WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Not happy that Chick-fil-A was coming to the West Lafayette campus – and even less pleased with the impression that Purdue’s administration ignored their concerns out of hand – faculty on the University Senate voted overwhelmingly Monday on measure saying that all commercial ventures on campus should “uphold the same values” the university lists for itself.

The vote from faculty representatives came a little more than month after Purdue stood by plans to bring a Chick-fil-A to a new residence hall in 2020 after being lobbied by students, despite the University Senate’s leanings and persistent concerns among some on campus about the chicken sandwich restaurant CEO’s stances and company donations to groups seen as anti-LGBTQ.

The word from President Mitch Daniels’ administration seemed to clip the conversation that faculty had insisted wasn’t just about Chick-fil-A when a statement from Hovde Hall dismissed the issue before the University Senate had a chance to vote on the matter.

Purdue’s statement, coming the same week the University Senate took up the matter in September: “While we respect and protect the rights of all to express their opinions at Purdue, this clarification is intended to reassure our students and others that this long-requested dining option will not be taken from them and to dispel any impression that Purdue would ever seriously consider such an action.”

Audrey Ruple, chair of the University Senate’s Equity and Diversity Committee, said she was taken aback by the Purdue administration’s reaction at the time. In a speech Monday that drew a standing ovation in the Deans Auditorium at Pfendler Hall, Ruple said she expected better from the university.

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Ruple said she expected at least what the Daniels administration had delivered in 2018, when it gave back millions of dollars and naming rights for a Krannert School of Management center when Papa John’s founder John Schnatter reportedly used racial slurs. At that time, Purdue issued a statement that Schnatter’s name “would distract from our work, create counterproductive division on the campus and would deviate from the university’s often stated stance on tolerance.”

Instead, Ruple said, inboxes of those who’d spoken out were inundated with mocking hate mail – Purdue Student Government President Jo Boileau, who is part of the LGBT community on campus, said he felt zeroed in on by emails that included slurs of “faggot” – and an administration response that was what she considered dismissive: The market had spoken.

“As much as this has been made to be about Chick-fil-A, this is not about Chick-fil-A,” Ruple said. “This is about who we are as an institution.”

Daniels, who typically attends and takes questions from faculty at University Senate meetings, was out of town Monday. (Though, two weeks ago, when asked by the J&C about the subject, Daniels said: “Case is closed, really.”)

John Gates, Purdue’s vice provost for diversity and inclusion, took in the vote and the debate – including pleas from one faculty member who said the resolution sounded more like an attempt to stifle Christians on campus.

Gates said that any company doing business on campus must sign a nondiscrimination statement.

“That’s a foundational piece for the university,” Gates said. “We don’t accept discrimination from anyone on any level. … Whether we agree with everybody or not, if we’re going to be true an inclusive framework, we can leave nobody behind. So, conservatives and liberals both are included, and people in between. Straight and gay, it doesn’t matter. We are one university, and it’s one university of all people. That actually includes Chick-fil-A.”

Upshot: The university’s position wasn’t going to change about the Chick-fil-A franchise after the University Senate’s vote, Gates said.

This summer, Purdue announced that it had landed a contract with Chick-fil-A to put the fast food sandwich restaurant in the Third Street Suites residence hall when it opens at 401 N. Russell St. in fall 2020. Rachel DeYoung, who owns the Chick-fil-A franchise on South Street in Lafayette, will own the one on campus, too.

Chick-fil-A has been a polarizing business along social and religious lines in the past decade. Critics have promoted boycotts of the business after CEO Dan Cathy took outspoken, religious-based stances against same-sex marriage and revelations that the company’s support for organizations that LGBT advocates viewed as hostile to gays and lesbians.

Chick-fil-A was back in the news this week, after the first of the franchise’s restaurants in the United Kingdom announced it would close in six months. Decision came days after a Chick-fil-A opening in a mall in Reading, when the mall management, bowing to pressure from LGBTQ protests, said it didn’t plan to renew the lease on what was being called a pilot project.

Similar backlash has been reported in some places, though Chick-fil-A remains one of that fastest-growing chains in the U.S.

Chick-fil-A actually came to Purdue’s campus in 2018, when it started delivering a pop-up style location three evenings a week in the Krach Leadership Center, a building that also houses an Amazon pickup location as well offices for student groups and student services at Third Street and Martin Jischke Drive. Also in 2018, Purdue students started a petition at Change.org titled, “Purdue Needs a Chick-fil-A.” More than 3,400 people signed the online petition. And the Purdue Student Government passed a resolution in 2018 calling on the university to recruit a Chick-fil-A.

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Alexander Francis, a speech, language and hearing sciences and a University Senate member, said he saw the resolution “as simply a matter of closing a loophole” on a standing campus policy that pertains to “all Purdue University community members.” It doesn’t mention businesses.

“The only reason I can see to vote against this resolution is if you believe commercial entities should be given the special privilege of being part or our community, without being held to the same standards that we hold everyone else to,” Francis said.

Alice Pawley, a professor of engineering education and a University Senate member, took it another step.

“I think inviting vendors to do business on our campus, to make their business from our students, staff and faculty when their values are counter to ours is undercutting our own commitment to our values,” Pawley said. “I can speak to how I think about having on campus a symbol of discrimination against LGBTQ people will affect Purdue’s ability to provide a campus environment where our LGBTQ students can learn fairly compared to their straight peers, as I think it does.”

Todd Kelley, a professor of technology, leadership and innovation in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, said inclusion cut both ways, though. He said he wanted to know whether the University Senate measure considered ways to promote civil discourse, including when directed at those on campus who didn’t agree with “the LGBTQ agenda.”

“Is this about Chick-fil-A, a company, or is this about groups of people who have Christian viewpoints?” Kelley asked.

“I will tell you I’ve gone through a personal battle, as well. Being a Christian male – a white, Christian male – on this campus, there are times I feel censored. There are times I feel to be the vulnerable person. I read everything that’s been written about (Purdue alum and New Orleans Saints quarterback) Drew Brees, because he promoted people bringing a Bible to school. I fear for this country where we get to a place where somebody who believes in the Bible is considered a hater.”

Randy Rapp, a building construction management professor, warned against making Chick-fil-A into something it wasn’t: “So many of our students who go there, they have no intention to do that in a sense of harm or anything of that sort.”

Boileau said that amid the hate mail and the administration’s stance, he felt as if the university had his back.

“With these entities, just the idea of them coming here is destructive – at least to me,” Boileau said. “I can say it’s been difficult to operate as a student the past six weeks, given things that have been written about me. … But it shows how destructive the conversation is when you try to go against something.”

Chick-fil-A is expected to open at Purdue in August 2020.

In September, Chick-fil-A’s corporate offices released this statement: “We are a restaurant company and have no political or social agenda. More than 145,000 people from different backgrounds and beliefs represent Chick-fil-A, and we are proud to partner with universities like Purdue across the United States. We look forward to serving everyone in our restaurants.”

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.