Discovery in the Big City Coffee Lawsuit Against Boise State Reveals Social Justice Ideology on Campus, Part 2
By Sarah Clendenon • October 18, 2023Documents obtained through discovery in the Big City Coffee lawsuit against Boise State University (BSU) have revealed social justice ideology in the student council, the administration, and various aspects of BSU contracts and business decisions.
This is part two in this series. Please begin with our first article found here.
The September 1, 2020 meeting minutes of ASBSU/IESC were detailed in our previous article. We begin here with the meeting minutes of September 7, 2020.
Attendees were listed as: Students Ryann Banks, Alyssa Wainaina, Amanda Hawks, Em McNay, Sarah Smith, Kenneth Huston, and Administrators Eric Scott, Leslie Webb, and Francisco Salinas.
In the “New Business” (labeled Section IV) of the ASBSU / IESC meeting on September 7, Banks addresses Webb in explaining her disapproval of the decision that was made to approve Big City Coffee opening a campus location,
“I am not surprised but I am thoroughly disappointed that this is happening. It makes me feel sick to even think about it. I know this isn’t in your realm, Leslie, but I would encourage you to discuss this with other administrators because students need to be incorporated in all of these discussions. We do not need voting power, but we need to be in the room, and we need to be compensated for it. This is unacceptable that it is happening. Activists in our area are being targeted and people are being harmed. This company is going to encourage this type of behavior on campus and attract those types of people to our campus. It should not be up to marginalized students to fix this. It is up to the administrators to fix this and allow for students to have a voice. We have known for half a decade that they support Thin Blue Line, and this is unacceptable and should have never happened. I know that all of IESC has had an experience with police that 9/10 times has not been positive. The extension of the BPD contract is showing that you support this and that there is no connection between administration and students right now. I know IESC is representing the concerns and issues of all marginalized students. Bringing this company on campus is silencing our students and if there is a way to end this now, we need to do it.”
The discussion continued between members of the council, Webb, and Salinas. Not all comments are quoted here, but you can read the entire discussion in the meeting minutes shown below.
PLF000239 IESC minutes 9.7.20“Alyssa: “The people who made this decision don’t care about us and it is not just IESC who should stand up for this but everyone on campus should stand up for this. There should be more marginalized student voices on this. You need to find a way to cancel this contract because every marginalized student knows about this affiliation and that it is a dangerous place.”
Leslie: “We are in the process of ending this contract with Aramark and I imagine we can have a conversation about that. As we move forward, we have an opportunity to move in a different direction.”
“I do not want to further the pain that exists in this space. Do we want to focus on the contractual side of things instead? Will you support me in finding more information on this before we have a conversation that may end up the way you all are feeling it may? I am happy to take responsibility to find out what is happening.”
Amanda: “I agree with everything that has been said. With Chick-Fil-A, BPD, and now Big City Coffee it has sent a message that the campus does not support Black Lives Matter. If there is a way to reverse this decision it should be done. If they come to campus, it is sending a very harmful message.”
Francisco: “We have had this conversation before. This could be the beginning of a revolution where we say that we have a standard for corporate partnerships that we have. My understanding is there is no undoing the Big City Coffee partnership. I believe we should have a standard that says we will not accept companies who act in certain ways because that will have a more lasting impact to protect students.”
Ryann: “We need to look at our population and at the end of the day we need to understand the history and privilege of being white in America. What is the make-up of the students being interviewed? Because if you are not centering marginalized students, you are marginalizing them further.”
Part three of this series on ASBSU and social justice ideology to follow. It will include more meeting minutes, information on the recent reorganization of BSU student government, and correspondence by BSU President Dr. Marlene Tromp.
