Now that I am not longer able to be silenced with the threat of job/organization termination, I would like to talk about the UTK Vice Chancellor for Student Life, Vincent Carilli, PhD. Over the past 7 months, Dr. Carilli has made me uncomfortable as a student leader and, even worse, has made me ashamed to represent the Department of Student Life at the University of Tennessee. I have had a handful of distinct interactions with Dr. Carilli since January: • • • • An SGA Senate Session Regarding the Traditionalist Workers Party 2 SGA Senate Sessions Regarding SPSF and SPAC Funding A one-on-one meeting in his office to discuss his motives in employing misogynistic language against another student leader An off-the-books, invite-only meeting at which my attendance was a fluke caused by an intra-SGA miscommunication. Each time that I have engaged in dialogue with Dr. Carilli, it seems that the quality of student life is not at the top of his priority list. When student leaders ask him for answers in difficult conversations, he reverts to talking about how hard his job is, how hard it was to say ‘no’ to the TWP, and how hard it is to explain comprehensive sexual education to parents and lawmakers. Further, he commonly weighs student well-being with dollar cost. Listening to the Vice Chancellor use his fear being personally sued as justification for a white supremacy group to use our campus to spread hate was, at the very least, degrading. When I look around the room and see that I am the only male of color in the lecture hall, when students of color stumble upon an ‘MLK Day Party’ at which fried chicken and Kool-Aid are served, when our white friends are being called “n*gger lovers” on Melrose Avenue, when my classmates are being assaulted on 17th Avenue for the way they dress, and when our brothers and sisters are being sexually assaulted on a cold night in November, I do not think that our main concern is the value of Dr. Carilli’s estate. No event price, price per student, or price per speaker outweighs our right to a safe, comfortable, and impartial education at the state’s flagship institution. When I approached Dr. Carilli about using the terms “bombastic,” “unbecoming,” and “irresponsible” to describe a female student, his first defense was ‘I have a wife and kids that I love dearly, I can’t be a misogynist’ (paraphrase). His second defense was him smiling and saying, ‘Ask any of the people I work with, they know I’m not a misogynist.’ When I presented him with the testimony of a student women’s group on the matter, he recommended that I speak to someone with a PhD on the history and use of the word “unbecoming” rather than students. Respectfully, I have no issue with trusting my classmates who experience cat-calling, unwanted sexual advances, and sexual assault on a daily basis at UT when it comes to the topic of misogyny, and neither should the head of Student Life. As a student leader, some the scariest interactions I’ve had with the Vice Chancellor have occurred during conversations about student organization funding. Dr. Carilli is our organizations’ last hope of maintaining funding, and he knows that. When asked the hard questions, he resorts to the ultimatum that he could just leave the fate of student funding up to the state legislature. This attitude creates a culture in which organizations cannot disagree with Dr. Carilli without fear of losing their funding. Even more dangerous, it creates an environment in which student leaders are forced to remain silent. Dr. Carilli is responsible for my resigning from the Student Government Association. He has proven to me, time-and -time again, that ideas contrary to the status-quo are not welcome in the Division of Student Life and, subsequently, neither am I. I will admit that many of the negative signals that I have received from Dr. Carilli came in the form of body language and tone of voice—things I cannot describe sufficiently on this medium. I was told by my organization that I had to choose between remaining allegiant to Vice Chancellor Carilli and my ability to engage in comprehensive, reformative, and transparent dialogue about the struggles faced by our student body. I hold no hate in my heart for the Student Government Association, its leaders, or its advisors. I am only disappointed in my team, my peers, and my friends for removing me, and any student that I represent, from the table. “If this is the hill you want to die on, Austin, so be it” will be my lasting memory of the time I spent in the Student Government Association. For the sake of continued transparency, AS