A Kennesaw State University student created a petition urging the university to remove Chick-fil-A from the Carmichael Student Center. Three days later, another student created and posted a counter petition to keep the restaurant on campus.
Gaius Augustus is an Integrative Studies of Chemistry and Biology major at KSU and an officer of KSU’s Non-Normative Anti-Assimilationist student organization, or N/A. Augustus said they support the petition to remove Chick-fil-A from campus.
“It’s important to say we love the idea of free speech because that’s what we practice every day and why we’re able to be queer,” Augustus said. “[We] love when people express different opinions, but when that goes from speech to action, that’s where the problems come up.”
Augustus said this petition could open up discussion, “I think there’s a lot of improvements that this could open up… Can we use this opportunity to make our campus more well known, more nationally recognized, to be able to help more of our students get what they need and become a campus that can rival other campuses.”
Hyacinthe de la Sinthomeé is a Sociopolitical Philosophy and Ethics major with a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies and is on the board of representatives for the N/A student organization. Sinthomeé created and posted the petition to remove Chick-fil-A from campus on Change.org on July 28, 2012.
“It really had nothing to do with the whole gay marriage thing,” Sinthomeé said. “It was more we could use this as a point of leverage to actually get something done.”
Sinthomeé said the petition to remove Chick-fil-A from campus is based on legalistic reasons, because KSU is a public state university.
“Because Chick-fil-A came out as a religious company, as a Christian company, there’s really no getting around that. Their CEO said they operate on Christian principles,” Sinthomeé said. “The fact that this is a public university that is part of the state, part of the federal system of education, having some sort of religious affiliation makes absolutely no sense because they have ties to secularity. They can’t have religious bias.”
The counter petition to keep Chick-fil-A in the student center was created on July 31, 2012, by KSU student Susannah Mitchell, a Psychology major who said she started the petition because she believes that both sides of the argument should be heard.
“I do not believe that decisions concerning which companies/vendors are allowed to sell on campus should be based on the political or religious views of the owners, leaders, or employees of the company,” Mitchell said. “To do so, would be a violation of the right of free speech of the individuals in question.”
Mitchell said she believes the petition to remove Chick-fil-A started because of the LGBT community’s reaction to statements made by Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy.
“This is not so much about whether you are in favor of same-sex marriage or not. It is about one’s right to express their opinion,” Mitchell said. “The students who are opposed to Mr. Cathy’s comments can express their opinion by no longer purchasing Chick-fil-A products, however, those of us who support Mr. Cathy should be able to express our opinions by continuing to patronize his establishments– especially the one that is located on our campus.”
At press time, the petition to remove Chick-fil-A had 500 signatures and the petition to keep Chick-fil-A had 491.
The Minnesota Daily News reported more than 30 university petitions on Change.org, and Northeastern University in Boston voted against bringing Chick-fil-A to their campus in February of 2012. The Northeastern Student Government Association passed a resolution 31 to 5, stating that the student body did not support bringing the fast food chain to campus.
Northeastern SGA tweeted that the decision was based on student feedback, and later added a re-tweet stating, “Student concerns reflected CFA’s history of donating to anti-gay organizations.”
KSU’s Chief Diversity Officer Eric Malewski described what University Relations said is the administration’s formal position regarding the two petitions of Chick-fil-A on campus.
“Kennesaw State University’s administration is aware of the perspectives contained in both of the online petitions. We value the discussions they have provoked within the campus community. Our position is that this university strongly embraces diversity and inclusion as critical operating principles that contribute to the vitality and strength of our institution. We also are deeply committed to freedom of expression, the right to free speech, and dialogue that values divergent viewpoints and perspectives,” Malewski said.
Sinthomeé said the main reason for the petition of Chick-fil-A on campus is a reported $4 million given to organizations through its WinShape Foundation between 2009-2010.
“There’s organizations like Family Research Council that wants sodomy recriminalized,” Sinthomeé said. “They basically want to put every single gay person and trans person in corrective therapy… They are considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”
SPLC defines hate groups based on their propagation of known falsehoods, and defines these known falsehoods as, “Claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities – and repeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.”
“This entire thing has been turned into a first amendment thing… and it’s clearly not that issue,” Sinthomeé said. “The way that the media, particularly if we look locally… has turned it into an issue of gay marriage, yes or no. It’s completely ridiculous.”
