WATERLOO — Wilfrid Laurier University is condemning attacks on its graduate students' association, but not backing down from its support for a controversial decision to terminate the contract of a campus café operator.

Student leaders at the Laurier Graduate Students' Association have been the target of a barrage of online criticism after Veritas Café operator Sandor Dosman was let go because of a tongue-in-cheek help wanted ad.

The ad, which asked for a "slave" to help run the café and promised the "pay is crap," was deemed offensive by the student association, which rents out the space.

That made Dosman an international story, and put the student group in the crosshairs of critics who said it was political correctness gone too far. Samantha Deeming, president of the association, has since deleted her Facebook and Twitter accounts after getting what the association called "direct personal threats."

At least three different petitions have sprung up, calling on the student association to reverse the decision to end Dosman's contract. Calls for Deeming to be removed as president have mounted.

But for now, neither the student association nor Laurier's administration are budging. The university has said its support for the decision to end Dosman' contract was all about making campus an "inclusive, welcoming and respectful" place.

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"The university recognizes the intensity of opinion and emotion that has been expressed regarding the temporary closing of Veritas Café," the university said in a statement.

"While the university encourages healthy debate and constructive dialogue, we condemn the fierce hostility and threats directed at the Graduate Students' Association (GSA) and its elected student leaders over this issue."

Dosman, meanwhile, has been overwhelmed with job offers and messages of support he's been getting. He says he regrets using the word "slave" — the apparent focus of an anonymous online complaint — and never intended to offend anyone.

But he's uncomfortable with all the attention the story has generated from news outlets around the world.

"I'd like this to just be over," said Dosman, who operated Veritas for 4 ½ years. "I appreciate the support, but I hate this. I don't like being in the spotlight like this. This is not what I wanted. I didn't ask for things to snowball like this."

He's also frustrated by a statement released by the student group Monday that hinted that there were other issues at play in his dismissal that it couldn't discuss for privacy reasons.

Dosman says his contract was just recently renewed, suggesting the student association was happy with him until he posted the help wanted ad. He insists the decision to end his contract came as a complete surprise.

"Their last statement was very vague, and just raised more questions. I've said right from the beginning we had a very good relationship. There's been no written warnings, or 'you need to take sensitivity training,' nothing like that," he said.

The grad students' association says it's working to reopen the café under new management in January, and the affected staff would still have work until the Christmas break.

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In its statement released Tuesday, the university also complained coverage of the café story has been one-sided, but declined to comment further.

"The information that has been publicized, and which has elicited emotional comment, is not a complete and balanced story," according to the Laurier statement.

It reiterated that the students' association is a separate corporation from the university with its own rules, and makes its own decisions.