To The UCSD Administration and UC Regents:
We the undersigned members of the University and San Diego Community are writing to express concern regarding the process and the timing of the university’s recent decision to issue the Che Cafe Collective a notice of termination. The Che Cafe has been in its current space for the past 34 years, operating as a restaurant, a kitchen for wholesaling prepared food, and as an event programming space. It has garnered an international reputation within the underground music scene as a unique space that is run by students and community members for that community itself, operating as a safe and alcohol free space that is one of very few all-ages venues in San Diego. It has been on the right side of history several times in the past, standing in solidarity with the people of South Africa during the apartheid regime, with the people of Central America during the wars of the 1980s, and stood for free speech at the university in the difficult period after September 11, 2001 when such essential rights were being challenged. The students obtained a temporary restraining order from the court, but the issue is currently still pressing and unresolved.
The system of student owned and managed Co-Ops at UCSD are an incredible opportunity for students to participate in all aspects of business organization and decision making, and are democratically run entirely by their members. These businesses are an asset to the university, one that comes at a very low cost relative to alternatives that would expose students to the real roles and responsibilities that are part of business management, as well as the processes of communication, collaboration, and cooperation that are invaluable to any member of our society. It is hard to imagine a comparable experience, or even one that offers a fraction of the educational value vis-a-vis business and employee ownership, that wouldn’t cost the university a great deal more. In fact, the Co-ops at UCSD are primarily self-sustaining, operating in facilities that are funded by student self-assessed fees levied decades ago, which are not part of the larger pool of money that the campus must dedicate to facilities and physical infrastructure.
The Che Cafe offers the opportunity for students to take responsibility for bookkeeping, negotiations with the University as landlord, ordering of supplies for a restaurant, menu planning, contract negotiation with artists, accounting, non-profit 501(c)3 status filings, scheduling - in short, the full range of responsibilities that are part of operating a business. This is an unparalleled experiential education and co-curricular activity that is extremely difficult to come by at any university in the US, one that supplements and greatly extends academic and in-class education for students, as well as personal and intellectual development. Che Cafe alumni who are now business owners, medical doctors, public policy analysts, academics, and participants in a wide range of other fields have stated that they feel they greatly benefited from their time at the Che Cafe and the UCSD Coops.
We question the wisdom of the University administration’s decision to evict the Che Cafe from its current space, which is essential to its continued functioning in line with the principles upon which it was founded. The University Center Advisory Board, citing inflated figures for deferred maintenance and improvements that are the result of sustained neglect on the part of the University Centers as landlord, voted in a closed session to defund the Che Cafe on May 23 after a long list of dozens of public attendees expressed support for the Che Cafe over the course of several meetings. At the same time, the Graduate’s Students’ Association-UCSD, in its own resolution “decertifying” the Che Cafe on June 2, relied upon this vote and the financial argument it was predicated upon. It bears mention that the GSA-UCSD voted on this same resolution two weeks before, but had to reintroduce the resolution because it violated the terms of the agreement by failing to give even 24 hours’ notice to the Che Cafe of the pending vote to decertify. The University administration then used the GSA resolution as the basis for its own notice of termination of the Master Space Agreement with the Che Cafe, delivered to the students at the end of their finals week giving them 30 days to vacate the space they have occupied for 34 years, over the summer when the campus is largely away and there is no effective avenue for debate or dispute resolution.
This process has raised many questions regarding the integrity and propriety of the University’s actions, as well as those of the GSA-UCSD. At a minimum, this should be debated more fully in the fall, with the entire campus community present and with sufficient time for discussion, negotiation, and dispute resolution. The University’s timing, with actions taken at the end of the school year and inflated costs presented to representative bodies, is ethically questionable. Additionally, there was no such vote to decertify the Che Cafe by the Associated Students-UCSD, arguably a much more representative body as regards the wishes of the students at UCSD.
We ask that the UCSD Chancellor convene a public town hall meeting to discuss the situation. We respectfully request that the campus administration account for its actions, and that it withdraw the notice of termination so that this matter can be handled on a more appropriate timeline and in a more open manner when the campus community has fully returned during the fall quarter. UCSD needs more of these educational opportunities, not fewer.
Respectfully Yours,
University Professional and Technical Employees - UPTE-CWA 9119, Local 9, UCSD
United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2865, UCSD (Teaching Assistants and Student Employees)