Management has done nothing to address the demands of the Reclaim the Commons campaign, demands that have been endorsed by the DGSC. Two of our deadlines for them passed on March 1. The final one is coming up on March 31. Their inaction in inexcusable!
Reclaim the commons demands
- Reopen the cafeteria immediately. In tandem with a committee of student, faculty and staff advisers, management must provide a public plan by March 31 for reopening the cafeteria. Before the cafeteria is reopened, management must begin providing a daily low-cost hot food option to the college community. Vending machines are not enough, and expecting individuals to purchase food in midtown on less than a living wage is unacceptable.
-
Support students, faculty and staff in transforming the Dining Commons into a communal space. By March 1, senior administration must establish a fund that will sustain the existing People’s Pantry and purchase furnishing and amenities for a more social and community-centered space. There must also be more community autonomy in decisions about future revenue-generating reservations of the space to non-GC entities. Additionally, political expression in the Commons must be affirmed as a positive right and cannot be restricted by administrative fiat.
-
Increase transparency around kitchen management. In 2021, $900,000 dollars was allocated by vote to kitchen repairs—and yet there seemingly has been no progress in renovations. We demand management post a public report on the kitchen and the unaccounted-for funds by March 1. We also demand that the Auxiliary Enterprise Corporation, which manages GC food services and space reservations, become compliant with Open Meetings Law.
Now we need your support more than ever. Join the Reclaim the Commons listserv to stay informed about the actions we’re planning, and please donate to support the People’s Pantry (Venmo: Zoe-Hu-1).
If you are interested in putting on an event in the Commons, please get in touch with us: gcreclaimcommons@gmail.com
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
