Community

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Identity Centers and Initiatives

Identity Centers 

Vanderbilt's Identity Centers foster community, belonging, and personal growth. These centers provide students with a space to explore and express their identities, including race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious background, and more. 

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion endeavors to make Vanderbilt University an environment where equity, diversity, and inclusion are inseparable from institutional excellence and to model intentional practices that respect the humanity of all. This office promotes environments that are affirming, welcoming, equitable, inclusive, and diverse in order to foster a sense of belonging at Vanderbilt and beyond, with the goal of advancing human potential and growth. Identity Initiatives include support of groups such as first-generation scholars, Indigenous and Native scholars, Latinx scholars, low-income scholars, Asian American and Pacific Islander scholars, and scholars with who identity with visible and invisible disabilities.  


Residential Colleges

Residential colleges are a type of on-campus student residence in which the academic experience is integrated into residential life, creating communities and opportunities for learning outside the classroom among a diverse study body. Led by faculty heads who live in residence, Vanderbilt’s residential colleges create an intentional, mutually-beneficial educational experience for our students, faculty and staff, promoting the development of intellect, community, personal well-being, self-discovery, and cultural awareness. 


First-Year Experience

The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons 

The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons, often simply called “The Commons” for short, is comprised of 10 houses, each led by a faculty member. Your house will be your home away from home and provide endless opportunities for creating meaningful connections with other students, faculty, staff, and visiting scholars. Meet the residential faculty members (Faculty Head of House).

Vanderbilt Visions

Vanderbilt Visions is a mandatory program that creates the chance for groups of new students to discover college life together. All first-year students are automatically assigned to a Visions group, which will meet weekly. Led by both a faculty mentor and upper-division peer mentor (called a VUceptor), the discussion will help you transition to life at Vanderbilt, find community, and connect with campus resources.


Upper-Division

There are five residential colleges for upper-division students (sophomores, juniors, and seniors): E. Bronson Ingram College, Moore College, Nicholas S. Zeppos College, Rothschild College, and Warren College. Just as each first-year house on The Commons is led by a residential faculty member, the residential colleges for upper-division students each have their own live-in faculty member.  


Campus Community

Arts & Campus Events

Arts & Campus Events (ACE) supports the major arts and campus programming initiatives on Vanderbilt’s campus: Vanderbilt Programming Board, Vanderbilt Performing Arts Community, Sarratt Art Studios, Sarratt Gallery, and the Sarratt Youth Art Institute. The mission of ACE is to facilitate and promote diverse programming for the Vanderbilt and Nashville community that cultivates social engagement, cultural enrichment, artistic exploration, and intellectual growth. 

Athletics

Competing at the NCAA Division I level, Vanderbilt University is a member of the Southeastern Conference. You can purchase tickets and view schedules online. 

Intramural Sports

The Rec’s Intramural Sports program is an opportunity to play sports, build friendships, improve health, relieve stress, develop skills, and have fun! With a variety of team sports and tournaments offered throughout the year, come out and join an IM team today.

Greek Life

Membership in the Greek community provides students the opportunity to be part of a campus tradition dating back to Vanderbilt’s founding. The roughly thirty Greek organizations are rooted in founding principles that foster academic achievement, student involvement, service within the community, and lifelong friendships. 

Student Organizations

Vanderbilt has over 500 opportunities to help you connect with our community, from organizations focused on service, culture, arts, and religion, to groups for sports, Greek life, student government, and other special interests. Explore our organization directory on Anchor Link to find the group(s) for you.