The closure of Scripps College’s Motley Coffeehouse earlier this month, prompted by administrative concern about pro-Palestinian political organizing within the space, continues to stir debate on campus. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, over 40 students joined the 5C Student and Worker Alliance in expressing their frustrations with administration and demanding transparency about the reopening process.
At 12:15 p.m., participants gathered at Scripps’ Bowling Green Lawn and at 12:30 p.m., students relocated to an admin office. The first speaker read a student statement in solidarity with the Motley workers, which has received over 200 signatures. The statement emphasized the importance of the Motley as a student-run space and criticized the administration’s handling of the closure.
“With no timeline for reopening, this is an attempt to suppress student voices and maintain a campus environment where students feel powerless in the hands of administration,” the speaker said. “[With] the intersection of student repression and unfair labor practices which remain increasingly rampant under liberal institutions, Scripps is following the dangerous behaviors currently displayed across the 5Cs.”
The speaker, still reading from the statement, also condemned what was described as aggressive tactics by the administration to undermine workers’ rights.
“Scripps is using typical anti-worker tactics to dissuade Motley workers from fighting back. This is unacceptable [and] we will not stand for this blatant worker injustice,” the speaker said, citing claims of administration allegedly “paying off” employees and contacting their families.
The speaker then stressed the importance of preserving the Motley’s mission to serve as an “inclusive and political space.”
“Maintaining awareness of an ongoing genocide is consistent with the Motley’s mission and values and is not discriminatory against any students,” the speaker said. “Attempts to undermine or dilute the Motley mission will be met with strong student support and solidarity.”
The next speaker presented the Oct. 9 Motley Barista Statement, which criticizes administration’s decision to shut down the coffeehouse, claims that their narrative about the closure is inconsistent with that of the coffeehouse’s employees and talks about the impact of the closure on the employees.
“Being blindsided by the administration has caused irreversible emotional distress, panic and fear in the Motley staff,” the speaker, reading from the statement, said. “The public notice of the Motley staff’s sudden unemployment is deeply insensitive.”
Following this, a former Motley manager gave a speech urging the administration to prioritize the well-being of its workers and to provide clear answers about the future of the space. According to the former manager, the administration has proposed a series of restorative conversations with all of the Motley managers to address the closure and identify solutions for reopening.
“We generally want to have and engage and participate in meaningful, constructive dialogue with the shared goal of reopening the Motley as an integral community space on campus,” the former manager said. “But in the spirit of this restorative justice process, which prioritizes some feelings of safety and respect, [Motley managers] had a few questions and concerns that they wanted to have addressed about community and confidentiality.”
The former manager said that the baristas’ biggest concern was job security, and that the baristas wanted reassurance that all 50 of them would still be employed upon reopening. While the Scripps administration expressed a desire to keep the current team, they stopped short at providing an explicit guarantee.
“It’s quite disrespectful and hurtful that the administration continues to place such little value on the student employees that [admin] cannot even guarantee an important confirmation that we will be the ones to operate [upon reopening],” they said. “I want to give answers to my barista team, but I’m not able to, because we’re all looking at the administration.”
The former manager ended by emphasizing that the Motley is an important part of Scripps’ community.
“We want to make sure that the Motley is actually a space that is representative of what the community wants, not what the college wants,” the former manager said. “It was started by BIPOC students, it is 100% a student common space and I speak for myself when I say that I will fight to make sure that it remains a part of the community.”
Following this, the students exited the building chanting “We’ll be back.”