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This 33 minute video details all the specifics about the Starbucks deal at Hunter College.

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︎ The Fight for a Town Hall

Fall 2019
Students met with campus security, scheduled meetings with the Office of Student Affairs, contacted the Provost of Art and the Business Development office (which ignored our emails). 

Below are screenshots of an email sent to Student Affairs after meeting at their office. In this meeting, our Vice President made it seem like we might have an opportunity to organize a town hall, which was our initial request. After all, public forums are a routine and common aspect of a fair and open democracy. Town halls happen frequently at most other CUNY campuses including the College of Staten Island, Brooklyn College and John Jay. Unfortunately, Hunter is an exception to this standard. All subsequent emails (including this one) about our town hall request have been ignored. We have not received any further communication from administration about our demands. It turns out that Hunter College has no desire to listen to students at all.

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︎ Timeline

November 8th, 2019: 
I met with Vice President Eija Ayravainen and Director of Student Life Miesha Smith. In this meeting we discussed a variety of issues I take concern with at Hunter College, including crumbling infrastructure, tuition increases, food insecurity, and the Starbucks deal being negotiated without student input.

In regards to the Starbucks deal, I explicitly asked for a town hall meeting where students could express concerns about renting our campus to this corporation. In this meeting, Eija and Miesha told me that a town hall would be difficult to organize, but not impossible. They also suggested that we could put a box on campus for students to submit written feedback on the Starbucks deal. I expressed gratitude for the opportunity to move forward with these initiatives, and the meeting ended on good terms.

November 11th, 2019:
I sent a follow up email to the Office of Student Affairs with the intention of explaining further what students would like to see happen at our Town Hall. I never received a response back to this email. The idea of creating a box for written feedback was never addressed. To my knowledge, the feedback box was never implemented.

November 18th, 2019:
I sent a second follow up email to the Office of Student Affairs asking about the Town Hall to discuss Starbucks. In this email, I explain that town hall meetings are a routine aspect of civic engagement at other CUNY colleges, and I sent information about the most recent town halls that had occurred at the College of Staten Island, Brooklyn College, and John Jay. At many of these campus meetings, the president of the school would actually attend and participate. There are no similar opportunities available at Hunter, despite all of these colleges being part of the same university: CUNY. Again, I asked for information on how to move forward with having a town hall at Hunter. This email was again ignored and I never received a response.

November 20th, 2019:
Frustrated with the lack of communication over this issue, students put together a Press Conference outside of Hunter College where students explained their grievances and demanded more transparency. Campus security monitored our event, and the Vice President was seen staring at us from inside the lobby, adjacent to where we were speaking. However, VP Ayravainen did not come outside to engage with students, nor was there any response to our demands.

A video of the Press Conference can be found ︎here. Please excuse the sound quality, as we had to shout to ensure our message was audible over the sounds of the busy city street next to us.

December 3rd, 2019:
I went to an Undergraduate Student Government (USG) meeting with a group of students who are against Starbucks. At this meeting I asked my USG representatives about Starbucks, and they informed me that the administration had kept the Starbucks deal a secret from them. When USG finally became aware of the Starbucks negotiation, they asked for an opportunity to provide student input on the Starbucks contract. President Jennifer Raab informed USG that the Starbucks deal was still pending and that there were no updates at the time. The issue was left unresolved, and student representatives did not have a clear understanding of how their input would be considered, if at all. Much to students’ shock, USG came out with a letter supporting the Starbucks deal in January 2020. We believe that members of USG were coached by the Office of Student Affairs to write a statement in favor of Starbucks, despite there being no student group on campus in support of the deal.
︎A link to the livestream of this meeting can be found here. 

Additionally,

On February 26th, 2019 a colleague of mine emailed Bruce Payne, the Provost of Art, asking about the rental space in the Hunter lobby. He never received a response to this email.

On June 5th, 2019 I emailed Darius Solomon, the Director of Business Development and Contracts, asking about the rental space in the Hunter lobby. I never received a response to this email.

On July 31st, 2019 I went to the Diversity at Work Construction Fund Conference at John Jay College where I approached Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez about the Starbucks rental, expressing concerns over the deal. I provided him with written documents that explained the relationship students have to this space at Hunter, and how our efforts for communication were being ignored. I made a ︎video about this.

On August 1st, 2019 I sent a follow-up email to the Chancellor, asking again about Starbucks. I never received a response to this email.

On October 9th, 2019 four fellow student activists met with the Office of Student Affairs to ask questions about Starbucks. I was not present for this meeting, but these students informed me that the outcome was not productive since the administration avoided answering all questions about Starbucks. VP Eija Ayravainen and Director of Student Life Miesha Smith explicitly denied knowing anything at all about a Starbucks deal at Hunter College.

On November 5th, 2019 my colleague filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request asking for all records on the Starbucks deal.


On December 6th, 2019 this FOIL request was completely rejected by Hunter.

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︎ Our Student-Run Press Conference

Since administration was ignoring our efforts to create transparency and collaboration, students took matters into their own hands. We organized a press conference outside of Hunter College to inform our community about the struggles we were experiencing. Students invited campus security and the Hunter administration, including the Office of Student affairs, to attend. Their response was to send New York State troopers to monitor our event. The Vice President of Student Affairs could be seen staring at us through the lobby windows next to where we were speaking outside. 

Fall 2019


︎ Video