Summer Dale, a fourth year Health Science Major and Business Minor, collecting petition signatures
Photo by Madelaine Brown
Written by Evan T. Grahn
Fall is here, and so is demand for the assortment of seasonal-flavored beverages popularized by coffee shops like Dunkin’ and Starbucks. On any given day, students can be seen lining up for a morning drink or pick-me-up between classes at both Ekho’s Cafe and the newly opened Coastal Cup. And though both offer much of the Starbucks menu we have come to know, many may find a conspicuous lack of cold foam from their favorite orders, a now-common feature at most coffee shops and cafes. Although offering something as simple as a coffee topping can seem trivial to some customers, cold foam has become a cornerstone of modern coffee options for others, something to be expected of any amenities designed to effectively meet student expectations.
It was this very circumstance that prompted a student to make a difference on campus to see their desires met. Summer Dale, a fourth year Health Science Major and Business Minor, has thus far led the petition to implement cold foam at CI’s coffee shops. Though this initiative does stem from her passion for coffee, her interactions and work with peers helped her to see how much interest and demand there is from students to have such a popular coffee component available on campus.
She gives much credit to the idea of petitioning from her work as a Lead Desk Assistant for Student Housing and discussing these concerns with Brandon Langford, the Director of Housing & Residential Education: “I was talking to Brandon about it, and he said, well, you should make a petition for it. He’s like, ‘if this is something that you and other students have wanted since freshman year and you’re a senior now, you should make a petition for that.’”
And petition she did, printing out as many sheets for signatures as possible and going through the proper channels to ensure that students were able to add their name to this cause: “I printed out 15 sheets for about 300 signatures total. I put them in all the village offices. I got them approved through marketing with posting on all of the petitions. … I brought them into my health classes and my business class.”
Now garnering more reception than she had planned for, you can still find these sheets at each village office with an overflow of signatures off the printed lines. The petition has garnered more support than she could have imagined, now surpassing the projected 300 signatures, a number projected to have been even higher had the process been digitized. To Dale, this interest is more than novelty; it reflects an excitement and sustained interest of students wanting to see positive change made on campus. She hopes that this initiative to take ownership of campus experience is expanded on by even more students in the future: “Students want to make petitions or speak up on things that are important to them. … I know some people might think it’s stupid, but. … if they think their thing is stupid, they’re not thinking fully about it. … If you think of the whole story and you look into it and other things that it affects, then there’s more to it.”
At the core of Dale’s reasoning for and defense of the petition is its practicality to the business of CI’s coffee shops, “you would think that with a whole new building being built on campus that they would want to implement something that is very trendy … and to keep up with those trends so that they would also gain more revenue from students.” Cold foam has a high return on investment due to its popular demand and minimal ingredient cost, as the coffee shops already stock the necessary ingredients to make it, only lacking the necessary frothers. It takes no longer than brewing coffee does, and its low-effort, high-impact addition would generate even more revenue from the customization options it allows for. With the ability to charge fifty cents to a dollar more per beverage, cold foam is a win-win for both the business and its customers.
Whether the petition is successful or not, the willingness of students like Dale to organize reflects a deeper desire to be heard and further develop a campus that values its students’ day-to-day experience. And for Dale, this is how she views her being able to make a lasting impact on campus: “I’m leaving CI knowing that I did something. That might seem minor, but it helps benefit dining services and the coffee shops and students and et cetera. I’ll graduate happy.” So, regardless of whether we ever do get cold foam on campus, we can rest assured that most students are willing to take the initiative to care for their campus.
