Pomona College’s former Dining Services General Manager Jose Martinez is no longer employed by Pomona, a college spokesperson confirmed in an email statement to TSL. Starting in 2018, Martinez managed Pomona’s dining operations.
The circumstances surrounding Martinez’s departure, which follows student opposition to the previously planned closure of Milk & Honey, remain unclear.
“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on individual personnel matters,” the Pomona spokesperson said. “Moving forward, the College is committed to a search that can identify an experienced leader who can support Dining Services into its next era.”
Martinez initially communicated the planned closure of Milk & Honey to student managers on Sept. 10. Five days later, Robert Robinson, assistant vice president of facilities and campus services, stated in separate emails to TSL and the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) that Pomona had decided to “reverse the planned closure.”
On Sept. 16, Martinez emailed Milk & Honey managers, stating that Dining Services can support Milk & Honey for the 2026-27 academic year, and instructed managers to coordinate with Dining Manager Marilyn Mora to start the reopening process. Milk & Honey managers told TSL that Martinez’s email failed to include the necessary details for how or when the shop would reopen.
A week later, Milk & Honey workers joined other Pomona dining employees in a delegation to administrators seeking long-term funding and a concrete reopening date for the student-run boba shop. The delegation came amid contract negotiations between Pomona and UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents both dining and student workers, after the previous contract expired in June. Milk & Honey announced that they would reopen on Oct. 6 in a Sept. 30 Instagram post.
TSL learned of Martinez’s departure two days after the delegation, on Sept. 23, from an automated email response attached to Martinez’s now-defunct email. The response read, “José Marinez [Martinez] is no longer employed by Pomona College. Please contact Robert Robinson with questions about dining operations.”
The college had not communicated Martinez’s departure to ASPC, according to ASPC President Malu Estoducto PO ’27.
“ASPC hasn’t received any communication about Jose [Martinez] not working at Pomona anymore, but I want to involve us [student government] in the hiring process of his replacement,” Estoducto said.
Estoducto also highlighted that Isha Raheja PO ’27, ASPC’s commissioner of facilities and environment, received an email from Pomona saying that “the College is preparing an overall statement regarding the dining program and the recruitment of the Director of Dining” after she asked for information about Martinez’s departure.
Elias Pluecker PO ’28, a student organizer for UNITE HERE and a member of the Claremont Student Worker Alliance (CSWA), said workers felt relieved about Martinez’s departure, though Pluecker remained uncertain about what the leadership change would mean both for dining workers and the future of Milk & Honey.
“Just in speaking with the workers who I happened to run into today [Sept. 24], there’s a visible, palpable sense of relief that a lot of folks have,” Pluecker said. “With all that said, I don’t necessarily have an expectation that this means an improvement in any situation.”
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