In February, the Huffington Post reported approximately $2 million donated through the fast food chain’s WinShape foundation to anti-gay groups in 2010, and, in an earlier report, an estimated $2 million in 2009. Huffington Post also reported the foundation gave an estimated $5 million, between 2003 and 2010, to anti-gay organizations and hate groups.
“The FRC also gave roughly $25,000 to legislators in Uganda to help push the kill the gays bill that was going on there, which I find absolutely horrifying,” said Sinthomeé.
An investigation by the Equality Matters organization of WinShape’s IRS 990 forms released from 2009 revealed Chick-fil-A gave more than $1.7 million to anti-gay groups that year alone.
Mitchell said the petition to keep Chick-fil-A represents the surface of a bigger underlying issue in the U.S.
“As we move further away from religion, as a country, we are losing this sense of operating our personal lives based on those tenets. When there is no longer a consensus of what is right or wrong, we dissolve in to a constant battle of words with many different viewpoints – each assuming that their position must prevail and that all others must be silenced,” Mitchell said. “This intolerance from gay-rights activists is at the core of what is happening with the issue of same-sex marriage.”
The Chick-fil-A located in KSU’s Carmichael Student Center is an independent franchise operated under Sodexo, the multi-national corporation in charge of all culinary service on campus.
Angie Daniels is an Integrative Studies in Psychology and Biology major and an officer of the N/A student organization.
“How you’re using your speech can become hurtful, so speaking out against the voice of an underrepresented population is not using your free speech to do your viewpoint, it’s just silencing the already underrepresented voice,” Daniels said. “A school that claims to be pushing for more cultural exchange and globalization, you can’t have something that benefits one community more than any other communities on campus.”
For more information regarding KSU’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion visit their website at https://web.kennesaw.edu/diversity_inclusion/. To learn more about the N/A student group visit their club website at https://clubs.kennesaw.edu/nonnorm/. The petition to remove Chick-fil-A from the Carmichael Student Center can be found at http://www.change.org/petitions/president-of-kennesaw-state-university-evict-homophobic-chick-fil-a-from-ksu-s-carmichael-student-center and the counter petition can be found at http://www.change.org/petitions/keep-chick-fil-a-on-ksu-s-campus.
“As we move further away from religion, as a country, we are losing this sense of operating our personal lives based on those tenets. When there is no longer a consensus of what is right or wrong, we dissolve in to a constant battle of words with many different viewpoints – each assuming that their position must prevail and that all others must be silenced,” Mitchell said.
I’d just like to point out that religion is often understood or thought to be a higher morale practice, but those who are not religious are not without. Right and wrong is a social norm created by SOCIETY. With a quote like that, the next question will become which religion should we choose to know what’s right or wrong… and we all know where the masses will turn.
America was created in hopes of freedom of religion. We’ve done a terrible job of keeping religion out of things, but we can try now. I don’t feel the people of N/A* are saying, ‘Oh, you’re a Christian company, we hate you. We want you off of our campus.’ I feel that they may honestly be upset about the anti-gay message coming from Chic-fil-A as well as the religious bias of the company.
Chic-fil-A has been known to hand out Veggie Tales DVDs or toys in their children’s meals. To someone who does not share that faith, that is not only intrusive (giving a child something that the parents don’t agree with) but it’s exclusive to the buyers of a different faith. Now, one can argue that those who are easily offended or do not like the practices of Chic-fil-A should chose to eat elsewhere, but when it comes to OUR campus, any company that discriminates, eliminates or speaks against people that would fund that business does NOT deserve to be on our campus. There are plenty of businesses that do not have such a controversial message or public image problems that would love to take our money.
We can’t have something on campus that benefits one community more than another? Remove every Affirmative Actuon initiative on campus then.
It’s not about catering to difference or specialized morals, it’s a problem when it eliminates constituents of our student body.
I definitely believe the media and CFA/Cathy supporters turned this into a matter of free speech.
Cathy said what he wanted. He didn’t get in any trouble, legally. His first amendment right was not affected.
KSU is a public school. Although cfa has the freedom to say whatever they want, they made a religious statement. What happened to separation of church and state?
