Summer Archives

Sebastian Rogers Nashville, TN - Organized and United for Respect - OUR Vanderbilt

This summer I worked with Organized and United for Respect at Vanderbilt, a community union that is trying to institutionalize support for Vanderbilt workers by promoting economic and social justice for all workers at Vanderbilt and by developing leaders among workers who will continue to organize their coworkers. With the help of the Ingram Scholarship Summer Project grant I was able to stay in Nashville over the summer and produce multiple promotional videos for OUR Vanderbilt to spread our message and gain support among the community. I also spent the summer developing relationships with workers on campus by meeting and talking with them on a regular basis as well as interviewing workers in depth for some of the videos. The summer brought me closer to the wonderful community that makes Vanderbilt University the incredible university that it is. I was blessed to meet and work with such inspiring every day. Vanderbilt is an amazing place to work, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes a true leader for workers’ rights. There are almost 200 workers at Vanderbilt who still live below the federal poverty line. If one of the richest and best universities in the country cannot address this problem, then who can? We are Vanderbilt.