The Residence Hall Association voted 12-1 Sunday night to endorse the Pura Vida coffee company over Starbucks in the ongoing debate over ownership of a future on-campus coffee shop in the Mary Graydon Center.
After hearing from students representing the two companies, the RHA voted to determine which company it would endorse when it meets with Housing and Dining this afternoon. Joe Gallina, a former SC presidential candidate, argued in favor of Starbucks. Travis McArthur, a member of the Movement for Global Justice, argued for Pura Vida.
Not an 'evil giant company'
"Starbucks is deemed by some to be the 'evil giant company,' but it's not," Gallina said. "Starbucks is largely about corporate social responsibility."
Gallina said Starbucks has a socially responsible campaign in the works. Even though Starbucks does not sell 100 percent fair-trade coffee, he said, it does have programs to help teach farmers how to grow a better coffee bean. With a better product, this enables them to sell to a wider range of buyers and earn a decent profit, he said.
Starbucks contributes to other social causes, including building schools, health clinics and other infrastructure in coffee-growing communities, Gallina said. It also offers its employees stock options and gives them benefits, he said.
Gallina said having a Starbucks will help prospective students feel more comfortable by offering a brand name coffee that they know represents good quality.
"Prospective students come here. They want to see familiar places," he said.
What's in a name?
McArthur refuted Gallina's claims that AU students support a Starbucks based on name recognition.
"I think we're a different type of university," McArthur said. "I think the type of student we're drawing is more concerned with social responsibility."
McArthur said Pura Vida is 100 percent fair trade and ensures that money goes back to the communities where the coffee is grown. He also said the Movement for Global Justice collected more than 1,000 signatures and 600 signed letters from students saying that they supported Pura Vida because of its commitment to social responsibility.
"Starbucks just can't touch Pura Vida in social responsibility because Pura Vida is totally nonprofit," McArthur said.
Starbucks pitches its plan
The RHA vote followed a heated debate that erupted on Friday as students passionate about fair-trade practices clashed with Starbucks representatives at a meeting over the company's bid for the space in MGC currently occupied by Auntie Anne's pretzel company.
The Friday meeting was the second of two hosted by Housing and Dining and Bon Appetit concerning ownership of the proposed coffee shop. Earlier in the morning, Starbucks representatives met with administrators and select groups of students to discuss Starbucks' plans for a socially responsible coffee shop if accepted by the university.
John Engstrom, vice president of the East Coast for Bon Appetit, said he proposed the meeting so AU students could listen to Starbucks and consider the fact that Starbucks is offering the university a chance to build a model coffee shop for a huge company.
When students hear Starbucks' proposal they will be more informed and will have a better opportunity to decide what is fit for AU's campus, he said.
College campus values
"If this were a decision about money, we wouldn't be having this discussion," said Engstrom, pointing to the fact that Starbucks generates more revenue than Pura Vida. "But this campus is more than just a business decision on retail. This is an opportunity for students to engage in a discussion that will define American."
Administrators and students need to make decisions based on their core values, but the university can do that with either company, he said.
A representative from Starbucks said the company understands the values of college campuses.
"I recognize that college campuses are a different kind of community," said Steve Schickler, president of Seattle Coffee Company for Starbucks. "I want to create a team, kind of a company within a company, to address these concerns."
Schickler said that if accepted by AU, Starbucks would form a new "socially responsible" model for the company, which can be applied to other college campuses.
"If we don't get it here, we'll do it somewhere else," said Schickler. "But I think it will sell better at AU, as opposed to another university where student activism and the sense of social responsibility is not as strong."
Starbucks' plans would include offering two regular coffee brews and one decaffeinated brew daily, said Sandra Taylor, Starbucks' senior vice president of corporate social responsibility. At least one of these coffees would be Fair Trade Certified and would be available all the time, she said.
Because Americans generally don't buy something unless they can associate it with a well-known brand name, Taylor said, Starbucks will create a Fair Trade Certified coffee known as Caf? Esteema, which would be offered at AU. There would also be four other options for fair trade coffee, she said.
"Socially responsible" or "lip service?"
Some students support Starbucks' plan to offer some fair trade coffee.
"I personally think Starbucks is leading an excellent campaign and has a lot of initiative in enacting socially responsible practices," said Grant Helms, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs. "I think it's a large company with enough resources to help the coffee foundation and farmers. Starbucks is really superior quality."
But some students voiced dissatisfaction with Starbucks' campaign and questioned why the university doesn't just choose Pura Vida, a nonprofit fair trade company.
