Having a paid café exploits a captive audience—and courts student hostility
On February 1, the Goodmans LLP Café (“the Café”) in the Jackman Law Building opened for the first time since the pandemic hit. Emails from the Faculty about the reopening were jubilant—Associate Dean, JD Program Christopher Essert described it as “the day we’ve all been waiting for” in his January 27 announcement, and I’m sure many students felt the same way. But others, like myself, are questioning the return to a paid service after the Faculty has shown us that it is capable of providing free service. Given the total absence of coffee and tea options near the law school, and the extent to which students at the Faculty are addicted to caffeine, choosing to charge students for something previously provided for free is more than just unfair. It’s exploitative.
Now, I recognize that the Faculty has no obligation to provide free coffee, tea, or snacks to students. There is, sadly, no clear common law or statutory duty of an educational institution to provide niceties to a non-resident student population. But were I representing the claimants here, I would argue that a free service not only shows respect to students’ diverse financial backgrounds and disposable income, but it’s also arguably a component of that ever-lauded, oh-so-exclusive U of T Law “experience.” After all, are we not professionals? Are we not the next great generation of lawyers—the progeny of the Harvard of the North, even? Surely if the U of T Law experience is so competitive and exclusive that it can only truly be experienced in-person, that experience includes providing a free coffee service.
Moreover, the Café isn’t cheap. Worse, it’s really the only option near the law school, except Ronald McDonald’s, if you want to grab a coffee or a quick bite between classes. No one is going to make the hike to the Aroma on Bay Street or the Starbucks on Bedford when they have a paid option on-site—and U of T is banking on that, literally! The Goodmans LLP Café is operated by U of T Food Services, itself part of U of T’s Spaces & Experiences department. The profits of the Café go to U of T, straight to the central administration and not to the Faculty. It would feel a lot less like being exploited if the Café profits went directly to, say, equity initiatives for students at the Faculty or to legal and justice movements in our community.
Finally, I have heard from several students who preferred the free coffee service and are disappointed, if not actively upset, about the return to a paid service. One student told me that they did not want to give U of T “any more money” than they already had. Bringing back the free coffee would massively boost student goodwill towards the administration.
The Faculty has always framed their free coffee and tea service as something to fill the gap “[as] we await the re-opening of our Goodmans Café” (see Associate Dean Essert’s September 6, 2022 email, “Coffee Service – Starting Tuesday, September 6, 2022”). The attitude of the Faculty is that any food or drink service is exceptional, a “gift” to students, proof of the administration’s benevolence. So why not follow through on all that benevolence? Making a free service permanent would do wonders for student morale. After all, law students are weak animals, and the administration should really know that by now. I guarantee that our goodwill can be bought merely by providing free bean juice and snacks!
None of this is to say that the free service we had until now was perfect. The hours were only 8am—12pm this past semester, and, unlike during the 2022 winter exam season, there were no snacks. I have nothing against Goodmans Café itself. But failing to provide free coffee and tea for students is not inevitable: it is an active choice by the Faculty. The Faculty had the opportunity to continue the free service or to further extract profit from a captive student base, and they chose the latter.
Given the exploitative nature of a paid service, the inadequacy of last semester’s free service, and the huge amount of student goodwill that bringing back free service would create, I ask the Faculty to consider implementing a new and improved free self-service. This service would ideally have:
- Extended hours: Classes run until the evening, and everyone needs a late-afternoon pick-me-up. Keeping the coffee service open until 5 or 6pm would better reflect the needs of the student body.
- A variety of snacks, pre-packaged meals, and beverage additives suitable for diverse dietary needs: One complaint I have heard about the Goodmans Café is their total lack of any plant-based milk options. A coffee service that respects students’ needs would include a suite of plant-based options.
If funding this kind of free service is, for some reason, beyond the Faculty’s means (despite how high our tuition is), I suggest they provide a “pay what you can” option. Come on, Faculty! Bring back the free bean juice!
