Brynn Jones or sampled from Goldfinch by Axletree under a Creative Commons License

Thanks to Miguel Moravec, Emily Irigoyen, and Hannah Bruns for sharing their stories.

Thanks also to the Vanderbilt Communications Department, the Office of Investments and the Office of the Chancellor for answering our questions.

Special thanks to Atman Mehta at the Chicago Maroon for helping us navigate the SEC’s Edgar database and Mike Vasquez at the Chronicle of Higher Education for helping us focus our reporting. Additional thanks to Jessica Barker, Juliana Kim, and Samantha Max for reviewing our script.

College Voices is celebrating Valentine's Day by highlighting your love stories!

Join us as we ask students about how they met their significant other, the importance of self-love, and what they miss most about their mom.

This episode was researched and reported by Nandika Chirala. Blair McDonald is the Managing Producer and Abhinav Krishnan is the Host and Executive Producer. Our Audio Producer is Brynn Jones, Cara Kim is our audience engagement manager, and our logo was designed by Emery Little.

All of the music in this episode was produced by Axletree and used under a Creative Commons License.

In 2010, a series of allegations about discrimination prompted Vanderbilt to reevaluate its nondiscrimination policy.

The all-comers policy that emerged from this controversy supposedly levels the playing field by making any student that is interested in a student organization eligible for membership and leadership positions. But there are some notable discrepancies.

But in reality, Vanderbilt’s non-discrimination policy does not apply to some student organizations. And this raises a lot of questions. Like how did allegations of discrimination from 2010 affect our current non-discrimination policies? Why can some organizations discriminate against members on the basis of sex? And when student organizations created to support marginalized groups are open to all students, what does this mean for their safe spaces?

In this episode, we explore how students on campus are able to express themselves while respecting Vanderbilt’s policies.

This episode was researched and reported by Blair McDonald. Blair McDonald is also our Managing Producer and Abhinav Krishnan is our Executive Producer. Our Audio Producer is Brynn Jones, Cara Kim is our audience engagement manager, and our logo was designed by Emery Little.

All of the music in this episode was produced by Axletree and used under a Creative Commons License.