Student Bias Against Chik Fil A

[dannibear]

Last week the Student Senate at Northeastern University in Boston voted to halt discussions with the privately held Atlanta, Ga.-based restaurant chain, citing the company's affiliation with Christian organizations they say have an "anti-gay" agenda.
Taylor Cotter, a senior journalism major who has been a member of the school's student senate for three years, led the protest to oust Chick-fil-A, but was "shocked" when the university gave in so quickly to the students' demands.
"I first found out that the school was interested in Chick-fil-A in January of 2011," Cotter told The Christian Post in a phone interview. "Only about 15 of us knew of the school's plan for several months and that's when I grew concerned about a company who supports causes that I feet are divisive."
Cotter stated there were two primary issues that led her to lead the protest.


First, since Northeastern is not a school that is affiliated with any religious entity, she felt the school should not support businesses that choose to contribute to organizations that she sees as having an "anti-gay" agenda. Some of the organizations that Chick-fil-A support are Focus on the Family, Exodus International and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Like us on Facebook


Chick-fil-A normally operates through franchise agreements with individuals and companies, but Cotter claims that was not the case at Northeastern and that the university would have entered into a business arrangement with their food vendor that would ultimately involve money derived from students.
"The other reason I opposed Chick-fil-A on campus was that I didn't want any portion of my student tuition going to support a company that I don't agree with," added Cotter.
However, officials with schools such as New York University who have similar arrangements with Chick-fil-A, say no portion of student dollars are going directly to the company.


"The University does not have a direct relationship with Chick-Fil-A," Philip Lentz , the school's director of Public Affairs told HuffPost. "ARAMARK is the University's restaurant vendor and Chick-Fil-A is licensed by ARAMARK to lease a restaurant on NYU's Greenwich Village campus."


Students at NYU have also circulated a petition to oust Chick-fil-A, but the university has taken no action on their request.
When asked if she agreed that any organization or company has the right to support causes they agree with, she said "definitely, I'm totally in support of any organization doing whatever they want with their money. But I also wanted students to feel safe and accepted when they were in the Student Center."


Cotter, who will graduate in May, says she grew up "Irish" Catholic and attended Catholic schools before entering Northeastern. "I'm not personally 'anti-Christian,'" she said. "I consider myself a Democrat and someone who cares about equality."
But Chick-fil-A disagrees with the issues brought forward by the students.


"We're a restaurant that has a hospitality that says we're here to embrace everyone who wants to come and be part of Chick-fil-A," said Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy. "So to be identified with some sort of hate group that has a political agenda – that is not Chick-fil-A at all."
The Christian Post attempted to contact officials at Northeastern University but were unable to reach anyone prior to publication.

 

[David777]

Hello Dannibear.

Always nice to read your threads and posts, except this one.

Can you summarize this for me, as I am unfamiliar with nearly all the terminology.

 

[dannibear]

A group of students at a college campus are
against Chik Fil A setting up on campus because
they feel their money would go towards a business
that doesn't have the same views as them, such as
the 'gay agenda' as they mention. They are signing
petitions against Chik Fil A having a business there.

 

[SpiritLedEd]

Always nice to read your threads and posts, except this one.

Can you summarize this for me, as I am unfamiliar with nearly all the terminology.

Chick-Fil-A is a major fast food restaurant chain in the USA. The company was founded by A. Truett Cathy and is now headed by his son Dan. It currently operates some 1600 stores in 38 states. The Cathy family are devout Christians who strive to operate the business on biblical principles in a non-confrontational loving way while serving up very tasty chicken entrees.

SLE

 

[David777]

Thanks.

Now I understand what you guys are talking about.

1600 stores is a very large and powerful business.

They must get their way often, difficult to stop.

I now understand your concern dannibear.

 

[dannibear]

I am not sure how I feel about the story
so I posted it here. I agree that they have
great principles and of course, they are tasty
Yet we live in a country with freedom of religion,
and if the students don't want their tuition money
or costs put towards a place they don't have the
same beliefs as, then I understand. I would be concerned
if I were a Christian and my money for college were
put towards having a facility that I didn't agree with
to have on campus. I want to know though,
if anyone understands how this works, would Chik Fil A
get their funding from all students or just what they
make on food? I am not familiar with the agreement
they mentioned in the article.

 

[David777]

Hello dannibear.

1) NEU responded to students demands for a yummy CFA outlet at Uni.

2) Cotter is protesting against CFA, because CFA has a religous component to there business. Income derived from students purchasing meals could be used to support anti-gay Christian political groups. Hence, could infringe on equality for gays, which is a United Nations mandate.

