Trinity University Administration Rejects Student Government’s Call to Ban Chick-Fil-A

Score one for common sense: administrators at Trinity University have rejected a resolution passed by their Student Government Association (SGA) to ban Chick-fil-A from being a vendor at the on-campus food court.

As RedState reported yesterday, the SGA voted unanimously to send a resolution to the administration calling for Chick-fil-A to be ban from the food court, citing the company’s “values regarding the LGBT+ community,” which they said were in conflict with Trinity’s values of “diversity and inclusion.” No examples were cited of any actual incidents of discrimination on campus against any Chick-fil-A employee or customer on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other category.

Chick-fil-A does not have a permanent location on the Trinity campus but has been included in a rotation of offerings from chain restaurants, typically appearing on the menu every two weeks.

We can now report that cooler heads have prevailed. Friday afternoon, Tess Coody-Anders, Trinity’s Vice President for Strategic Communications and Marketing, sent an email on a Trinity listserv stating that the contract with Chick-fil-A would not be cancelled.

“We do not make vendor decisions based on political or religious beliefs,” wrote Coody-Anders, who is herself a Trinity alumna.

A screen cap of the email was provided to RedState, and the text is quoted below:

As you may know, SGA recently recommended Trinity remove Chick-fil-A from rotation in Revolve [the food court]. The University has reviewed the request and responded with the following decision, which was recently shared with the leadership of SGA:

As primarily a student service, vendor selection for Revolve was and will continue to be based on utilization, variety of options, vendor performance and campus-wide feedback. We do not make vendor decisions based on political or religious beliefs. Based on these criteria, Chick-fil-A appears to be a preferred vendor by students and the broader Trinity community.

As such, we will not recommend that Aramark remove Chick-fil-A from rotation at Revolve. We appreciate the dialogue initiated at the end of this semester and encourage students to engage with faculty and staff to further explore critical issues. Our assessment of vendors, including soliciting input from students, faculty and staff, will continue annually.

In other words, the chicken sandwiches are delicious, students like them, so the university will continue to sell them. Trinity students will remain free to choose if they want to buy them or not. Ah, capitalism!

Read yesterday’s story about the controversy: Student Government At Christian College In Texas Votes To Oust Chick-Fil-A From Campus.

Read my RedState article archive here.

Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker.

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