Cal Poly faculty call for Chick-fil-A ban; compare chicken chain to porn, Hooters

A faculty body at California Polytechnic University is calling on the administration to kick Chick-fil-A off campus because of its owner’s political inclinations, with the senate vice chair even comparing the presence of the chicken chain on campus to pornography and Hooters. 

The Cal Poly academic senate, a faculty body, passed a resolution Tuesday calling for the removal of the franchise, which has been a campus dining staple for 25 years, according to KCBX.  However, the establishment signed a five-year renewal contract with the university just last year, reported the San Luis Obispo Tribune. It also happens to be the only Chick-fil-A in the entire county, grossing $2 million in 2018 sales.  

According to Cal Poly professor and Academic Senate Vice Chair Thomas Gutierrez, Chick-fil-A’s donations to “anti-LGBTQ” groups are grounds for removal of the establishment from campus. He claims that these donations don’t align with the university’s values.  

[RELATED: Texas Christian college student gov votes to ban Chick-fil-A]

“We don’t sell pornography in the bookstore and we don’t have a Hooters on campus — we already pre-select those kinds of things based on our existing values,” Gutierrez explained, according to Mustang News. “This is a similar thing, the difference is we’re actually profiting from this. So our money, every dollar a student is spending at Chick-fil-A, is going to these causes that are in violation of our values.”

Chick-fil-A has responded to the media’s repeated mischaracterization of its donations, particularly donations made to three groups often dubbed “anti-LGBTQ.”  These groups are the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Paul Anderson Youth Home.

“The work of the Foundation is committed to youth and education. The Foundation’s giving helps with economic mobility of young people by focusing on homelessness and poverty, education, and community revitalization, and is done with no political or social agenda,” the company stated. “The narrative that our giving was done to support a political or non-inclusive agenda is inaccurate and misleading.”

[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Rider Univ refuses to bring Chick-Fil-A to campus, despite students’ demands]

“It is the right of each campus member to make their own decisions about supporting – or not supporting – a given business at Cal Poly,” university spokesman Matt Lazier said, reported Mustang News, adding that the school has no plans boot the fast-food franchise off campus and suggesting that kicking the franchise off campus would constitute censorship.

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UPDATE: A previous version of this story referred to the academic senate as a student body, but it is actually comprised of faculty.