What ever happened to the Grove Caffe? After years of
neglect, the A.S. Council hired a nonstudent manager to handle the cafe’s
staggering debt and whip the cafe into shape. It’s a sad but common story:
Frazzled parents throw up their hands and farm care-taking responsibilities out
to someone more “qualified.”

But in reality, the council abandoned its quirky
coffee-enterprise child long ago. This debt is only symptomatic of chronic
communication and oversight failures — problems that cannot be solved by simply
adding another step in the bureaucratic ladder, especially because the Grove’s
employees have so adamantly advocated student-only leadership. After all, the
council’s “out of sight, out of mind” attitude is what first pushed the cafe
into debt, when the council’s enterprise office left its student employees to
run a business without any true financial capabilities.

No one can do the enterprise office’s job for it, and
inserting a nebulous advisory committee or a manager who doesn’t even report to
the council will only increase the disconnect.

But blame shouldn’t fall completely on councilmembers. The
Grove’s own employees failed to define their needs as they witnessed their
beloved cafe’s appalling decline firsthand. Rather, the council’s long absence
from the issue has fostered a false sense of importance in student managers,
whose pride now makes them uncooperative.

Just as the council needs to take responsibility for its
dying enterprise, student employees need to set aside their arrogance if they
really want to save the cafe they’re fighting so hard to control.

Frankly, employees had their chance to handle the situation,
but instead allowed the Grove’s financial woes to go unchecked. If anything,
employees should thank the council for finally giving them some attention and
embrace the new manager with open arms.

So while the cafe remains closed, the council shirks its
fundamental duties and the employees pout over the incoming manager, the
Grove’s problems remain, and its future looks painfully bleak. If those
involved really want to solve the debt, their first step should not be to add
more independent figureheads, but to unite the council with its enterprise via
open and clear communication.