Student Assembly Approves Anabel’s Grocery Store by One Vote

Cornell’s Student Assembly (SA) voted to approve a resolution calling for the implementation of Anabel’s Grocery Store on campus by a vote of 14 for, 9 opposed, and 2 abstaining.

Approval of the resolution required 14 votes to pass.

The two-hour meeting invoked many of the same arguments cast in the previous several debates regarding the proposal, though several new points were debated. (See here and here for varying opinions published in The Cornell Review.)

Those in opposition to the proposal pointed out that unlike with other SA funding procedures, the $320,000 the SA is voting to fund the store with is being transferred to a party outside the purview of Cornell, an entity called the Center for Transformative Action; the entity is affiliated with Cornell and has offices in Cornell buildings, but is not directly under its management. Many on the SA and in the community also brought up lingering questions about the plan for the store, such as those regarding whether a 10% discount will address food insecurity; what experience those on the store’s executive board have in operating a grocery store; and how the store plans to remain financially viable.

In response to these concerns, grocery store supporters defended their business model estimates and financial projections as being conservative, and argued that alternative solutions to addressing food insecurity–such as food banks or meal-swipe sharing– would not make as much of an impact as building the grocery store. The store’s supporters also presented several new arguments. Both Stefanko and Renee Alexander, Associate Dean and Director of Intercultural Programs, Student and Academic Services and a member of the store’s board of directors, called on those opposed to the store “privileged”. LGBT Representative Phillip Titcomb ’17 also invoked “classism” and Minority Representative Maria Chak ’18 said those in opposition were seeking to undermine the intellect of the resolution’s sponsors.

The project now moves on to several rounds of administrative approval before it it ultimately adopted or rejected. A resolution calling for the creation of the student-run discount grocery store was approved last spring by a vote of 18-4-1 but failed to garner then-President David Skorton’s approval.

Voted for:
Matthew Stefanko ’16
Emma Johnston ’16
Maha Ghandour ’17
Phillip Titcomb ’17
Diana Li ’17
Maria Chak ’18
Gabrial Kaufman ’18
Radhika Gupta ’18
Katie Zhu ’18
Ben Bacharach ’18
Verlandy Michel ’18
Paul Russel ’19
Varun Devatha ’19
Dustin Liu ’19

Voted against:
Shivang Tayal ’16
Sagar Karnavat ’16
Mitchell McBride ’17
Rishika Uttamchandani ’17
Robert Dunbar ’18
Luke Bushner ’18
Erinn Liu ’18
Jordan Chessin ’18
Miranda Kasher ’19

Abstained:
Justin Selig ’17
Chris Li ’17

SA member Saim Chaudhary ’17 was present at the meeting but not during the vote.