Ohio State University students, in open letter to University leaders: "... it has become increasingly clear that to the Ohio State administration, student voice means absolutely nothing... Ohio State has betrayed students once again and chosen to be complicit in the exploitation of the farmworkers who feed their entire campus, and this country, for up to five more years." As long-time readers of this site know, we have chronicled the countless twists and turns of the Wendy's Boycott — celebrating the campaign's many victories, and making sense of its occasional setbacks — for over five years now. The news out of Ohio State University last week falls into the latter category, of course, but, as you'll see below, we join the students there in struggling to make sense out of what seems, by any measure, to be an arbitrary, and unnecessarily callous, decision by the OSU administration. Two weeks ago, after many months of mounting student, alumni and community pressure not to renew the lease for the Wendy’s restaurant on campus due to Wendy’s refusal to join the Fair Food Program — pressure that included the unanimous passage of an Undergraduate Student Government resolution just last month — Ohio State University released a perfunctory statement announcing its decision to extend the lease for up to five more years. The announcement, the latest entry in a disconcerting track record of the university’s refusal to take students’ demands for human rights seriously, was made abruptly, on the brink of an ongoing dialogue on the issue among OSU Student/Farmworker Alliance members, student government leaders, and administration representatives, and a full month before the Wendy’s lease was set to expire. In response to the University's decision, OSU SFA penned a powerful letter to OSU administrators, thoroughly capturing the students' profound frustration at the administration's utter disregard for student participation in important procurement decisions at their University. But perhaps most importantly, the students' letter doubles down on their unwavering commitment to hold the administration — and Wendy's — accountable for the fast-food giant's refusal to join the Fair Food Program, the universally recognized gold standard for human rights in the food industry, next semester. Below is an excerpt of the students' open letter: Ohio State University Betrays Students, Renews Wendy’s Lease Last week, in an unconscionable move OSU blindsided students with the announcement of its decision to renew its lease for the Wendy’s at the Wexner Medical Center. The announcement — eerily similar to Ohio State University's cowardly betrayal of students four years ago — cemented the University’s complacency in farmworker exploitation and complete disregard for the voice of the entire undergraduate student body. The renewal, which took place less than a month before the lease for the Wendy’s on-campus at Ohio State was set to expire and extends it for up to another five years, came just after a unanimous Undergraduate Student Government resolution calling for the administration to not renew its contract due to Wendy’s ongoing refusal to join the award-winning Fair Food Program (FFP). What’s worse, OSU admin broke the news on June 1, one day before their scheduled meeting with student government representatives and OSU SFA about the Wendy’s contract. Rather than facing students and their elected representatives, in the same email OSU administrators informed students of the lease renewal they canceled their planned meeting. Though brief, the official University's statement on the matter paints a clear picture of what OSU truly values most, and it certainly is not popular student opinion or the lives of essential workers. Yet, while the administration may have slammed the door in students’ faces over our concerns for farmworkers’ human rights, we refuse to let them have the last word. Below, we break down the statement, sentence by sentence, to better analyze exactly what kind of decision Ohio State made last week: “Ohio State is committed to social responsibility and actively supports fair treatment of workers.” In stark contrast to the overwhelming number of academic studies and expert testimony that demonstrate the unique efficacy of the Fair Food Program, OSU’s claim is supported by virtually no evidence. The FFP was cited in 2020 as the emerging “gold standard” in social responsibility programs in a 10-year, independent study by Harvard-incubated NGO MSI Integrity; was awarded the “Presidential Medal for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking” by the Obama/Biden administration in 2015; and in 2017 was counted among the 15 “most important social-impact success stories of the past century” by the Harvard Business Review. However, Ohio State continually chooses to ignore the clear superiority of the FFP when it comes to protecting protecting farmworkers from grave abuses ranging from slavery to sexual assault. We would think a University that prides itself on “creating and discovering knowledge to improve the well-being of our state, regional, national and global communities” would jump at the opportunity to support such a program. Instead, OSU drags behind its peers - our longtime rival University of Michigan, for example, removed Wendy’s from campus in 2019 - and continues to hitch its wagon to a corporate partner that values profit over people.... Read OSU SFA's full open letter ‌ Coalition of Immokalee Workers (239) 657 8311 | [email protected] | www.ciw-online.org Connect with us ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Coalition of Immokalee Workers | 110 S 2nd St, Immokalee, FL 34142 Unsubscribe [email protected] Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!