The University of Chicago was the first school in the country to not renew its license with Taco Bell in the face of student protests. Taco Bell finally left Hutchinson Commons food court in the fall quarter of 2003.

Workers from Immokalee toured Chicago twice in the beginning of 2002. The first time one worker and one representative of the student-farmworker alliance spoke at the University of Chicago after being invited by the anti-sweatshop coalition. The second time a caravan drove into the city as part of the first Taco Bell Truth Tour.

On April 4th U of C students participated in a national student labor week of action in remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr’s martyred defense of Memphis garbage workers on strike. Members of the anti-sweatshop coalition disrupted lunch in the food court by dropping a banner and staging a skit to show students the hardship and toil that went into their tasty tacos.

At April 16th 2002 Washington D.C. protests for peace and global justice, farmworker supporters gathered to strategize about how take down Taco Bell. Meeting participants agreed that if one school severed its ties to taco bell, it was likely that more would follow. At the meeting, participants picked the University of Chicago as the student-farmworker movement’s first target.

That spring members of the anti-sweatshop coalition gathered letters from around the city and petitions from student organizations across the political spectrum from Chicago Friends of Israel to Students for Justice in Palestine. Meanwhile negotiations started with the director of the dining and the manager of the Reynolds Club. In a large community forum on the issue, administrators heard from representatives from diverse organizations around the city and from throughout the university. A farmworker flew up to Chicago to let U of C decision makers know about the exposure to toxic pesticides, the brutal working conditions, and the busting of slavery rings in Florida’s tomato fields.

Still, at the end of spring quarter, just as the anti-sweatshop coalition thought they were victorious, the administration stonewalled the student activists, citing a 1967 report on academic freedom written shortly after Students for a Democratic Society started protesting University ties to South Africa’s apartheid regime.

The next fall students staged another teach-in and a Halloween march with creative actions through campus to demand the University sever their ties to Taco Bell. Due to the persistence of student agitation, the administration finally agreed to compose a student led committee with two representatives of the anti-sweatshop coalition to find a suitable replacement. Unfortunately, activists’ choice of a local Mexican restaurant lost. Instead generic Mexican food from ARAMARK’s, the university’s dining contractor who’s president also happens to sit on Chicago’s board of trustees, replaced Taco Bell.

By kicking Taco Bell off of one of the most conservative schools in the country, the anti-sweatshop coalition paved the way for boot the bell campaigns nationwide. Unfortunately, despite repeated efforts of the student-farmworker alliance to engage University of Illinois Chicago students, students at UIC have not even attempted to launch a campaign to kick Taco Bell off their campus.