Last semester, Davidson College announced its plans to construct a Chick-fil-A on campus by the fall of 2025. While many students were excited, and immediately took the announcement as a huge win for student dining, their cheers overshadowed the doubts of others. For years, Chick-fil-A has sparked controversy both nationally and on campus for their decidedly anti-gay stances. According to The Davidsonian, in 2012, when the College tried to cater Chick-fil-A, students successfully gathered over 500 signatures to prevent it. Now, more than a decade later, Chick-fil-A will have a permanent residence on campus. We must ask: What has changed? Chick-fil-A or the Davidson community?
In 2012, the College issued a statement reaffirming its commitment to diversity and inclusion. As reported by “The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education,” the statement reads, “We explicitly assert our commitment to our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) faculty, staff, students, and alumni and to their families.” Today, Davidson’s website reads, “our student Code of Responsibility centers valuing individual differences and condemns discrimination, and our employee benefits plans reflect our commitment to all staff, including our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) staff.” Comparing the two, it’s easy to see that although Davidson’s views on inclusivity may not have changed on paper, their actions certainly have.
Over the years, Chick-fil-A has made headlines for its controversial views. Back in 2012, former Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy publicly shared his support of “the biblical definition of the family unit” in an interview with the Christian publication the Baptist Press. The company also has a history of donating to anti-LGBTQIA+ organizations. In 2009, they donated $1.7 million to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), which enforces a “sexual purity” policy and The Salvation Army. Despite the backlash from the consumers, the company continued its support by donating $1.8 million in 2017 and $1.6 million in 2018 to these organizations.
In 2019, the fast food chain announced they would change their donor priorities and ended their financial relationship with the FCA and The Salvation Army. According to CNN, Chick-Fil-A decided to work with organizations that focus on homelessness, hunger and education. However, without openly disagreeing with the FCA and The Salvation Army, they still leave the door open to donate to anti-LGBTQIA+ organizations in the future. GLAAD, a gay rights organization, shared that customers and employees should greet the announcement “with cautious optimism.”
Today, Chick-fil-A shares that they “strive to treat all employees with honor, dignity and respect and create a culture of care and belonging that values diversity, equity and inclusion.” In addition, Chick-fil-A, Inc. offers corporate staff market-leading compensation and benefits (many of which extend to all married spouses equally, regardless of their gender) and several employee groups where corporate staff can connect to find community and professional development opportunities. While Chick-fil-A has made efforts to appear more inclusive, its history raises doubts about its long-term commitment to LGBTQIA+ inclusivity and whether its corporate values will truly align with these statements in the long term.
The leadership of Chick-fil-A’s past actions also directly contradict Davidson’s inclusivity statement. How can the College claim to uphold equality for all, regardless of sexual orientation, while simultaneously welcoming an organization which has funded anti-LGBTQIA+ causes? After SGA’s initial Chick-fil-A announcement, many students were concerned about what the establishment coming to campus meant. As put by Georgia Hall ‘25 in The Davidsonian in an Oct. 10 issue: “Why would we permanently fund a company that is widely known for funding anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups? Whether or not this still happens, this is still Chick-fil-A’s connotation.”
There are also questions regarding Chick-fil-A’s alignment with town values. The Town of Davidson has long promoted the establishment and growth of small, locally-owned businesses. In turn, the College has often prided itself on its strong relationship with the community and its unique small-town southern charm. This ethos is reflected in Davidson’s statement on sustainability efforts, which states that Dining Services aims to prioritize local purchasing “straight from the Carolinas” and reduce waste and delivery truck traffic to minimize carbon emissions. These values stand in stark contrast to the introduction of a fast food chain bound to produce excessive waste, especially one with recent history that conflicts with Davidson’s values. The establishment of a Chick-fil-A on campus will mark a further departure from the Town’s commitment to fostering community-driven businesses and threatens to damage the College’s relationship with the Town.
Adding to these concerns is the complete lack of transparency surrounding Chick-fil-A’s arrival: students and community members have received little to no information about how, if at all, the new dining option will align with the College’s existing commitments to sustainability and the local community.
The addition of Chick-fil-A on campus falls short of the values that Davidson claims to espouse while also failing to provide accessible food options that students desperately need. The current Chick-fil-A menu lacks halal and kosher certifications and offers very limited vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. Some might be left wondering: What might an alternative look like? Davidson could collaborate with one or a rotating group of local restaurants to provide students with healthy, accessible and sustainable food options. Many students on campus don’t have access or the means to eat off campus, and bringing these options to campus would allow students to better connect with the broader Davidson community. This is not a novel concept. At other institutions, such as UNC at Chapel Hill’s Taste of the Hill Cafe, there are rotating dining options catered by local restaurants. This is not even a concept new to Davidson: the Herbs & Spices station at Commons is catered by Sitar Indian Cuisine, a Durham-based restaurant.
It is clear that the addition of Chick-fil-A at Davidson poses serious concerns about the College’s commitments to diversity and inclusion, sustainability and campus culture. While some students look forward to the development, other’s concerns are not being heard. We must question the message that Davidson is sending by introducing Chick-fil-A on campus. To address this, we can make our voices heard by writing to campus administrators and faculty, including President Doug Hicks ‘90, Director of Dining Services Pinky Varghese and professors. Once Chick-fil-A is here, we can make our demands known to administrators by boycotting, diminishing its financial success. The stark contrast between Davidson’s commitments and the addition of a Chick-fil-A, as well as students’ concerns, must be brought to the forefront of discussion on campus. Chick-fil-A has not made a genuine improvement to their commitments to anti-LGBTQIA+ organizations, so a decade later, why has this conversation fizzled out?
