ALLENDALE -- At a public meeting with a representative of the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) administration attended by over 80 students and faculty, Michael Doxey, Director of Business Services at GVSU, refused to remove Taco Bell from campus in a stance that means GVSU will continue to both endorse and profit from documented exploitation in the tomato fields of Florida.

Taco Bell's presence on campus has been the subject of a three-year campaign by Students Against Sweatshops GVSU to remove Taco Bell because of its use of tomatoes produced in exploitative conditions. Tomato pickers routinely work 12-hour days and have to pick 2-tons of tomatoes to earn fifty dollars in a day. Workers have not received a raise since 1978 and continue to earn between 40 and 45 cents for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick.

In the past, Michael Doxey has said that removing Taco Bell "...is a business decision and as long as students continue to buy the products we will continue to offer them."

Tom Minor, Director of Food Services, maintains that it is about popularity, not economics—"The sales there, I can tell you, do not do not make or break the whole operation. I think it's more of a thing that we don't want to take away something that is a bigger take-away in the mind's of the whole campus community." While students accused the administration of placing profits before ethics and argued that the university had a critical responsibility to consider business practices, the administration argued that it was their job to "present food options that are popular with the students."

Such sentiments were echoed in the administration's proposal, presented by Michael Doxey, to "once and for all make a decision on this" by way of a survey that would be conducted in the university's food court (where the Taco Bell is located) that would ask students if they do or do not want Taco Bell on campus. Doxey said that the administration would be satisfied with whatever the results were and asked that students also be satisfied with the results.

Many present were offended by the notion that human rights could be made the subject of a popular vote.

Professor Michael Ott of the Sociology Department accused the administration of playing "a number game." "We're playing a number game it sounds like if we have more that wins and if they have more that wins...but the ethical issue is there. The university has responsibility on an ethical basis."

The proposal also ignored the fact that over 1,400 signatures had been collected by the students demanding the removal of Taco Bell, that 174 faxes and emails had been received over the past 24 hours calling for the removal, and that over 80 students and faculty took time out of their day to attend the meeting. Perhaps most damaging though, were statements by a reporter for Grand Valley's student newspaper, the Lanthorn, who stated that in the past Tom Minor and others connected with food services have stated on record that surveys do not accurately reflect student demand.

Moreover, the proposal ignored a well-argued case presented by Students Against Sweatshops, faculty representatives, and Romeo Ramirez, a tomato picker with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers that charged that violations of human rights in Immokalee are inconsistent with both the university's own ethical standards and international standards outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In spite of this, the university had the audacity to claim that they were "behaving in a very ethical manner" even though Taco Bell's presence on campus makes the university complicit in human rights violations.

The administration did little to refute the issue of exploitation in Immokalee, instead arguing that removing Taco Bell from campus was not the best way to improve conditions for farmworkers. Michael Doxey told the students that "if your position would spend the same amount of energy and enthusiasm towards influencing state and federal legislation and regulators to expand and protect farmworkers rights—that would be better served" to make a concrete difference. He went on to argue that a recent report on conditions in Immokalee by Oxfam did not call for a boycott—ignoring a letter sent to the GVSU administration by Oxfam specifically calling for GVSU to remove Taco Bell from campus. Doxey also ignored the fact that farmworkers are explicitly excluded from the legal processes that protect other workers.

Grand Valley State University prides itself, at least in its institutional documents, in producing "engaged global citizens" who "positively affect society" by making "sound ethical judgments" based on a "tradition of humane values." GVSU's Strategic Planning Vision, Mission Statement, and Values Statement state that "In order to foster a healthy and diverse environment, we will act with integrity, communicate respectfully, and accept responsibility for our words and actions"—statements which are explicitly contradicted by the presence of a company that profits from exploitation.

While the administration made vague arguments about not knowing if tomatoes used by Taco Bell really are from Immokalee, Romeo Ramirez, a worker who has experienced picking tomatoes in Immokalee, provided firsthand knowledge of conditions.

"As a young person as young as I am, I have seen slavery first hand. I have experienced exploitation," said Ramirez. He went on to say that "Yum Brands and Six L's have told blatant lies in the past—they've claimed that farmworkers make 9 or 10 $ per hour. I in my own experience can tell you that is a blatant lie farmworkers just barely even make minimum wage and very often don't make minimum wage."

While Doxey verbally trampled on the voices of students demanding Taco Bell be removed from campus, he refused to take a "walk of shame" across a carpet featuring all the signatures from students who have signed petitions. He instead pushed his way through a large group of students chanting "take the walk" and was followed out of the room by students shaking noise makers and chanting "this isn't over."

Despite the university's decision, students and supporters are vowing to continue their efforts, promising that they will not rest until the university upholds its professed ethical commitments and removes Taco Bell from campus.