Student Issue, 2001—Starbucks in Hodges Library

Following the opening of Starbucks in Hodges Library, students displayed anti-Starbucks flyers at the University Center Plaza. The student organization Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville (SPEAK) led the general concerns that while Starbucks sold Fair Trade coffee beans in bulk, it did not use the beans in the coffee it brewed and that it used products that contained bovine growth hormone and other genetically engineered ingredients. On September 19, 2001, five students played Monopoly in the student lounge adjacent to the new Starbucks and brought their own coffee pot and brewed coffee 20 feet from the Starbucks counter. On October 9 students protesting the placement of the Starbucks in the library by giving out snacks and coffee were told to leave by UT police because they did not have a permit to set up a table. Students indicated that they had considered asking for a permit but had decided that the issue was one of free speech, so one was not needed. They complained that the study area smelled of coffee and that the coffee prices were too high for many students to afford.