Students Stage Sit-in to Protest Food Service Company's Prison Ties

In December members of the Ithaca College chapter of Young Democratic Socialists occupied the Office of Admissions in Job Hall for 34 hours. They were protesting the College's contract with food service provider Sodexho Marriott Services, which had taken over from the previous provider, Chartwells, last May. Students had actively participated in the food service firm selection process that brought SMS to campus. They'd reviewed, along with College administrators, detailed proposals offered by SMS, Chartwells, and four other companies. Students also made unannounced on-campus assessment visits to each competitor's comparable college and university clients. The decision to make SMS the College's food service provider had been unanimous among students and administrators alike.

Sodexho's parent firm, Paris-based Sodexho Alliance, owns 48 percent of SMS and also owns about 17 percent stock in the Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison company. The protesters charged that students living on campus are forced to invest in the Corrections Corporation through their meal plans. Because private prisons are unregulated, YDS students claim, they can profit from the misfortunes of others and treat prisoners poorly with no repercussions. The protest was the culmination of YDS's semester-long campaign against Sodexho Marriott, which included rallying at the free speech rock and scrawling "Dump Sodexho" graffiti across campus.

The sit-in began at about 12:15 on the afternoon of December 5. Seven members of YDS pledged not to leave the admissions office or take outside food or water until President Peggy Ryan Williams signed a statement breaking the College's contract with SMS. An additional 13 student protesters occupied Alumni Hall for a few hours the same afternoon. The president held a private meeting with the 7 students in admissions, in which she agreed to have the administration research the private prisons issue, present their findings to the student body, and share the YDS concerns with Sodexho and with the College Board of Trustees. She and the students agreed that the College would make a final decision by March 19 concerning its contract with Sodexho.

Alleged violations of the student conduct code led to judicial referral for 18 students connected with the December protests. All 7 of the admissions office occupiers and 11 of those who occupied Alumni Hall were referred for allegedly disrupting or obstructing College business, entering College facilities without authorization, and violating the student conduct code.

In February the president hosted a community forum on the issue, with panelists Bob Stern, lead attorney for SMS; Michael Jacobson, professor of criminal justice from John Jay College; and Kevin Pranis, a representative of the national Prison Moratorium Project that has helped IC's YDS students stage their protests. President Williams was grateful for the input as part of the information-gathering process. On March 19 the college announced its decision to retain Sodexho Marriott.