News > April 19, 2007

By Liza Greenspun | News editor

Following the announcement that the university is planning to replace Shorty’s with a full-functioning Starbucks, reactions among the campus community were immediate. Connie Carson, assistant vice president of campus services and planning, said that she has talked to students who both support and oppose bringing a Starbucks to campus in the location currently known as Shorty’s.

“I think the general feeling on campus is that students are concerned their social hang-out place will be taken away from them,” Student Government president senior Shannon Philmon said.

She said students, faculty and staff want to see more time go into the decision, as they feel that a decision has been made without input from the greater university community.

An electronic survey was posted online for students last week, and a separate survey was given to faculty and staff members, Carson said, but she has not yet had time to get through all of the results.

Senior Meg Robinson said she and a friend decided to start a Facebook group expressing their sentiments about saving Shorty’s when they found out about the plan to replace it with Starbucks.

“We were just dumbstruck,” Robinson said.

Robinson said that she and some of her friends decided at the beginning of the year that they should get together and have happy hour in Shorty’s in order to better utilize the campus tradition.

“We recognized that it was kind of an underused resource,” Robinson said.

The Facebook group started by Robinson is titled “Save Shorty’s,” and had about 700 members.

The description of the group states: “We believe that the energy and resources of the university should be invested in preserving the time-honored institution of Shorty’s, rather than bringing a faceless corporation onto campus. Shorty’s preserves the history of Wake Forest’s student life; we must help preserve Shorty’s!”

Robinson said that tradition seems to be a main focus of the university this year, but she does not believe that the university community should only be concerned with creating new traditions.

“I think the actual definition of tradition has to do with time-honored events and places.”

“Shorty’s is a living museum of student life,” Dylan Morris, ’04, said.

“Doing away with it entirely would be truly tragic and would be going against everything I have heard from the university in recent years about the preservation of our heritage and traditions.”

It also provides a form e-mail that can be sent. Carson said she has received about 15 of these form e-mails.

The wall of the group hosts discussions about the costs of having a Starbucks on campus for both Shorty’s and Campus Grounds. Several alumni as well as current university students expressed their concern.

“I think it is an absolute disgrace to destroy what serves – not only as a coffee shop or campus bar – but as a memorial to Wake Forest student life, in exchange for lack-luster

overpriced coffee and one more corporate flag to wave over the campus,” Morris said.

Morris said that he grew up in Wake Forest, N.C., and has fond childhood memories of going to Shorty’s and eating hot dogs with his parents.

“The Shorty’s that current students and us recent alumni are familiar with has attempted to serve as a surrogate host to that sense of spirit,” he said.

Carson said that the current location of Shorty’s does not meet the needs of students due to hours and facility limitations and the fact that it would not physically be feasible to build a kitchen in the Benson University Center.

It is not possible for Shorty’s to be open later than Benson, with the side door being the only entrance and exit, due to fire safety issues and the fact that the only restrooms are located inside Benson, Carson said. “We’re supportive of student tradition, we’re just not sure that the current venue is covering that,” she said.

Carson said that a plan for an all-day and late-night venue on campus has been included in the master dining plan, so a Shorty’s could return to campus in the future.

However, there is currently no set date or time for the construction of such a venue.

Two students have created Facebook groups in response to the Save Shorty’s group.

One such group is called “Students for the removal of Shorty’s,” created by sophomore Nick Venditti.

While it does not emphasize that Shorty’s should be replaced specifically by a Starbucks, the group picture is the Starbucks logo.

“For most of the people I talked to, we’ve only been to Shorty’s a handful of times and it just wasn’t a great experience,” Venditti said.

“I don’t think that Shorty’s serves a real purpose.” He said that people can still meet in a Starbucks as they do now in Shorty’s.

Venditti said that he personally likes Campus Grounds a lot, but it is often crowded and he still supports a Starbucks on campus.

He is not fazed by the speculation that Starbucks would run Campus Grounds out of business. “We live in a capitalistic economy,” Venditti said.

Another group, called “Welcome Starbucks To Wake!,” was created by freshman Carl Jablonski. This group currently has 34 members, and the group description states, “some of the feelings concerning saving Shorty’s have validity as the hangout has some tradition behind it (though few patrons), but the fuss over Campus Grounds is ridiculous. If you can’t turn a profit selling coffee on a college campus with no legitimate competition, you should lose your right to exist as a business.”

While this description may seem harsh or offensive, Jablonski said he never meant to offend the workers at Campus Grounds.

Jablonski said that he created the group as sort of a joke because he was frustrated with the apathy of university students.

Over 500 people would get together to save Shorty’s, he said, but not even 50 people would get together to raise their voices for peace or for an AIDS rally.

“It seemed like this was almost kind of frivolous compared to some of the other things,” he said.

Robinson and the other officers of the Save Shorty’s group created an event called “Beers in Shorty’s,” to occur each day this week from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Shorty’s. “It’s basically happy hour in Shorty’s,” Robinson said of the event. According to Robinson, about 70 people attended the first day of the protest on April 16.

She said that at the event there was dialogue about the Shorty’s vs. Starbucks issue, as well as everyday conversations.

“It promotes dialogue about the issue and fulfills the purpose of Shorty’s in the best possible way,” Robinson said, adding that Starbucks would be more of a study venue instead of a social venue like Shorty’s.

Philmon agreed that the protest has helped Shorty’s, as people have actually taken the time to look at the memorabilia on the walls and read the plaque at the entrance.

“There’s no better way to protest than drinking beer,” she said.

Philmon, who met with University President Nathan O. Hatch about the issue, said that she knows first hand that the administration does take students’ concerns to heart. According to Philmon, she and incoming SG pesident, junior Whitney Marshall, asked Hatch for more time before the construction of Starbucks begins, but a response has not yet been given.

If Starbucks is brought to campus, those who work there will still be ARAMARK employees, Carson said. However, they will be required to go through the qualified Starbucks training that all Starbucks employees have.

According to Carson, ARAMARK is one of Starbucks biggest corporate partners.

Overall, Philmon said she is happy with the reaction of the campus. “It’s really pleasing for SG to see action taking place after the fact,” she said.