Camille Pfister, Editor in Chief
Correction: The previous event held by Rose Mary Drake and future events scheduled are located at St. Mark’s Community Center on 481 Alabama Avenue, not St. Mark and St. Paul Church. The Purple apologizes for this error.
A new University policy restricting political events and protests on campus has already had an impact, with a student political group being forced to cancel a scheduled talk by a Sewanee alumna running for the Tennessee House district that includes Sewanee and surrounding Marion and Franklin County.
The policy was instituted over the summer, in the wake of spring student protests at All Saints’ Chapel demanding divestiture of the University’s endowments in companies supplying war materiel to Israel and the war in Gaza. Rose Mary Drake (C’ 80) who is running for Tennessee House District 39, told the Purple that she had hoped to speak to the Sewanee Democrats Society’s presidential debate watch party. But on the eve of the event, Provost Scott Wilson informed the Sewanee Democrats Society as well as Drake that according to the policy, she wouldn’t be allowed to speak.
“The night before the debate watch party, I got another text from Helen Stapleton [the faculty advisor for the Sewanee Democrats Society],” Drake said. “It said, ‘I sent you an email, you need to look at it.’ It was an email I had been forwarded that had been sent to her from Scott Wilson that basically said I couldn’t participate except being there.”
Rose Mary Drake (C’ 80), Tennessee House candidate for District 39.
Universities must balance their mission of cultivating students’ learning and growth against legal restrictions prohibiting tax-exempt institutions from “the use of its facilities, services or personnel to promote or support individuals or organizations campaigning for public office.” This is explained in Sewanee’s new University Political Activity Guide, which was sent to students after the abrupt change to the event planned by the Sewanee Democrats Society.
On September 10, students, staff, faculty, and community members of Sewanee gathered in two locations to watch the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. One location was the Mary Sue Cushman Room in the Wick. This event was put on by the Office of Civic Engagement, Sewanee Votes, and Dialogue Across Difference. The second event was held in Biehl Commons and was hosted by the Sewanee Democrats Society.
Drake said she originally planned for the student Democrat’s club to watch the debate with her at St. Mark’s Community Center where she held a Democratic National Convention watch party in August. But that was before the students returned. “When the students got back, I immediately got in touch with [Abduldayam Maflahi (C’ 26)], the president of the Sewanee Democrats Society, and met with him at McClurg,” Drake said. “I invited them to St. Mark’s and the plan was that they were going to come down and Abdul was going to make flyers that would go out all over campus. But during that week, unbeknownst to me, [the organization] had internal discussions and students were not wanting to go to St. Mark’s. They decided they wanted to do it at Biehl Commons.”
While Sewanee can all feel like one big campus, there are spaces that the University owns, and spaces that the University doesn’t own. If the University doesn’t own a space, it is not bound by the Political Activity Guidelines, however the University owns most of the buildings on campus— specifically central campus, where students can easily reach on foot.
“Apparently, according to their policy, if you’re on campus, it’s a University event, and that puts the University at risk of losing their tax exempt status and their federal funds for financial aid,” Drake said.
Drake reached out to Vice Chancellor Rob Pearigen with her concerns about students’ rights to political activism, and he responded in an email: “We at Sewanee encourage our students to be engaged citizens, and we have several current initiatives aimed at encouraging voter registration and voting. I hope you understand our position and that you enjoy being with our students tonight without turning it into a campaign event.”
Sewanee Votes, which helped host the debate watch party at the Wick, is part of the University’s efforts to encourage students to register to vote and cast ballots in the upcoming November election.
“We are just an open resource for people to come to if they want to register to vote, but we did get a lot of engagement from people who wanted to help other people register to vote,” said Jenna Miller (C’25), a student member of Sewanee Votes.
Sewanee Votes regularly sets up “tabling times” to offer registration advice and other resources in duPont library and other locations. “People know they can come and get whatever help they need,” said Annalise Eiffert, another student member of Sewanee Votes, (C’ 25).
As the election gets closer, more tabling events and election events in general will continue to happen. Drake said she has booked St. Mark’s for three more events: an October 15 kick off for early voting, a Jimmy Carter celebration, and an election night watch gathering. On September 17, National Constitution Day, Sewanee Votes and the library had a table together in duPont with pocket Constitutions and information on registration and absentee ballots.
“I think it goes hand in hand with voter registration,” Eiffert said. “I think events like this help people get excited.”
Drake told The Purple that she is still trying to reach out to students and the community. Her campaign is hiring two field organizers. “One for Marion County and one for Franklin County,” she said. “It would be part time, temporary positions, through the election.”
The students are an important part of Drake’s campaign and she wants to reach them however she can. She has reserved the Sewanee Community Center behind Sewanee Market every Thursday night. “We’ll do open office time from 6:30-8 every Thursday night until election night,” Drake said.
Drake said she will make do but is concerned at how difficult the University’s new policy will make it for students to meet with elected representatives or campaigns – something that’s already hard enough because of Sewanee’s relative isolation.
“If I were a student, I would be really upset about this policy,” Drake said. “Now and in the rest of your life, what your elected officials do matters.”