Which is worse: having Charles Murray on your campus, or having Chick fil-A on your campus?
Around the same time that protesters were gathering at Indiana University to try to shut down a speech by the Bell Curve author, who is now deemed a "white supremacist" because he has linked America's growing class divide to intelligence, protesters at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania began trying to shut down a planned opening of a branch of the chicken chain at Options, the official name of the campus fast-food court.
The stated reason: "fear."
Fear of what? Well, let's see. Chick fil-A's president, Dan Cathy, admitted in 2012 that the company had donated to organizations that oppose same-sex marriage. And even though the company has since nearly completely canceled its direct-donation policy, Cathy's five-year-old remark puts Chick fil-A permananently onto the social-justice blacklist, especially on college campuses, where food courts are supposed to be "safe places" free of any lingering trauma that the sight of a signature chicken sandwich from Chick fil-A might cause to delicate student flowers.
So, as Campus Reform reports:
…Duquesne University Student Senator Niko Martini has reignited concerns over the company’s past by proposing a resolution at the Student Government Association’s (SGA) March 26 meeting to nix the restaurant from a list of proposed overhauls to the school’s dining options.
“Chick-fil-A has a questionable history on civil rights and human rights,” Martini remarked in a statement to The Duquesne Duke. “I think it’s imperative [that] the university chooses to do business with organizations that coincide with the [university’s] mission and expectations they give students regarding diversity and inclusion.”
While Martini’s initial resolution ultimately failed, the SGA did agree to consider an alternate resolution that would allow for a vetting process of the on-campus Chick-fil-A, according to The Duke.
Martini has the wholehearted support of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, of which he serves on the executive board, with the group’s president calling the fast-food chain a threat to her peers’ “safe place.”
I’ve tried very hard within the last semester and a half to promote this safe environment for the LGBTQ community. So I fear that with the Chick-fil-A being in Options [an on-campus food court] that maybe people will feel that safe place is at risk,” Rachel Coury explained, adding that at the very least her organization would like “someone” to “make a statement” on the issue.
Duquesne is scarcely the only campus beset by chicken-sandwich anxiety.
In January the student government at the University of Nebraska-Kearney voted to ban Chick fil-A from the campus on the ground, as one student put it, that the mere presence of the chain would constitute a "microaggression" against students. Similar measures have passed student assemblies at Elon University, Davidson College, the University of New Mexico, New York University, and Wichita State University. A professor at Eastern Illinois University called the chain's distinctive poultry logo a "hate" symbol.
The irony at Duquesne is that the university invited Chick fil-A to its food court specifically because students had asked for more "chicken" and fresh food on the menua. A March statement from Duquesne's administration reads:
Nearly everything from the Chick-fil-A menu is made daily from scratch and chicken is made of 100% whole breast meat, without fillers, hormones or additives. In addition to its signature chicken sandwich, Chick-fil-A's diverse menu includes grilled chicken, waffle fries, a kale and broccolini salad, new sauces, a barbecue-bacon sandwich and salads which are made with fresh vegetables and fruits that are hand-chopped throughout the day. Hand-spun milkshakes will also be available in addition to homemade lemonade.
But apparently the university's "mission" is actually to cater to whatever trendy outrage its students happen to be feeling.