Coffee At Campus Registers

After years of effort by student advocacy groups, Fair Trade coffee will be available in the university dining halls for the first time today as a result of collaboration between the Department of Dining Services and the Residence Halls Association.

The RHA voted last fall to recommend a switch to a coffee provider that is Fair Trade certified - an assurance its farmers receive fair payment from the sales of their products - on the condition that each student would pay no more than $5 extra for the new coffee contract. Dining Services was finally able to negotiate such a contract in mid-January.

For the rest of the semester, Fair Trade coffee will be available behind the cashiers only. Students who wish to purchase it will have to pay a higher price per cup.

Starting in the fall, Fair Trade coffee will be the only coffee available in the dining halls, and all students will be charged an extra $2 on their meal plans to cover the extra cost of Fair Trade coffee. This $2 fee will remain a part of the meal plan cost for as long as Dining Services chooses to use Fair Trade coffee.

Dining Services Advisory Board member Sumner Handy said students should not expect another price increase unless the price of coffee changes.

Fair Trade coffee has been a hot topic among several student groups since 2002, when the Fair Trade Advocacy Club started lobbying for the use of Fair Trade coffee. Since then, the Student Government Association passed two resolutions related to Fair Trade coffee, and RHA has been working to create a pilot plan that would allow the coffee to be used in the dining halls without making students pay a large fee.

"I don't think Dining Services was happy about it at first," Handy said, adding that once officials saw students really supported Fair Trade products, they were more willing to look into finding a Fair Trade contract.

The driving force behind getting a contract was the Fair Trade Advocacy Club. The club's president, Richard Randall Doak, has tried since his freshman year to get such a contract and is pleased with the results.