by Aura Bogado
Colorlines - Wed, Apr 29, 2015
Columbia University, an Ivy League school that spans about six Manhattan blocks, has 12 cafés, lounges and dining halls. According to several student activists and an employee, dining service workers who keep the students and faculty fed have been barred from speaking Spanish on the job. They also add that for several months, workers in one eatery, Butler lounge, were told to have their meals in a small utility closet that also housed a garbage can. A group of students from a campus economic justice organiation, Student Worker Solidarity (SWS), is now petitioning the university to stop these practices.
SWS member Alex Hastings, who attends Barnard, the women’s college affiliated with Columbia, says she noticed that dining hall workers weren’t responding to students speaking to them in Spanish. She says she also saw Butler workers take their meals in the closet. The college junior sought a meeting with Vicki Dunn, who runs Columbia’s dining services. Dunn wasn't available so on April 15, Hastings, along with a friend, Sasha Hill, met with assistant director Justine Sacks and executive chef Michael DeMartino instead.
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