Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt has been getting a lot of attention lately, both for its role in being Nashville’s private university and now that ts football team is no longer the cellar of the SEC. It’s been a school I have followed for my whole life as my dad went to Vanderbilt Law School.

Also, I got time with Sam Hirt before he passed way. He was an icon in the field and when we held the NIRSA Conference in Nashville, he graciously spent 30 minutes with me just filling me with lessons learned over his 50-year career, adding to my fandom of the Commodores.

Which makes it harder for me to say that looking at how Vanderbilt places recreation in context to Athletics and to student wellbeing, the university misses the mark in how it can support the mental and physical wellbeing of students.

Vanderbilt is one of the few Power-Four schools that places their Recreation program under Athletics. And like those other Power-4 schools, it is buried. In this case though, it also seems buried at the university.

A caveat, it appears that Vanderbilt is launching/has launched a new site. I’ve never seen a collegiate recreation home page with the simplicity of Vanderbilt’s. When I reviewed it, the home page was a simple inviting note from the Director, Kenny Moore. There were no pictures at all, nada. On any of the website. I am super perplexed (and a bit intrigued) by what is going on here. You can see in the gallery what I mean.

On the Athletic department site, the recreation website is listed two levels down. It is under About and then under “This is Vanderbilt”, which includes topics like “Songs of Vanderbilt” and the EADA (Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act”. It is unrelated to anything else in the section and once again, buried…deeply.

I was hopeful that the main university website would recognize the value the exercise helps in the wellbeing and belonging work, but it seems buried there too.

Rec is not listed under Student Affairs in Student Engagement and Belonging…it is listed under Well-being and Safety. Such a fascinating set of descriptors here. Of course, I would love to see Recreation listed with engagement and belonging – it is I am sure one of the most tapped resources on campus for those two outcomes.

The university does have a Health, Wellbeing, and Belonging. I thought for sure that the recreation program would get a shout-out here, or a link, or something calling it on the main page. Nope. Nothing.There is one small link listed under resources for Physical Wellness. But this misses the point. There is no link in the mental/emotional section about benefits of exercise to our mental health or any mention in the belonging and community section to the aspects developed in playing together in building community. I mean, we have known for decades now about the benefit of exercise on issues like anxiety, depression and mood. There is no excuse for not championing exercise as part of the solution.

So, we are left to dig into the section on Health and Safety section under Campus Life. In some ways it is super cool that they link those two – Health and Safety and Physical and Mental Health – Vandy says that their Campus Safety does “VandyRide, a complimentary, campuswide shuttle service, and VandySafe, a free app that connects students to the VUPD via their cellphones.” And if you are not safe you can’t be well. So I see that connection. But it still feels forced to me. And I still understand the logic.

Alas, as of the date this was published, the link to the Rec Center from the Health and Safety page had not been updated to their new link. If you look at the website address (in the gallery for posterity) it is an old one linked to covid-19; this speaks to the lack of alignment. I think your website reflects how the university works. And in this case, it seems that the rec center is an afterthought for both areas – athletics and student affairs.

Back to the unique link between health and safety. It begs the question, why don’t they have the same sort of strong, visible link for recreation through their athletic website, or on their direct student affairs website? They can clearly think out-of-the-box, and it would be great to see them do that in more ways so that the culture more visibly supports the role that exercise has as medicine and as an incredibly conduit for belonging and school pride.

Darn. That is my overall reaction to the Vanderbilt websites’ promotion of wellbeing and health and the relationship to exercise. I’m still a fan of the school, and clearly this is just one lens of the way they do promotions and how they champion the student experience. But it is yet another missed opportunity at a big, high-profile school to help their students understand that movement is perhaps the most cost- and time-effective way to help them succeed as students. And finally, to the genesis of this analysis, Vanderbilt’s placement of recreation under Athletics is not helping. It is time to get the big NCAA schools to change that approach – either move them to another department or do like Claremont or Colgate does, and actually give it some love and elevation.

--

In the overall ranking I’d place the placement of Rec in regard to athletics in 7th out of 8. In terms of the university capitalizing on recreation as a tool to solve the health problems on campus, I’d also place them 7th out of 8.

If one were to rank how the websites are placing Campus Recreation in regards to Athletic and Health and Wellbeing -- here is where things stand:

1. Claremont McKenna

2. Colgate

3. Oakland

4. Boston College

5. St Thomas

6. Penn

7. Vanderbilt

8. New Mexico