Indiana University South Bend Chancellor Una Mae Reck has heard a loud and clear message from many students and faculty on campus, who want the Chancellor to suspend Chick-fil-A as a vendor on campus, given the restaurant chain's deep financial ties to extreme anti-gay groups around the country.
Students with the Civil Rights Student Association, the Gay Straight Alliance, the Feminist Student Union, and the Student Workers Unions have all asked Chancellor Reck to suspend Chick-fil-A from serving food on campus, arguing that Chick-fil-A's endorsement of groups fighting civil rights for LGBT Americans violates IUSB's Supplier Code of Conduct, which requires vendors to adhere to anti-discrimination and diversity policies inclusive of sexual orientation.
These same students have been joined by faculty, who passed a Faculty Senate resolution last month that called for a deeper look into Chick-fil-A's support for anti-gay groups. These same faculty supported a suspension of Chick-fil-A from campus, while a review of the restaurant's ties to homophobic groups was conducted. Those ties include documentation of more than $1.1 million to groups opposed to LGBT equality, as well as donations from individual franchises to anti-gay groups, as well as events at Chick-fil-A's charitable arm, the WinShape Foundation, designed around opposition to same-sex marriage.
A spokesperson with IUSB's Civil Rights Student Association, Jason Moreno, said that Chancellor Reck should listen to students and faculty who want to make sure that IUSB is a place that does not support discrimination in any way, shape or form -- including through its vendors. That's why Moreno has started a petition on Change.org, asking Chancellor Reck to commit to suspending Chick-fil-A as a vendor.
"Despite resolutions from all major representative bodies on our campus, including faculty and student, and a self-proclaimed dedication to take seriously the requests of said bodies, Chancellor Una Mae Reck has chosen to remain inactive," Moreno said. "Today we're pushing back and launching a campaign against the University's leadership so they know that we take civil rights violations of Chick-fil-a very seriously."
Want to join them? Check out their petition here, and add your name to it.
IUSB is so close to holding Chick-fil-A accountable for their anti-gay agenda. All that stands in their way is asking Chancellor Reck to follow what many of her students and faculty want -- a suspension of Chick-fil-A from campus, because of Chick-fil-A's unqualified support for some of the most vehement anti-gay organizations in the country.
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