In May of 2017, Kent State University entered into a contract with the Aramark Corporation that granted them full control of dining services for ten years, and they have paid this company 1.1 million dollars for catering in the first year alone, while Kent State has been guaranteed 22.7 million in capital investments from the food giant. On Kent's campus as well as in other academic contract schools, Aramark has consistently paid sub-living wages, created massive amounts of food waste, and ignored the demands of campus dining workers.

Aramark has been the subject of a litany of complaints, fines, and even lawsuits regarding their numerous labor and human rights violations, including substandard food safety and sanitation conditions, blatant wage theft, and the harassment and sexual assault of inmates and workers alike by Aramark management. In addition to complaints from within the prison system, Aramark is profiting off of the detention, deportation, and separation of children from their families at the border, with over 100 contracts with the Department of Homeland Security in the last ten years.

We are appalled that our tuition dollars funds this sort of barbarism in the name of profit. We demand that Kent State University end its partnership with Aramark and stop abetting private companies as they profit billions off of the oppression and degradation of imprisoned individuals by reaping the benefits of perpetuating mass incarceration and a cruel and unjust immigration system.