ELON, N.C. (AP) — In a story Oct. 13 about Elon University considering getting rid of its Chick-fil-A restaurant, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Duke University cut ties with Chick-fil-A after the restaurant chain’s president spoke against gay marriage. The school replaced of the restaurant as part of renovations before the comments were made.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Elon student government votes against Chick-fil-A
Student Government Association at Elon votes to get rid of campus Chick-fil-A restaurant
ELON, N.C. (AP) — Elon University’s Student Government Association has voted to get rid of a Chick-fil-A restaurant on campus because the restaurant chain’s president is against gay marriage.
The association voted 35-11 to ask its food vendor to find another restaurant to take its place. The decision now goes to the executive president of Elon’s Student Government Association, Darien Flowers. He can accept or veto it. If he vetoes the resolution, it can still stand with a two-thirds vote of the association, according to the Times-News of Burlington (http://bit.ly/TLiBi4).
Flowers said he wants to talk to students and other people before making a decision.
The ultimate decision on whether Chick-fil-A stays will be made by senior administrators at the private college and Elon’s president, school spokesman Dan Anderson said.
The resolution, drafted by an alliance of gay and straight students, said having Chick-fil-A on campus doesn’t fit with Elon’s non-discrimination policy and points out there are two other Chick-fil-A restaurants near campus if students or faculty want to eat there.
The Student Government Association discussed what to do about comments by Chick-fil-A’s president this summer in a retreat with Elon University leaders, Anderson said.
At a public hearing Thursday, most students wanted to get rid of Chick-fil-A.
But Elon student Robert Orr said getting rid of the restaurant based on whom the president of the business gives money to is a bad precedent.
“Is this university prepared to inspect . the giving records of every person and entity that it is connected to?” Orr asked.
Elon wouldn’t be the first North Carolina school to cut ties with Chick-fil-A. Davidson College let the restaurant go not long after Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy said the United States was inviting God’s judgment when its people supported marriage outside the traditional, biblical definition. A Chick-fil-A restaurant recently left Duke University’s campus, but that was part of renovations that were announced prior to Cathy’s comments.
