#SacStateSays: ‘How would you feel about a Taco Bell on campus?’
April 23, 2019
In 1994, the Sacramento State Foundation’s Board of Directors held a meeting to decide if a Taco Bell restaurant should be allowed to open on campus. Though they decided against adding the eatery 25 years ago, we asked Sac State students how they would feel about a Taco Bell being on campus today. Use the hashtag #SacStateSays to tell us if this is a restaurant you would have wanted on campus.
RELATED: FROM THE ARCHIVES: Taco Bell kept off of Sac State’s campus in 1994
Emily Kyle • Apr 25, 2019 at 9:33 pm
My thing is, above all, if the latinx population on campus believes that Taco Bell as an institution is still problematic, then we should reject Taco Bell. Same sentiment goes for Chick Fil A, I hope we never have one of those for obvious reasons.
Next, we need to consider that very few eateries on campus accept the expensive meal plan flex cash that all residents are FORCED to buy – and coffee shops are not eateries, they are finger food places that have little worth eating like Taco Bell or Burger King has, and coffee shop food is often more expensive for food that doesn’t make you full as a meal should. In light of this, for ALL new eateries, Sac State needs to stand firm and not allow any new venues to come here if they won’t take Flex Cash that is part of the resident meal plan. I speak on this as a resident myself who is bored to tears and unhappy with Baha, Starbucks, and the Dining Commons.
If Taco Bell can pass those two tests, then it should be put to vote with the student body through an inclusive email survey rather than the exclusive decision making of the few in ASI (as much as I love the folks at ASI). We all know that Taco Bell isn’t real Mexican food, but it is a favorite among many; and when it comes down to it, I would rather have a Taco Bell that accepts Flex Cash than a Burger King that doesn’t, or half a million Starbucks that do accept it. It’s affordable (making it accessible, which is a concern here at Sac State as we have many students who are homeless, low income, food insecure, etc – a homeless student saving up money will be better able to buy dollar menu Taco Bell items than expensive Starbucks for example.) and people love Taco Bell.
I’m personally biased to Taco Bell myself because I like it, but if it’s problematic and doesn’t accept Flex Cash, I don’t want it here. I can’t really access restaurants on campus if they don’t accept Flex Cash because my family spent around $4,162 so I could get a meal plan that would let me have two meals per day, and I have had this plan for the last 3 years (over 12k for mediocre food options). Reminder, residents are FORCED to buy meal plans. Despite the exorbitant amount residents spend on their meal plans, the University puts zero pressure on current restaurants to accept flex and has done zero searching for new restaurants that accept flex.
Long story short, admitting any new restaurant is a multidimensional issue for the student body, and the university needs to be more open about it. In the future, if students get to vote for restaurants that could appear on campus, I hope the survey would specifically mention whether or not the new venue would accept flex. That’s just my input though. (Should I write an opinion article for the State Hornet? Lol.)