Campus Panel Does Turnabout, Decides Against Carl’s Jr. : Cal State Northridge: Foundation board sides with students and faculty members who object to the founder’s support for the anti-abortion movement.

Students at Cal State Northridge opposed to locating a Carl’s Jr. restaurant on campus had it their way Friday when university officials reversed an earlier decision to buy the franchise.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a dead issue,” said James W. Cleary, president of the university and of the CSUN Foundation board of trustees, which voted in May to welcome the fast-food chain on campus.

After an hourlong debate, the board voted 11-3 not to go forward with the plans. Opponents sided with students and some faculty members who object to the conservative political views of Carl’s Jr. founder Carl Karcher. They also questioned the general concept of having independent franchises on a college campus.

But board members on both sides of the issue said they feared that a vote against the chain could set a bad precedent.

“Should the university make a political test for any kind of organization it deals with? What’s the degree?” asked Ron Schaffer, a board member and history professor who in the end voted against the restaurant. “This is a question of civil liberties. Can a university discriminate against people because there are people on the campus who disagree with their ideas?”

Cleary suggested the foundation staff study fast-food alternatives, including other chains and a campus-run hamburger stand.

The foundation had chosen Carl’s Jr. over its competitors because it was the only company that would allow the university to buy the franchise outright. Foundation Associate Director Lewis Herbst estimated the franchise would have produced a yearly profit of $50,000.

Students who opposed the plan said they particularly objected to Karcher’s financial support for the anti-abortion movement.

“The question here is between good business and bad morals,” said Faith Haaz, a junior in religious studies and director of the Women’s Center.

Similar student dissent at University of California campuses in Irvine and Davis, as well as at the University of Southern California, failed to convince officials at those institutions to bar the fast-food restaurant from campus, university spokesmen said.

The publicly held company that runs Carl’s Jr., Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc., distinguishes between Karcher’s personal views and those of the company.

“As a company, Carl Karcher Enterprises doesn’t take a position on the abortion issue,” said company spokeswoman Patty Parks. “He draws a salary from the company and as an individual has the right to do what he wishes with his finances.”

Another group of CSUN students who attended Friday’s meeting to speak in favor of the restaurant said they were disappointed to see the abortion-rights issue outweigh financial concerns, especially as the campus grapples with nearly $6.6 million in state budget cuts.

“We know that they are profitable and that’s what CSUN needs at this point,” said Jhayne Eddy, a senior in speech/communications. “I’m really opposed to the fact that it’s become a single-issue situation.”

In May, the board had approved including the fast-food chain as part of an expansion of the foundation-run bookstore.

When word of the decision spread, questions about its appropriateness arose--first during a campus planning committee meeting to discuss construction of the bookstore and restaurant building and later during a meeting of the Faculty Academic Senate’s executive committee.

Political science professor Jane Bayes, who spoke on behalf of faculty opposed to the restaurant, said symbols and morals are naturally important at a university.

“In our courses, we deal with symbols, we deal with morals,” she said. “When you bring in a franchise that has any taint, you’re opening a whole series of questions about what kind of business are we in as a university . . . $50,000 a year isn’t worth that kind of demoralization of what our university means to us.”