As a community of student org leaders, we all know the difficulties of keeping our organizations afloat, maintaining membership, keeping up attendance, keeping interest alive, and etc. At the core of these difficulties is the challenge of bringing excitement and new energy into our membership bases that keep our orgs alive. Part of this excitement is food and more specifically catering. 

If you are a student org leader at TAMUCC, then you have dealt with Chartwells in some form or another. Chartwells is TAMUCC’s designated and sole caterer, on campus, that dominates the market and exercises a monopoly over anything/all things catering. If you are a student org leader or plan on becoming one, then you will have to deal with the fact that you are not allowed to have food, that Chartwells does offer, in your organization meetings without having to “ask for permission” via an exception form. If however, Chartwell does not offer the food you are seeking, then you still have to fill out an exemption form to have said food in your meetings. 

This petition is specifically asking for TAMUCC to amend the policy requiring student org leaders to have to ask permission to have the food of their choice at their own meetings. Student org leaders should never have to ask permission, in any form whatsoever, to have food at their own events. Some of us have little to no money to work with and it is already a huge endeavor to have to pay large sums of money for low quality food (Provided by Chartwells). We want to have our own food provided by the vendor of our choice!!!