Dear President Nixon:

We call on you as Berea College’s President to:

1. End our College's relationship with Starbucks and procurement of its products by requiring our Cafes and Dining Services to terminate all procurement and licensing agreements with Starbucks by the end of the Spring 2025 Semester. If this is not legally possible, we ask you to provide a timeline for the termination of all procurement and licensing agreements with Starbucks by the end of Spring 2025.

2. Redirect our institutional resources toward local and ethical coffee suppliers and alternatives that reflect Berea’s values and Great Commitments by August 2025.

3. Ensure no changes to the wages, benefits, staffing, or hours of all Cafe and Dining Services employees and ensure a transparent and equitable transition through this process.

As students committed to Berea’s abolitionist history and its mission to drive and inspire positive change, we are deeply concerned with our College’s ongoing relationship with Starbucks Corporation. With students nationwide at campuses like UCLA and Cornell successfully organizing to divest from Starbucks and baristas going on strike for a fair contract only a few months ago, Berea College’s decision to expand our relationship into a new Starbucks-branded cafe on campus was out of touch. As Bereans, we have a responsibility to set a better standard.

Berea College was founded on the values of impartial love and justice, exemplified by its motto, “God Has Made of One Blood All Peoples of the Earth.” These principles encourage us to create a learning environment that supports student activism, ethical decision-making, and community well-being. Upholding principles of democracy and shared governance, we believe students should have a voice in decisions impacting our community. However, the sudden decision to establish a Sodexo-operated Starbucks licensee on our campus contradicts Berea’s mission, values, and Great Commitments.

Starbucks’ practices and affiliations conflict with Berea’s commitments to justice, sustainability, and the dignity of labor. Nearly 15% of its shares are owned by investment companies BlackRock and Vanguard Group, which are also major investors in industries such as arms manufacturing. In recent years Starbucks has violated federal labor law hundreds of times to prevent and delay baristas unionizing, including firing employees, denying raises and benefits, and closing stores in retaliation against worker-organizing efforts. Such actions are fundamentally at odds with our Great Commitment to honor “the dignity and utility of all labor,” as well as our history of supporting social and workers’ movements.

Berea’s Great Commitments to Supportive and Sustainable Living and to Appalachia call on us to prioritize local investment and insourcing over outsourcing. Historic investments into our campus and surrounding community, such as Frost Cafe, the Community School, or the Outdoor Theater at the Pinnacles point to the amazing and unique social infrastructure and third spaces we can build when we come together as a community. We urge Berea to continue this legacy by fostering partnerships with ethical and local businesses, rather than initiating relationships with multinational corporations without a local stake.

We call on you as Berea College’s President to end Berea’s procurement of Starbucks products and licensing agreements, aligning our practices with our values. Together, we can strengthen our campus and community by making decisions that reflect Berea’s mission and inspire positive change.

We invite our fellow students, as well as faculty, staff, alumni, community members, and friends of Berea to stand with us and sign this petition alongside us,

Fill out the form below or to the right to sign this petition. Signatures will not be released publicly but will be included on a paper copy of this petition delivered to Berea College's Administration.