VSA votes on clause against discrimination

At the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meeting on Nov. 27, Vice President for Operations Jenna Konstantine '13 presented a revised, much-expanded non-discrimination clause for the VSA Constitution. The Council will vote on the new language at its next meeting on Dec. 4.

According to both Konstantine and VSA President Tanay Tatum '12, the impetus for the revision came from a spate of discriminatory incidents this semester. "A lot of students have been worried, and administrators," said Tatum. "[The Campus Life Response Team] has already convened more than they did last school year and it's only first semester."

The current non-discrimination language in the VSA Constitution is very brief, especially compared to the revision. Article XII states, "The VSA shall not discriminate, nor by its actions encourage discrimination, based on race, color, religious belief, sex, marital status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability, veteran status, or age."

Said Konstantine of the clause, "It basically says that we don't discriminate against anything, but it doesn't define what any of that means, isn't that inclusive in language, doesn't include harassment. It's just kind of a throwaway clause it seems, so we decided in light of this it would be a relevant and necessary step to reexamine and redefine what the VSA says about non-discrimination."

The revised language significantly expands on the idea of non-discrimination and takes greater pains to define terms. Konstantine, along with other members of the VSA's Operations and Student Life committees, looked to the College's own regulations for guidance at the suggestion of President of the College Catharine Bond Hill. The addition closely mirrors the non-discrimination policy to which the College holds students accountable, but tweaks the language to be VSA-specific and to comply with the recent update of Title IX. (See "Vassar addresses Title IX with working group," on page 1). According to Vice President for Student Life Charles Dobb '12, the clause complies with an updated version of college regulations still pending the approval of the Committee on College Life at the time of print.

The revised Article XII contains two sections. The first generally defines the VSA's policy to not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the basis of a greatly expanded list of identities. The second section defines the terms discrimination and harassment.

 Specifically, the VSA is concerned with holding student organizations and students acting in the capacity of organization leaders accountable, because all VSA organizations are answerable to the VSA. Detailed language on what constitutes discrimination provides the Council a constitutional basis on which to respond to incidents with such measures as a censure, impeachment or other action depending on the severity and context of the situation.

"Something that we realized with the Serenading incident earlier this semester is that we really didn't have any language in our constitution to address it," said Tatum. "There was still nothing explicitly saying we do not tolerate these kinds of incidents, so by having something explicit, it allows us to justify actions."

Associate Dean of the College and Director of Equal Opportunity Belinda Guthrie added that there is a legal basis for having a more specific non-discrimination clause. According to Guthrie, private institutions like the VSA and recognized student organizations are still subject to federal and state non-discrimination statutes. She added that the parallel between College and VSA policy could also have the benefit of consistency in both interpretation and implementation.

The new clause is expected to pass at the Council's next meeting.