Dear Editor,
In the April 20 article, ‘This Time It’s Serious. No, Really.’ about the Grove Caffe, Hadley Mendoza wrote: ‘Students can only hope that this year’s council really has the institutional memory it brags about.’
Let’s be honest, neither the A.S. Council nor the Guardian has institutional memory. Neither source has past minutes or articles easily available and searchable online, and both organizations’ members are always changing yearly or even monthly, so memory relies on those who choose to save information themselves or keep their synapses intact.
Let’s look at institutional memory ‘mdash; back to the Grove’s glory days when lines were long and food was great. Before the A.S. commissioner of services and enterprises ‘mdash; it used to be one combined office ‘mdash; couldn’t figure out if it was ‘Caffe’ or ‘Cafe.’
The Grove used to be owned and operated with love by Ron Carlson, until the council decided to try to fully own an enterprise it couldn’t and didn’t want to handle.
The A.S. Council has a history of horrible business management and financial decisions ‘mdash; often dipping into its mandate reserves fund to bail itself out of another debacle.
Even the administration doesn’t trust the A.S. Council to own anything, as evidenced by our complete lack of control and ownership over the Price Center and Student Center expansions and the SRTV shutdown of 2005.
Councilmembers can whine about what happened to the Grove, but it is their own fault. They chose to buy it out from the previous owner; they chose to not promote it. The Grove isn’t even listed on the A.S. Web site as an enterprise. They chose to hire inept people to run it, and now they are choosing to let it die. How many councilmembers have ever even eaten there?
Go back to when the Grove had delicious and fresh brie sandwiches instead of prepackaged junk. Back to when the coffee was great and people hung out to play bongos, study and chat. Even back to the recent fight to get meal points there in 2005, which was almost immediately forgotten. Even the current ‘Save the Grove Caffe’ fight rests on bad coffee and spelling mistakes.
I’m all in favor of saving the Grove and not letting it die into a new office space, but it will require the tremendous effort of people who both care and have good business sense. I don’t think the current A.S. Council has either. Its best bet is to give the Grove to someone who does, like its thrown-away idea of the Rady School or a business-savvy alum.
My institutional memory hopes the Grove stays alive.
[Editor’s note: Ron Carlson made a personal decision to sell his share of the Grove Caffe in 2007.]