"I feel they were just giving us lip service, just to satisfy us," said AU student Patrick Arnold. "They just want to stop the criticism."
Brian Kruglak, a member of the Movement for Global Justice, characterized the meeting with Starbucks officials as "a lot of words with little substance." Kruglak said he does not trust Starbucks to keep its promise to offer fair trade coffee.
"If students care about human rights or the environment, Pura Vida is the only choice," said Kruglak. He said that there is often a misperception among students that fair trade coffee is bland and lacks variety, but Pura Vida will offer all the same options as a Starbucks in terms of types of drinks.
"It's a method of procurement," said Kruglak of the use of fair trade practices. "The flavor and quality of the coffee is not influenced by how it's sold."
Drawbacks of Fair Trade
Some students asked the Starbucks officials why the company doesn't offer only free trade coffee, since it wants to compete with Pura Vida for the spot in Mary Graydon.
Taylor responded that there are farmers who are not part of fair trade collectives, and, in some coffee-growing areas, fair trade does not exist at all or it may be too costly to have the product be officially Fair Trade Certified.
"Almost all Ethiopian coffee is fair trade, but it's not certified because they can't afford to have anyone come and certify it," said Taylor. She added that Starbucks also offers coffee blends which include fair trade coffee, but the certifying company, TransFair, does not count those blends because they are not 100 percent fair trade coffee.
"There are farmers who are starving to death right now," said Schickler. "We don't want to be myopic."
One percent of all coffee is fair trade, Taylor said. Starbucks buys 25 percent to a third of all fair trade coffee in North America, she added.
"It's just not possible to buy 299 million pounds of fair trade coffee," said Taylor. "We're in business here, it's just not profitable."
Last year, Starbucks bought 4.8 million pounds of fair trade coffee, and intends to buy 10 million pounds next year, Schickler said, which is 20 times more than the total amount of coffee Pura Vida buys, he said.
Kruglak respectfully disagrees with the Starbucks officials. He said that Pura Vida can't buy as much quantity as Starbucks, but can guarantee that it will be all fair trade.
"By having Pura Vida here, we're going to save lives," he said. "And you're buying coffee, you're not even doing anything special or out of the ordinary."
Students don't want more coffee
Scott Goldstein, president of the Residence Hall Association, said he was upset with the university's decision to install a coffee vendor in Mary Graydon, because RHA doesn't believe that the majority of students want any coffee shop on campus.
There are nine places on campus to purchase coffee, as well as two other shops on New Mexico Avenue and near the Tenleytown Metro station.
Last week, Goldstein started a thread on Dailyjolt.com's forum for suggestions for a new campus eatery. Student suggestions for a new campus eatery have included a cereal bar like Cereality, a Taco Bell, a Wendy's to replace the McDonald's in the tunnel, a Pizza Hut, and a salad place or Panda Express, a Chinese food restaurant, he said. Other students have voiced similar sentiments.
"I feel like the fact that there are so many people on campus who are vegan or vegetarian, or even just the workout nuts or 'health conscious' people that it would be better to have a soup or salad place," said Brett Wilson, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
However, some students would like to fill the space in Mary Graydon with a coffee vendor.
"I think this is a great idea, especially for a college campus. What students would not want coffee on campus, especially Starbucks?" said Laura Gajewski, a sophomore in the School of Communications. "It might be the end to my Eaglebucks account, but I'm willing to sacrifice that."
Interpreting the student voice
Goldstein compared the decision to install the coffee shop to other administrative decisions made by the university to eliminate landline phones on campus and cut the tennis and golf teams, describing it as "just another issue where students find out after the fact."
"You have to understand that Scott's constituency is on-campus students," Executive Director of Housing and Dining Julie Weber said in response to RHA claims that students do not want another coffee shop.
"That is one segment of the population that has an opinion," she said, pointing out that the AU community includes off-campus students, graduate students and faculty and staff.
Though the decision for a coffee shop has already been made, Goldstein said that RHA will continue to involve itself in deciding which business will win the Mary Graydon spot.
"We're going to continue to voice the students' opinion on it," said Goldstein. "It all goes back to having student leaders involved in the decision-making process."
He said the administration agreed to RHA's suggestion that Housing and Dining set up a coffee shop suggestion board like the ones at TDR and Jamba Juice, where students can voice praise, complaints, or concerns and receive feedback from the business. The location of the board will be decided at a later date, after the university makes its final decision and strikes a deal with one of the companies.
