Staff Council Addresses Chick-fil-A Controversy

UNM Staff Coun­cil passed a res­o­lu­tion today reaf­firm­ing the university’s com­mit­ment to diver­sity and equal­ity, but stopped short of tak­ing aim at Chick-fil-A. Staff Coun­cilor Elisha Allen ini­ti­ated the res­o­lu­tion in response to national cov­er­age of the fast food chain, its dona­tions to orga­ni­za­tions oppos­ing same-sex mar­riage and recent state­ments by Chick-fil-A Pres­i­dent Dan Cathy.

Before it was brought to the floor, the res­o­lu­tion was amended to remove lan­guage request­ing that “an alter­nate ven­dor to Chick-fil-A be found to occupy the chain’s loca­tion” at the UNM Stu­dent Union Build­ing. The final ver­sion states:

“The Staff Coun­cil rejects dis­crim­i­na­tion and reaf­firms UNM’s com­mit­ment to diver­sity and equal­ity for all of its fac­ulty, staff and stu­dents regard­less of race, color, reli­gion, national ori­gin, phys­i­cal or men­tal dis­abil­ity, age, sex, sex­ual pref­er­ence, gen­der iden­tity, ances­try, med­ical con­di­tion or spousal affiliation.”

Two main argu­ments dom­i­nated debate on the Staff Coun­cil res­o­lu­tion. Sup­port­ers of the res­o­lu­tion argued that the pres­ence of Chick-fil-A may cre­ate a hos­tile envi­ron­ment for les­bian, gay, bisex­ual and trans­gen­der mem­bers of the UNM com­mu­nity. Oppo­nents and sup­port­ers of an amend­ment to remove lan­guage spec­i­fy­ing Chick-fil-A argued that the res­o­lu­tion amounts to an infringe­ment on free­dom of speech.

Ulti­mately, the res­o­lu­tion passed with amend­ments remov­ing explicit ref­er­ences to Chick-fil-A and adding, “Whereas the uni­ver­sity has engaged with busi­nesses that have been in the national media for their sup­port of poli­cies that impose a form of struc­tural dis­crim­i­na­tion and are incon­sis­tent with UNM’s com­mit­ment to a diverse work­force and diverse stu­dent body.”

Chartwells, the sup­plier of UNM’s cam­pus din­ing ser­vices, released a state­ment respond­ing to con­cerns about Chick-fil-A. “Chartwells has a zero tol­er­ance dis­crim­i­na­tion and harass­ment pol­icy, which enforces com­pli­ance with fed­eral, state and local laws that pro­hibit dis­crim­i­na­tion or harass­ment based on sex, sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion, race, reli­gion, color, dis­abil­ity, age, preg­nancy, national ori­gin, vet­eran sta­tus or any other unlaw­ful factor.”

A state­ment from Chick-fil-A reads: “The Chick-fil-A cul­ture and ser­vice tra­di­tion in our restau­rants is to treat every per­son with honor, dig­nity and respect – regard­less of their belief, race, creed, sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion or gen­der… Going for­ward, our intent is to leave the pol­icy debate over same-sex mar­riage to the gov­ern­ment and polit­i­cal arena.”