On Friday, the Daily published Senator Nimmer’s desire to privatize food service on the ISU campus. I cannot speak for the entire student body, but this sounds and awful lot like a similar proposal to put a McDonald’s in the HUB last summer, and I believe that the students demonstrated what they thought of that pretty well. The goal, “to see as much of the university as possible be privatized or associated with private business” is the last thing our university should be doing.

There are two main reasons why I oppose the privatization of food service. First of all, universities were created to support academic freedom, an idea which is new to Mr. Nimmer. Researchers at the university should have the pursuit of knowledge on their agendas, not the pursuit of profit as is the goal of private corporations. Through privatization, the line between university and corporation disappears, and researchers lose the freedom to study that which in the interest of humanity.

Secondly, as has been demonstrated in today’s environment, corporations tend to have very little feelings in terms of the wants and needs of the people. It is not hard to site numerous examples such as: the support of the Burmese dictatorship by Pepsi, the theft of indigenous peoples lands in Chiapas by International Paper, the theft and trashing Ogoni lands in Nigeria by Shell which still produces DDT for sale abroad, the Senate recognized theft of Native American lands in Minnesota by Weyerhaeuser, and the destruction of Iowa farms and rural communities by various other corporations.

I will not claim that all corporations are not bad, however, the companies that truly work in the interest of the people seem to be the exception to the rule in our current society. It is well known that people come before profit, in the words of Charles Hurwitz, corporate raider and leader of the hostile takeover of Pacific Lumber, and the person responsible for the liquidation of the company’s retirement funds, “corporations work by the Golden Rule, he with the gold rules!” Exactly how much of our university do we want to hand over to this type of mentality?

One of Mr. Nimmer’s arguments is that everyone else has privatized food service, so should we. This sounds more like an adolescent complaining to his mother, “But mom, everyone else is doing it!” If we really need a change in food service (do we?) then I recommend that the university set itself apart from other universities by giving contracts to local businesses, supporting local farmers, and providing true benefits to local people, in particular the residents of the halls who benefit the most from campus jobs.

Why should we conform like everyone else when we could be the leader in community supported jobs, and sustainabilty (isn’t that the goal of the Leopold Center). If any decisions are made for change on this university, they should be made to set us apart, let us be the first to have locally supported food service centering on sustainabilty, nutritious foods and tasty foods, and community support. You are absolutely right Senator Nimmer in your assumption that “whatever contracting company taking over food service would take advantage of the students that are there.” Personally I am tired of being taken advantage of.

Fabrice De Clerck

Graduate Student

Forestry