Yes, he was asked about his opinion, but
No other businesses or CEOs have directly and outspokenly promoted intolerance the way Chick-fil-A has.
People don’t understand that by supporting CFA monetarily, they’re supporting hate towards the LGBT community. Hatred is hatred.
Lastly, i think it’s quite interesting how cfa and cathy supporters scream so loudly about their freedoms, yet they are willing to support a company that denies others just that.
Update:
As of Aug. 16, at 5 p.m., the petition to remove CFA had 509 signatures, and the petition to keep CFA had 521.
“As we move further away from religion, as a country, we are losing this sense of operating our personal lives based on those tenets. When there is no longer a consensus of what is right or wrong, we dissolve in to a constant battle of words with many different viewpoints – each assuming that their position must prevail and that all others must be silenced,”
I would be interested in what this person means by “[moving] further from religion,” do they mean any religion, or just the Christian religion? And, if they mean the former, haven’t we already dissolved “into a constant battle of words with many different viewpoints?” Personally, I consider the idea of a nation of many different viewpoints to be much better than a nation of cloned opinions all agreeing with one another.
As for the argument over CFA and whether or not it should stay on campus, I feel that both sides of the argument are ultimately flawed. Yes, both make good points, but both seem to be formed more out of emotion rather than logic. The logical argument would be that CFA is, and always has been, a Christian company. They have always donated to the causes listed. They have mentioned multiple times, both in the past and recently, that they support “traditional marriage”. As a private company, with no direct connection to the government, they have the right to do so. Therefore, unless they are receiving money from the university for their services on campus, they should be allowed to stay. If, however, they do recieve anything from KSU in terms of funding (aside from the money students pay for a chicken sandwich), then they certainly should not be on campus. Otherwise, students who do not agree with them can simply boycott them. Personally, I don’t care one way or another. I don’t really need the fast food, so I’m not eating there any time in the near future.
“Because Chick-fil-A came out as a religious company, as a Christian company, there’s really no getting around that. Their CEO said they operate on Christian principles,” Sinthomeé said. “The fact that this is a public university that is part of the state, part of the federal system of education, having some sort of religious affiliation makes absolutely no sense because they have ties to secularity. They can’t have religious bias.”
KSU’s Chick-fil-a hires KSU students and sells food to the KSU community. That is all they do. Its employees at each franchise do not argue for or against political or religious stances to the customers that come in. They do not preach to people. They do not deny service to anyone or demand that some people receive worse service. By having a Chick-fil-a in the student center, KSU is not saying the views of Chick-fil-a’s owners represent the school’s views. And this goes for PJ’s Coffee, Delancey New York Deli, Jazzman’s, Einstein’s Bros, or any other restaurant that comes to KSU. By the way, there are quite a few student religious organizations at KSU. They get money for student activities, and this comes from the fees all students pay. Do you support banning them as well?
What about the employees of the KSU Chick Fil-A? Doesn’t anyone care about them? Is it fair for all of them to lose their jobs because the ol’ Catherator doesn’t like gays? Because I’m pretty sure getting CFA removed to benefit “people that don’t like CFA” is unfairly disadvantaging “people who support CFA” and “people who don’t care and just want a chicken biscuit”.
Also, did anyone check out the website for this N/A group? There’s some pretty kooky stuff on there. But maybe I’m just saying that because I’m a cisgendered, neurotypical, monogamous, athletic white male, which basically means I’m oppressing everyone around me just by existing.
What a very sad time we live in. It is now offensive to have Christian beliefs and express them openly. It is now wrong for a man to openly support causes he believes will benefit society. The lack of reflection and thought by those who want Chick-fil-A punished and Mr. Cathy silenced is breathtaking.
Through its Leadership Scholarship program, Chick-fil-A has offered more than $29 million in financial assistance to more than 28,000 restaurant team members who have attended 3,168 colleges, universities and other educational institutions throughout the country. The company will award $1.65 million in scholarships to its restaurant team members in 2012.
REQUIREMENTS: Eligibility requires that restaurant employees complete their high school education,enroll in college, are active in their schools and communities, demonstrate a solid work ethic, and possess strong leadership abilities, good teamwork and a desire to succeed.
Religion is not required! This is a freedom of speach issue and Truett Cathy should be allowed to speak his mind just like everyone else. After all, he has paid for enough kids to go to school.