California university, students revolt

California university students revolt against failing cafe named for Che Guevara The all ages caf which has been a campus fixture for more than three decades has hosted mega acts like Nirvana and Green Day prior to their big breaks but now the nonprofit collective is potentially facing a final curtain call of its own after extensive repairs were ordered by campus fire marshals in the wake of an independent assessment checafe ucsd edu Long after his death Che Guevara who some regard as a ruthless killer and others adore as an icon of revolution is teaching a new generation of students about the failure of communism University of California San Diego students have run the Che Caf Collective for 34 years a vegan co op and concert venue boasting exorbitantly low prices and volunteer staffing But it s consistently in the red costing the student body nearly 1 million over the years and isn t kept up to fire or safety codes School officials are threatening to cut off funding which would shut down the campus fixture but a band of students is fighting back The venue has been operating for 34 years and it s the longest running volunteer space in Southern California if not in all of California caf volunteer Rene Vera told FoxN And our building is covered in murals that document a lot of that history In its heyday the caf reportedly hosted up and coming acts like Nirvana and Green Day Staffers would feed the band often with donated food and the audience got the leftovers The decidedly un capitalist business model worked until crowds began to dwindle extensive repairs were ordered by campus fire marshals and student groups got sick of subsidizing it The university s student run newspaper The Guardian characterized the venue as a money pit consistently plagued with safety issues in a recent editorial urging its principals to start utilizing better fiscal management of nearly 1 million in student fees Many students also don t realize that the money being spent on the caf s renovation comes directly from student fees in other words we are collectively pouring almost one million dollars of our money into repairing a cooperative that the vast majority of us don t even use The venue s fate was tabled late Tuesday the third time the school s student led advisory board has met on whether to cut its funding Messages seeking comment from Associated Students of UCSD which oversees maintenance and programming at the venue were not immediately returned early Wednesday But a university source close to the matter who wished to remain anonymous told FoxN that structural problems have long been an issue at the caf on the southern edge of campus Just two years ago the caf nearly had to close its doors after reportedly falling behind on insurance payments to the tune of 12 000 It almost didn t make it the source said Che Caf volunteers say the latest effort to shutter the cafe is an orchestrated attack They allege university officials including Interim University Centers Director Sharon van Bruggen proposed on May 1 that the building be closed at the end of the school year ultimately serving as a booking agent for an on campus bar The attorney for Che Caf claims that university management has deferred maintenance of the facilities for decades since repairs were recommended in a 2009 audit failing to set aside the necessary revenues for repairs This is why the collective suspects some intentional motive on the part of the administration to shut the collective down or displace them by claiming fiscal crisis and due to their own mismanaging of student fee revenues the attorney said Wednesday in a statement to FoxN The cafe s namesake Ernesto Che Guevara who was killed in Bolivia in 1967 was a key figure in the Cuban Revolution he fought alongside Fidel Castro His legacy remains a contentious issue decades after his death but the guerilla leader has enjoyed a posthumous resurgence in popularity among some circles in no small part to the Guerrillero Heroico image characterized by some as the world s most famous photograph Students shouldn t have to prop up a failing business just because of their classmates nostalgic romanticism said one student I do not believe Che Cafe closing will be a severe blow to the campus overall aesthetic soon to be graduate Marco Vasquez a political science major and vice chair of the university s College