Columbia University dining hall workers are circulating a petition against "arbitrary and racist policies" that allegedly forbid them from speaking Spanish in the presence of students or eating in the Butler lounge during their lunch breaks. The workers in question staff Blue Java Coffee bar in Butler Library, the Columbia Spectator reports.

Unsurprisingly, these rules have not yet been made public by Dining Services.

Columbia University Bans Workers From Speaking Spanish: Sign the petition and share! http://t.co/s4TeSJ7Dqq — corey robin (@CoreyRobin) April 24, 2015

The petition, which began circulating yesterday and was written in collaboration with Student Worker Solidarity, states that Vicki Dunn, the executive director of Columbia Dining, first announced the rules during an orientation session in August 2014. According to the petition, at the time workers were relegated to eating their meals inside a closet.

At @Columbia U, #racist dining policy prohibits workers from speaking Spanish or eating in dining hall. Sign this: http://t.co/ZM8vQVKz9V — Justin S. Massey (@JustinSMassey) April 23, 2015

A timeline in the petition suggests the closet issue escalated considerably this spring. According to the petition, the closet rule has been "temporarily reversed." Here's an excerpt of the timeline:

Early April, 2015 : [Columbia manager] Hazel Clark tells Butler lounge workers that a student complained about trash being kept outside in the lounge area. Responding to this complaint, Clark ordered that workers move the trash to the closet, where they were also expected to sit when eating. April 13, 2015: SWS members send email to Vicki Dunn expressing concern about workers eating in the closet, where the trash was kept and schedule meeting to discuss the issue. In response to the email, Dunn emails Butler Lounge management rescinding the rule that workers should eat in the closet. April 15: SWS members meet with Columbia dining administration, who claim not to know about the closet rule. They do not confirm or deny the prohibition on speaking Spanish, but cite student complaints in justifying rules against workers talking amongst themselves

Brooklyn College political science professor Cory Robin offered this context this afternoon, on his blog:

Columbia University has a renowned department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures. It boasts a faculty of 36 professors and lecturers. In the last five years, they’ve produced 52 publications on topics ranging from the regional novel to medieval heresy. This year alone, they’ve offered 119 classes, where hundreds if not thousands of students speak Spanish (as well as other languages). The Spanish language... is clearly prized by Columbia University. Unless you’re a worker.

An anonymous dining worker quoted in the petition reasons, "If it wasn’t for us, they wouldn’t be raking in thousands of dollars a day from Columbia Dining Services. They need to treat us differently.”

The collective demands of the petitioning workers and students are as follows:

1. Columbia dining appears to have temporarily reversed the closet rule, but continue to discriminate against workers for speaking Spanish. This must cease immediately. 2. We as students demand that Columbia administration stop using individual student complaints to justify racist and degrading policies such as the prohibition of specific languages and the relegation of workers to cramped and unsanitary spaces. 3. Workers ask that from now on, all new workplace policies be written down, publicly visible, and negotiated with their unions so as to prevent continued abuses.

This afternoon, the Columbia Spectator published excerpts of an e-mail sent to them by Scott Write, Vice President of Campus Services at Columbia. Write told the publication, "the claims in the petition stem from isolated incidents, which have been misconstrued and cannot be applied to Columbia Dining's operations as a whole."

"To be clear," he wrote, "there is no place for discrimination in the workplace. We are looking into the allegations of misconduct and will take necessary action, depending on the findings."

A spokesperson for Columbia Dining told us via e-mail, "We are aware of the petition, but have not yet officially received. We have reached out to the student group and are investigating the matter within our department."