Notre Dame Students Create Petition to Keep Chick-fil-A Off Campus - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Notre Dame Students Create Petition to Keep Chick-fil-A Off Campus
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The campus of the University of Notre Dame (Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com)

Students at the University of Notre Dame are not hungry for Chick-fil-A’s famous chicken sandwiches. 

On Thursday, two students published a letter to the editor in the school’s student newspaper, the Observer, demanding the school reconsider its still unsettled plan to put a Chick-fil-A in the student center. The students have also created a petition for the cause, which has now been signed by more than 60 students and a dozen faculty members. 

Chief among the students’ concerns is Chick-fil-A’s “long history of antagonism toward the LGBTQ+ community.” This “antagonism” includes donations to the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the Paul Anderson Youth Home. Chick-fil-A ceased donations to these charities in 2017 after LGBTQ activists objected to the Christian charities’ stances on gay marriage. 

“We have serious ethical concerns regarding Chick-fil-A and believe that a variety of other restaurants would better fit Notre Dame’s mission and our student body’s needs,” students Tilly Keeven-Glascock and Joey Jegier wrote in their letter to the editor. 

The students also objected to Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s supposedly “homophobic views” and “regressive leadership.” 

“Even though Chick-fil-A has halted the worst of its donations, patronizing Chick-fil-A means lining Cathy’s pockets,” Keeven-Glascock and Jegier wrote.  

The students also noted that the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ activist organization, gave Chick-fil-A a “0” on its “Corporate Equality Index.”

But it’s not just the fast-food chain’s “antagonism toward the LGBTQ+ community” that turned the students off to the restaurant. They also objected to the company’s “participation in animal agriculture.”

“Factory-farmed animals suffer brutal lives filled with abuse and cruelty,” Keevan-Glascock and Jegier wrote, adding that “animal agriculture is environmentally unsustainable.”

The students also said that Chick-fil-A is not suitable for Notre Dame’s “diverse campus community” because it does not provide options for vegetarians and vegans. 

“A restaurant closed on Sundays is not best for a bustling, hungry college campus,” the Notre Dame students added.

Keeven-Glascock and Jegier offered an alternative solution to Notre Dame’s administration: bring a CoreLife Eatery to campus — a restaurant whose specialty is “greens & grains” bowls.

Earlier this year, students at Notre Dame created an Instagram account calling on the administration to put a Chick-fil-A on campus. Candidates for Notre Dame student body president have also made putting a Chick-fil-A on or near campus part of their campaign platform

In 2012, students at Northeastern University successfully convinced their university to cancel plans to place a Chick-fil-A on campus over concerns about the chain’s “support of groups opposed to gay and lesbian rights.”

Ellie Gardey
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Ellie Gardey is Reporter and Associate Editor at The American Spectator. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where she studied political science, philosophy, and journalism. Ellie has previously written for the Daily Caller, College Fix, and Irish Rover. She is originally from Michigan. Follow her on X at @EllieGardey. Contact her at egardey@spectator.org.
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