Zeppos’ memo said the town hall meeting will “provide an opportunity for the intelligent, dedicated and compassionate members of the Vanderbilt community to make themselves heard, and we want to emphasize that all views are welcome.”

Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos sent an email Friday assuring students and others the school doesn’t want to limit religious freedom.

But at least one campus Christian group claims that’s exactly what Vanderbilt’s nondiscrimination policy does, and its leader said the group will move off campus at the end of the semester.

Vanderbilt’s policy drew national attention last fall, when it came to light that a gay student was dismissed from Beta Upsilon Chi, a Christian fraternity. Vanderbilt deferred the fraternity’s registration as a student group and gave about a dozen other campus groups provisional status until they submitted new constitutions that complied with the policy.

Carol Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University and adviser to the Vanderbilt chapter of the Christian Legal Society, said her group will leave campus rather than rewrite its constitution. The group’s national office sent a letter dated Dec. 5 to Zeppos and members of the Board of Trust outlining a case for why the
Christian Legal Society should keep its campus affiliation, she said, and it went unanswered.

She said other groups may have to leave, too, and the school’s diversity will take a hit if traditional religious groups are excluded from campus.

(Editor’s Note: The PCA Reformed University Fellowship Campus Pastor, Stacy Croft, advises The Aquila Report that the Vanderbilt RUF Chapter will remain on campus.)

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