A.S. COUNCIL ‘mdash; Sure, it was pretty shocking that the A.S. Council moved to keep the Grove Caffe open in 2007, even after the enterprise had slipped significantly into the red and then-co-owner Ron Carlson jumped ship, leaving students in the vulnerable position to bear the debt alone.
It was pretty shocking that in less than a year, the new council-hired professional manager Cleveland Thomas threw logic and reasonable business practices to the wind, alienated the majority of Grove enthusiasts and quintupled the decades-acquired debt he was hired to fix.
It was pretty shocking that even as councilmembers ran a referendum to increase student fees this winter and campaigned on platforms of fiscal transparency and council accountability a quarter later, none were concerned with their $126,000-in-debt enterprise.
And it’s pretty shocking that Grove employees’ only response to all of this ‘mdash; and to the cafe’s possible closure ‘mdash; is to sell cheap T-shirts, hand out candy on Library Walk and rally for more funding.
But nothing looks shocking about this Wednesday’s A.S. meeting, at which councilmembers will discuss and decide the Grove’s fate in eerily 2007-esque fashion. The meeting will be preceded by an A.S. Forum ‘mdash; proven, of course, to be the most effective way of judging student opinion and informing complex financial decisions, based on its ability to draw neutral input from all types of students, rather than, you know, just attracting the handful of people who are personally invested in keeping their jobs at the cafe.
Although this big choice is just two days away, councilmembers remain uninformed about the Grove’s current state of affairs. Associate Vice President of Enterprise Operations Chelsea Maxwell, who has been responsible for overseeing Grove success and acting as a council-enterprise liaison for the last two years, doesn’t know what’s been going on at the cafe and has no recommendations for the council. Vice President of Finance and Resources Naasir Lakhani, who is responsible for council finances, is one of the Grove’s fiercest supporters despite its persistent monetary losses. And cafe employees, who will plead their case at the council meeting and still haven’t come up with a concrete business plan, are plowing blindly ahead on a whine and a prayer.
By all accounts, Thomas ‘mdash; sailing on salary until his contract ends in June ‘mdash; has checked out, giving student managers Thomas Frank and Autumn Hays free reign over the place (which, according to current and former student employees, has only added to the cafe’s inefficiency). The pair will now present their ‘business plan’ ‘mdash; a random and largely unfeasible wishlist that lacks any semblance of fiscal analysis or historical perspective ‘mdash; to the council.
The plan includes a mo
ve away from coffee drinks toward lunch food, even though much of the current debt was accrued when Thomas updated coffee and espresso-machine equipment. Frank and Hays said they plan to stay with the same food vendors, but haven’t researched the expenses involved with an increase in food or if customers are even interested.
Moreover, they want to purchase a conveyor oven (the several-thousand-dollar cost of which they have no plan to fund) to mimic the dining commons’ pizza and sandwich service, trading one campus surplus for another.
The pair also proposes that the council relocate Bear Gardens to the Grove and pay the cafe to cater those events. Forget for a moment that this would likely increase event costs for a worse product, and would mean throwing even more student money at the failing cafe ‘mdash; it simply isn’t feasible. According to Associate Vice President of Programming Garrett Berg, whose office plans Bear Gardens, the Grove lacks the necessary space and resources.
Most outrageously, Frank and Hays have suggested that the council fund the enterprise as if it were a student org (and as if absorbing a $126,000 debt wasn’t enough). This illustrates one of the fundamental problems with the Grove: No one seems to recognize it’s a business that should be making money for the council, not the other way around. The purpose of an enterprise is to bring the Associated Students revenue so the council’s budget won’t be so desperately dependent on student fees.
The cafe’s future looks bleak: Grove managers and employees remain completely out of touch, and councilmembers (particularly those specifically charged with overseeing the enterprise) remain unconcerned and even disinterested. But despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some councilmembers are stubbornly attached to the floundering cafe. Students can only hope that this year’s council really has the institutional memory it brags about, finally bringing an end to this ballooning debt ‘mdash; rather than meeting the Grove’s give-us-one-more-chance presentation with 2007’s leave-it-to-the-next-council mentality.
Readers can contact Hadley Mendoza at [email protected].