Nearly three weeks ago, Cholmondeley’s Coffee House (most commonly referred to as “Chum’s”) was shut down by the Brandeis administration. No warning preceded this drastic action; instead, students showed up to work on Saturday March 7th to find the doors to the coffee house locked and the pad locks changed. Without proper warning, or a clear explanation as to why administration acted how it did, thirteen workers became unemployed and the beloved Chum’s coffee house was closed.
So, what happened? On Friday March 6th, two students had smoked in the back room of Chum’s, setting off the fire alarm. The two Chum’s staff working during the incident neglected to evacuate the building, breaking safety regulations. Brandeis Administration said in a written announcement to students that part of the reasons Chum’s was closed was due to improper hygiene practices in Chum’s.
While both of these are valid reasons for administration being upset, it does not seem justified by any means to shut down the entire coffee house. Students and alumni have expressed their outrage via phone calls, Facebook posts, tweets, and emails. Students have raised their voice, yet Chum’s remains closed.
I spoke with sophomore Ethan Seletsky about his opinions and thoughts on the closing of Chum’s. Seletsky has worked at Chum’s for two years as a service worker. His sentiments are expressed below.
“The closing of Chum’s to me really feels like a disregard for student rights and the merit of student run spaces. I always heard a lot about Chum’s even before I came to Brandeis and the way the administration promoted it on tours and online made me believe that they really respected students and believed in the value of having spaces run by students. Unfortunately, the closing has given evidence to the belief that the Brandeis administration really views student run spaces as promotional tools rather than as places for students and that they really only respect the rights of students when it is convenient for them.”
Many people view Chum’s as a sacred place for student discussion and expression of self, by closing this space, students do not have that same freedom or privacy to express themselves as they once were able to.
There were definitely health concerns regarding the way in which Chums was operated, however Seletsky says that Chums staff had been working on a way to remedy that situation before it was shut down.
“I understand having to take precautions to make sure the place is clean and safe but threatening the jobs of 13 students is not the way to do it.”
We, the Chum’s staff, met with Steph Grimes and Robbie Steinberg to discuss how Chum’s could be improved moving forward. We, the staff, displayed many proposals in order to address the areas that could use improvement. We did this as a display of our commitment to Chum’s and our desire to make it the best place it can be. Unfortunately, those plans, rather than be acted upon in the present, have been put on hold because Student Activities chose to fire all of us (which they later backtracked on as our positions are now on hold with pay). The administration had a choice between working with us and improving Chum’s… Instead they violated their own student employment handbook (the employment handbook states that termination requires a verbal and written warning before actual termination. Student Activities chose to ignore this and remove all 13 workers from their positions)…. We understand that health and safety are extremely important which is why we had plans to be trained by public safety, we were to be implementing a system of higher accountability between chums workers including a manager-on-call system so there would always be experienced individuals to help others, there would be managers explicitly dedicated to the areas of safety and food (a space manager and food manager respectively), and there would be a rights and responsibilities for the workers of Chums so incidents such as this would not happen again. Sadly, all of those plans have been placed on hold.”
This begs the question as to why administration has decided to shut down Chums if the necessary steps were in order to change the problematic areas of the Chums business.
“We of Chum’s want nothing more than to return to work and improve the space so many love and cherish. However, we are stuck with the administration refusing to guarantee the positions of workers who never did anything more than go to work and do their jobs. It is disappointing to say the least that Student Activities seem to have such a hard time actually communicating with students…We have been able to make some progress with Andrew Flagel representing the administration but we would like to see the administration match our priorities.”
Many students have expressed the same outrage as Seletsky and confusion as to why the administration acted how it did. The Chum’s staff and community have worked tirelessly to “Save Chums” but their fight is long from over. To conclude, Seletsky wrote a closing statement expressing the opinions and agenda of himself and his fellow employees.
“The priorities of the Chums staff are as follows: the respect of student rights, the continued success of the Chums space, having the positions of those without serious marks against them restored, to serve the Brandeis community, and provide a space for the students of Brandeis. As it is now, Chums is being handled ineptly by Student Activities and it is a mockery of what it is intended to be. We want to see an administration that works with its students and values their rights. Above all else, we just want to be treated fairly, have our rights respected, and we want to return to work to make chums the best it can be.”