Sadly, the AU General Assembly's poor, misinformed decision concerning the debate over what should replace Auntie Anne's represents not only the will of a significant portion of AU's student body, but also how much it knows or cares about the issue at hand. In deciding to recommend a food vendor instead of a coffee vendor, and supporting Starbucks in the inevitable case that the administration scoffs at its request, the GA demonstrated the ignorance, arrogance and small-mindedness that abound on this campus. By continuing to insist that the administration replace Auntie Anne's with a food vendor, the GA revealed how uninformed and unaware it is. The decision to bring a coffee vendor to campus was made at the beginning of the fall 2004 semester, and it is pure hubris for the GA to think that, should it pass a resolution, the administration will forgo the months of work it has put into the decision and begin an entire new process of deciding what food vendor to bring to campus. That would likely take another six months to decide, especially considering the fact that it hopes to have the new location open at the beginning of the fall 2005 semester. Likewise, much of the student population is equally unaware of the debate that has been going on for more than six months, but does the GA need to mimic the student body's lack of knowledge concerning this situation? In its decision to support a Starbucks on campus, the GA has demonstrated its disregard for both our campus's reputation of social responsibility and the broader impact of this decision. AU has made a lot of progress in recent years to make our campus a more socially responsible one. Our campus store only sells sweatshop-free apparel, and Bon Appetit has many admirable business practices that make it a huge improvement over the company it replaced. While Starbucks is taking significant steps in being a more socially responsible company, it cannot hold a candle to the 100 percent fair-trade, nonprofit option that we have with Pura Vida. By choosing Pura Vida, AU has the chance to not only demonstrate its continued commitment to social responsibility, but to make an impact in the developing world. However, by choosing to support Starbucks, the GA has shown that it would prefer to have AU be the 49th Starbucks location in D.C. rather than make a statement about what our University stands for. Not all students support Pura Vida, but those who do have done an admirable job at demonstrating their support and expressing their arguments to the administration in an intelligent, mature and academically rigorous way. There is a valid argument in support of Starbucks, but as of yet, no smart, young neo-liberal has had the courage to stand up and argue it. Instead, the only support for Starbucks has been expressed from students and GA members who would prefer to have a familiar brand name on their morning latt? than have a positive impact on our campus and in the developing world.
Zach Baxter is a sophomore in the School of International Service and School of Pubic Affairs.