Feature photo courtesy of Idaho Business Review
Article photos by David Pettinger show signs on the BSU campus
Tags: Amanda Hawks, Anna K. Miller, ASBSU, Associated Students of Boise State University, Boise State University, BSU, Chayon Sheen, Diversity and Inclusion, Dr. Scott Yenor, Em McNay, Francisco Salinas, Hailey Opperman, IESC, Kenneth Huston, Leslie Webb, marginalized students, Marlene Tromp, non-binary, privilege, Pronouns, Ryann Banks, Sarah Smith, Social Justice Ideology
12 thoughts on “Discovery in the Big City Coffee Lawsuit Against Boise State Reveals Social Justice Ideology on Campus, Part 2”
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“Bringing the company on campus is silencing our students”. It’s intolerant. It’s not inclusive. It’s not equitable. It’s not vegan. It’s not trans friendly.
Black lives don’t matter. It’s not my view so it DOESN’T belong our inclusive/equitable campus.
It must be stopped!
AOC would be proud.
Whenever I see the clenched fist symbol I know for sure that communism is alive and well within that group or institution. The unions that support this garbage need to be shut down.
Exactly.
Correct,
Three generations of weak, pathetic, entitled, and intolerant children who have no business in leadership, who cannot handle the simple stresses of life, and who should move to countries who align to their socialist utopian beliefs.
Personally, I am done with them and have no more tolerance for stupidity.
AGREED! Tromp and the Education board members who support this garbage need to thrown out today!
100%% Agree!!!! WTF happened to the parents raising tough kids??? No wonder the suicide rate is high..They cant cope with tough times
This entire subject is sad. The social engineering that has taken place at BSU over the last decade is depressing. What is wrong with BPD having a presence on campus? What is wrong with anyone who supports peace officers who risk their lives every day when they put on their uniform and start their shift? There is nothing wrong with supporting police. Police are just humans like the rest of us. They make mistakes. But they make any civil society a much better place to live. This exclusion of any mention of police or support of police shows ignorance and naivete through narrow-mindedness.
This entire D.I.E., or D.E.I.- whatever- shows how hypocritical the progenitors are that espouse this woke, neo-Marxist belief system. These people also support the BLM movement- the same movement that is in complete support of Hamas and the evil, insane, murderous attack they conducted on Oct 7th.
It is sad to see this woke agenda that has taken over the administration at BSU. Why is it so important or ‘correct’ to exclude one side of any topic, or that the students should dictate how a university is run? REAL Inclusiveness, diversity and equity would allow ALL civil representation and discourse on campus. Notice I said ‘civil’- not violent, disrespectful, in-your-face rudeness.
As an aside- The granting scholarships to illegal aliens is an afront to our sovereignty and our laws. How far down this ‘rabbit hole’ we’ve come.
Campus politics has been slowly evolving to this mess for decades. These shifts are common for state sponsored universities nationwide. I applaud our legislature for asking tough questions about the appropriateness of funding organization’s of “higher learning” that are so blatently against everything that liberty, freedom and our Constitution stand for. I seldom sense discrimination and hate more than when I read the rants of student and university leadership such as this.
These people would make our Democrat and liberal republican legislators proud to have spent so much of our tax dollars on higher education so that these nice young beautiful people can become so learned and someday join these same legislators.
The Marxist indoctrination is heavily palpable. It exudes a deep brainwashing objective that every law-enforcement figure is a threat to whatever lifestyle or cultural profile behavior is evident in these cadres of social actors. They think that every cop is out to get them because of their race or gender, inherently. They wrap themselves in the flag of oppression that has been woven by zealots that see “isms” around every corner. They fear growing up and taking responsibility for their demands to just tear everything down, just because someone told them that “the system” isn’t fair. Ironically, the System has been captured and is actually pushing FOR their objectives, yet they continue to cry foul about everything. You’ve got to hand it to the Puppet Masters….they have done a fine job of conditioning here.
What some people might not realize is students are mandated to take a liberal course before they graduate…Well we all know what happens then… Good thing my son is strong minded and wont get brainwashed by the leftist indoctrination.. Very sad to see young adults so afraid of Law Enforcement to the point where one cant start a coffee business..