CSUN Students Vote to Keep Carl’s Jr. Out : Franchise: Only 2,100 participate in the non-binding referendum. Trustees will meet today to make a final decision.

Cal State Northridge students have narrowly voted to oppose establishment of a Carl’s Jr. on the campus, capping an acrimonious, yearlong debate over banning the fast-food outlet because of the conservative views of its founder, Carl N. Karcher.

However, only about 2,100 of the university’s 30,000 students voted in the non-binding referendum Tuesday and Wednesday, which some school officials said raised doubts about its validity. There were 1,093 votes against and 1,045 in favor of locating a Carl’s Jr. franchise in the school’s expanded bookstore complex.

The results were released Thursday as the CSUN Foundation’s 16-member board of trustees prepared to meet today to make a final decision on whether to pursue the franchise. The decision was deferred in September at the request of the board’s five student members, who asked for time to poll campus opinion.

Consideration of a Carl’s Jr. outlet began after a survey of 2,700 students by the foundation last spring showed it to be the top campus choice among a variety of hamburger franchises. The foundation is a self-financed, nonprofit organization that oversees many of the campus eateries and helps fund many educational programs on campus.

“We’re quite disappointed,” said Dean Calvo, food service manager for the foundation, which has already sunk about $20,000 in planning and design costs for the proposed franchise. “We thought it would be close, but we felt that there would be a majority that it would be approved.”

Students opposed to the fast-food chain said they opposed Karcher for publicly supporting anti-abortion groups and an anti-homosexual ballot initiative, and for running a TV ad that they said was insensitive to American Indians.

“I’m extremely pleased,” said Faith Manon Haaz, a senior in religious studies who organized opposition to the proposal. “It was a vindication of my ideas. . . . It shows that there are students on this campus who still do oppose Carl’s Jr.,” and who agree that Karcher fails to promote cultural diversity, she said.

She said American Indians were offended by a Carl’s Jr. commercial for a “southwestern” chicken sandwich that said the recipe wouldn’t have existed if the Indians hadn’t settled in the Southwest, and “if the Spaniards hadn’t come up the Chihuahua trail to conquer them, and if the cowboys hadn’t gotten it into their heads to leave Missouri and come West.”

The commercial trivialized the slaughter of Indians by Spaniards and cowboys, Haaz said.

A spokesman for Carl Karcher Enterprises said the commercial drew only one complaint and was revised within 72 hours. The company received no further objections from Indian groups, the spokesman said.

Foundation board members and employees predicted that today’s vote will be close but will most likely reflect the referendum’s results, with a narrow defeat for the proposed franchise. Some trustees said the comparatively small number who took part in the referendum may not accurately reveal campus opinion.

Trustee John Golisch, a CSUN alumnus who has supported the franchise, said the referendum would not affect his favorable vote.

“I suspect that the people that were very adamant about not having a Carl’s Jr. franchise would have done a very strong campaign to get the vote out against it,” Golisch said. Carl’s Jr. has been subjected to more intense political scrutiny than other fast-food candidates, he said.

A spokeswoman for Carl Karcher Enterprises, Patty Parks, said the company was disappointed in the referendum’s outcome, but she said company representatives would meet today as planned with the foundation board.

She added that the company supports Karcher’s “right as an individual to express his opinions on such things as the abortion issue. But those are his opinions as an individual. They don’t necessarily reflect what the company’s position is.”

Calvo said the foundation had hoped to have a Carl’s Jr. ready for business by opening day of the spring semester in January. The foundation projected that the franchise, which it would purchase outright, would make an annual profit of about $50,000, he said.

Who Is Carl Karcher? * Born: Jan. 16, 1917, in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

* Family: Married for 51 years; he and his wife have 12 children, 44 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren.

* Business: Founded Carl Karcher Enterprises in 1941 with a hot dog cart on a Los Angeles street corner. It is now a $578-million company.

* His views: Opposes abortion and acknowledges contributing thousands of dollars per year to anti-abortion groups. Donated $5,000 in 1978 to support the Briggs Initiative, a failed campaign to ban homosexuals from teaching in California public schools. Supports several charities, including Orange County United Way.

Sources: Carl Karcher Enterprises, CSUN Associated Students, Los Angeles Times interview.