2) Cotter is not a religous person but she supports democracy, freedom to choose! Thus, gays have rights and inadvertently the presence of CFA on campus is a red flag waving against the democratic rights of an element of society, the gays. Remember NEU is not a religious Uni.

3) What does dannibear do? Well does dannibear support the democratic rights of everyone in the Uni. Or does dannibear support the principle that gays do not have rights because they do not know what is good for them. Or do the students who want CFA meals get those meals.

This is a no win situation from the democratic position.

If you support CFA, you do not support the UN mandate. Which means the democratic rights of gays has been trodden on.

If you oppose CFA, you oppose the majority of the students who want CFA meals.

This has turned into a political issue dannibear.

I think what may be important is NEU is not religious.

 

[SpiritLedEd]

1600 stores is a very large and powerful business.

They must get their way often, difficult to stop.

David, you imply that being a large and successful business automatically makes Chik-Fil-A a corporate bully, which I think is unfair and inaccurate. Note that in the first few lines of the post we are told that the student group had decided to terminate discussions with the company. That student group had no legal standing in this matter; Chik-Fil-A was under no legal obligation to talk to them. The company's only legal connection to the university, it seems to me, is through the vendor who is licensed by the school to run the school's food sevice operations.

SLE

 

[DarthTrekkie]

I'm sorry, but stories like this realy realy realy frustrate me. This is another example of political correctness going off the deep end and becoming oppressive to faith based views. The person heading up the protest says she is concerned that student will feel harrassed by the presence of a fast food restraunt. Realy?!?! The beauty of being an American is that if you don't want to eat a chicken sandwich at one place, you may choose to eat it elswhere. Chik Fil A is a Christian owned company but it has always (as long as I remember) set a Godly example in a loving and non-confrontational manner. I have never seen evidence of discrimination or exclusion to any group of people. They simply stay steadfast on what they believe. I think that worrying that someone who has a different belief system may have deep fried your chicken is more exclusive by nature and just plain rediculous. C'mon people. Men and women of God are being forced to water down their faith and becomming oppressed by society all in the name of "political correctness" and it downright makes me mad. I could easily keep ranting about this, but you all would likely prefer if I stopped typing now.[HIGH-LIGHT][/HIGH-LIGHT]

 

[David777]

Hello spiritled.

I noticed that you implied that I had assumed that CFA was a corporate bully. That is somewhat of a stretch from what I actually said.

I said "They must get their way often, difficult to stop."

You said "David, you imply that being a large and successful business automatically makes Chik-Fil-A a corporate bully, which I think is unfair and inaccurate."

I never said they were a bully, usually with very large financial operations they have incredible leverage.

Most of our large financial institutions are very effective in advertising, have effective legal resources.

They donate large sums to political parties, they often get what they want.

Over here the larger they are the less tax they pay, some receive Govt subsidies.

They do not need to be bullies Spiritled, they control many levels of the business world.

 

[DarthTrekkie]

A group of students at a college campus are
against Chik Fil A setting up on campus because
they feel their money would go towards a business
that doesn't have the same views as them, such as
the 'gay agenda' as they mention. They are signing
petitions against Chik Fil A having a business there.

According to the article, The university has no direct relationship with the chain, so I am under the impression that Chik Fil A just wants to move in and has nothing to do with tuition money. It seems to me that a small group of student don't like what the restraunt stands for so they don't want them moving in. I think between the two groups its thst small group of students who are excluding an organization based on religion.

 

[David777]

Hey DarthTrekkie.

That's what I thought was happening too.

 

[DarthTrekkie]

That's what I thought was happening too.

Honestly, the article got me so worked up, I didn't read any of the comments until after I posted my own. I do that sometimes.

 

[dannibear]

According to the article, The university has no direct relationship with the chain, so I am under the impression that Chik Fil A just wants to move in and has nothing to do with tuition money. It seems to me that a small group of student don't like what the restraunt stands for so they don't want them moving in. I think between the two groups its thst small group of students who are excluding an organization based on religion.

Thanks for answering my question, if the student's
money isn't pulled together in a pot somehow to fund
them at all, then I agree, why get worked up over
a restaurant selling chicken sandwiches with different
beliefs than theirs when they could order elsewhere.
It seems that many want 'tolerance' but the definition
of tolerance is becoming warped to mean 'you have
to do what is against your views or your not respecting
MY beliefs.'

 

[David777]

Well said Dannibear.

Now that was a good reply, straight to the point.

You isolated what the real problem is.

It seems that many want 'tolerance' but the definition
of tolerance is becoming warped to mean 'you have
to do what is against your views or your not respecting
MY beliefs.'

Yes, it is a strange logic that is used in those worldly phrases.