On Thursday and Friday (May 11 and May 12), students at Cornell University in Ithaca demanded their college sever all remaining ties in protest of Starbucks's decision to close the remaining stores in the city. They occupied the administrative building and demanded the following of the university:
Will leave if you commit, in writing, to the following conditions:
Intent to reoccupy if conditions are not met by end of meeting:
CONDITIONS:
- What is the procedure to end current contract?
- Start, end date, terms of breach + renewal of contract, nondisclosure clauses
- Who are the Starbucks shareholders who can terminate the contract?
- Required follow-up meeting to be scheduled by May 15 to take place before May 31.
And, at least tentatively, it appears some those demands have been satisfied and the first steps to ending the contract were made yesterday. The students won a meeting with President Pollack via Zoom in which the above matters were discussed, and they came away fairly optimistic. While the students await whether or not the university will comply with their scheduling demand (in which case they do intend to re-occupy the building), according to the Cornell Daily Sun by way of two university administrators, Dean Marla Love and Ryan Lombardi:
[...]President Pollack agreed to disclose the contract end date, confidentiality clauses, stakeholders for termination and schedule a follow-up meeting. Pollack stated that some details of the contract would remain undisclosed. Love explained that some contract details can’t be disclosed due to non-disclosure clauses.
The contract is apparently currently due to expire in 2025, absent action. Students say that Pollack also committed to the university reconsidering the contract, and are hoping the follow-up meeting before May 31 will put them further on the track to cancelling the contract by the end of 2023.
The Ithaca Voice reports this morning that Cornell University will no longer have relations with Starbucks and will terminate their existing contract with the company. This decision—made July 31 and announced yesterday—is the culmination of student backlash against Starbucks for their union busting in Ithaca and unethical conduct toward members of Starbucks Workers United. It also comes as, according to the Voice, Starbucks has been found guilty of violating labor rights at their stores in Ithaca. As they put it, the NLRB "found Starbucks punished pro-unionization Cornell students who were working at Starbucks in Ithaca [...] by denying them leave over Cornell’s academic breaks during the unionization process at Ithaca’s three locations, among many other violations that [Justice] Amchan found against Starbucks." Starbucks was ordered to reopen its Ithaca Collegetown location as a part of that ruling.
Cornell's statement is, more-or-less, as follows. This is a quote from the Vice President of University Relations:
Cornell Dining does not intend to serve Starbucks Coffee in its café venues after the current agreement with the company expires in 2025. As President Martha Pollack mentioned in her response to a related Student Assembly (SA) resolution, Cornell Dining — in consultation with the Student Assembly Dining Services Committee — will initiate an inclusive process to select its next coffee product offerings and to ensure a smooth transition to a new vendor in 2025.