Most students surveyed voted to keep Chick-fil-A

Editor’s note: This is in response to the article “ASUNM votes to evict mor chikin,” published in Friday’s Daily Lobo. The article was about ASUNM’s vote to recommend kicking Chick-fil-A out of the SUB. ASUNM conducted a student survey about the restaurant, and 85 percent of students surveyed said they wanted Chick-fil-A to stay. This week, the SUB Board will vote on the restaurant’s future in the SUB.

Editor,

I am the president of the UNM College Republicans and I support Chick-fil-A. I don’t support it because I like chicken, which is what those who support it have been accused of, and I don’t support it because I am a bigot, another hurtful accusation of those in support of Chick-fil-A. I support it because I support freedom of speech. We have members of our organization who are part of the LGBTQ community, and they don’t feel threatened by Chick-fil-A because the issue has not directly affected them.

Shane Windmeyer, a blogger for the Huffington Post and cofounder of the organization Campus Pride, an organization of alliance for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students that has been protesting Chick-fil-A on campuses across the country for nearly a decade, wrote in his blog, “Never once did Dan or anyone from Chick-fil-A ask for Campus Pride to stop protesting Chick-fil-A.

On the contrary, Dan listened intently to our concerns and the real-life accounts from youth about the negative impact that Chick-fil-A was having on campus…”

Windmeyer later goes on to state: “Chick-fil-A shared with me the 2011 IRS Form 990, filed in November for the WinShape Foundation, along with 2012 financials … the financials affirm Chick-fil-A’s values a year prior to the controversy this past July. The nearly $6 million in outside grant funding focuses on youth, education, marriage enrichment and local communities. The funding reflects Chick-fil-A’s promised commitment not to engage in ‘political or social debates,’ and the most divisive anti-LGBT groups are no longer listed.”

In the article from the Daily Lobo, Earl Shank, an ASUNM senator, said, “Chick-fil-A has made contributions to organizations that are opposed to the ideals of certain student groups on campus.” This statement, along with the fact that ASUNM is clearly not listening to the majority of the voices on campus, proves that it’s an extremely biased situation and not every voice is being heard. I’m pretty sure there is only one organization that is the driving force behind getting Chick-fil-A kicked off campus and sure their voices are being heard, but not everyone’s have been.

Had I known that my vote would mean nothing when the survey came out, I would not have wasted my time. I hope the SUB Board makes a better decision and listens to what the majority of the campus is telling them.

Alyssa Perez
UNM student