Presidents Day celebrates leaders

Presidents Day originated as a holiday to celebrate George Washington, the father of our country who bravely fought a monarchy during our nation's founding. Nearly 50 years ago, the holiday was moved to Monday and expanded to celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, a President who, although imperfect, signed the Emancipation Proclamation recognizing the inherent right of all people to self determination.

Today, Presidents Day, we ask Vanderbilt University to recognize the importance of academic freedom and freedom from sexual harassment by granting tenure to Professor BethAnn McLaughlin. Signed by over 4,000 people to date, our petition asks Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos (chancellor@vanderbilt.edu) to do the right thing. Doing the right thing is never easy. Sometimes it requires fighting the most powerful navy in the world and sometimes it requires defying the social, economic and political underpinnings of a crumbling nation. In this case, the right thing means holding the Faculty Executive Committee accountable for their original decision granting Professor McLaughlin tenure. 

The 2018 report on sexual harassment issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine calls upon institutions to show "moral courage" in putting the interests of targets of sexual harassment above their fear of liability. Vanderbilt University needs to show moral courage at this time, on this day, on Presidents Day. Vanderbilt University has the opportunity to be great, to lead, to advance the interests of women in academia and give hope to marginalized members of our community. One way or the other, history will remember this moment and will remember Vanderbilt. Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos himself determines whether history will judge Vanderbilt as representing the best of us or as just another shameful footnote.