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As GOP3 and the Professor McAdams have written about, some questions surround Marquette University’s coffee provider switch from Alterra to Stone Creek. According to McAdams, Marquette was coerced into changing by a donating alumnus who threatened to withdraw his donations if Marquette did not change to his son’s coffee company, Stone Creek.

Daniel Suhr discovered this clip from the Milwaukee Business Journal from August 11th and sent it around earlier today to a few people:

Marketing director leaves Stone Creek for Marquette University

Stone Creek Coffee Roasters’ marketing and technology director, Tom Pionek, has left the specialty coffee maker to take a position with Marquette University as a senior web marketing strategist in the marketing and communications department.

An employee of Stone Creek, thus, now works for Marquette University.

Was Marquette coerced into highering one or more employees of Stone Creek out of necessity to maintain donor relations, as well?

We also recieved a phone call tonight from an individual who is training at Orientation Staff this week in preparation for Freshman Move-in and the like. This individual informed us that the creator of Stone Creek Coffee, one Eric Resch, spoke to Orientation leaders and directly provided his product to Orientation Staff members.

After googling Stone Creek, we also found a blog of sorts, which included the following in an entry for earlier this evening, August 22nd:

Coffee and Square Dancing at MU - Aug 22 2006
Posted by: Eric Resch

This evening I had a chance to meet a couple hundred student leaders atMarquette University. Beginning this past week Stone Creek Coffee is now being brewed at all Brew locations on campus. I had a chance to talk to the Orientation Leaders about Stone Creek’s Community Coffee programs, the history of Stone Creek and our plans to work together to create service opportunities. I served Stone Creek at 9 PM worried that I would have few takers for caffeinated coffee. I did not realize my coffee talk was sandwiched between square dance training and a customer service training module. They planned to go until midnight and had no trouble drinking all my coffee. I am looking forward to working with everyone at MU. Doe-Se-Doe, I’m off to bed. Eric

It seems that Stone Creek has been given greater access to the Marquette community than one might have previously realized.

Now, Mr. Resch might be a fine fellow. So might his coercing old man who demanded the change. (Well, maybe.)

However, I can’t escape a few troubling questions that we haven’t heard answers for yet regarding this ordeal.

Why did Marquette University trump up the “social justice” ideals of Stone Creek when Alterra shares an identical viewpoint? Why are hiring policies at Marquette now based on connections with vendors, these same vendors existing at MU as a result of donor relations? How many other decisions at Marquette chosen on the basis of so-called “social justice” concerns are really empty air meant to conceal fishy business practices?

I also cannot escape the real analogies to socialism that this feigned social justice hypocrisy represents. Liberals believe that in lieu of market driven forces at the hands of a body of consumers, all-knowing elites should be in command of which companies or particular constituencies thrive.

Given the opportunity to put their own people in command over an economy, or in this case a single university, such an entity can expect a working relationship between the governing entity and the company which operates as a monopoly.

The result of this relationship is the exchange of people and finances that facilitates the continuity of that relationship and not necessarily the delivery of those products which would exist if market driven forces, and not a monopoly, were in place.

Because the governing entity, in this case a university, is uncomfortable with the real reasons behind its financial decisions, it has to sound out faux reasons such as feel-good social justice concerns.

The analogy is far from perfect, though given that universities in free countries still operate with some market forces, but is close enough to demonstrate the ill-formed basis of such business practices.

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