The Crimson Cafe is set to reopen this week, which is cause for some sort of celebration. There are entirely too few options to purchase coffee off campus.

I should make it known that I am no fan of the Crimson Cafe. I’ve found their business model to be terribly confused. Is it a coffee shop? Is it a bakery where you can also buy a fajita? Is it a place to play trivia and Connect Four?

Having said all that, I’m a huge fan of independently owned businesses on The Strip and I will support them however I can, even if I find their coffee bland. If the as yet unexplained burbling water feature sends me running to the bathroom roughly every seven to 10 minutes.

What bothered me most about Crimson Cafe closing was not the fact that my only coffee option on The Strip was reduced to a yogurt shop that looks like a set for a Japanese children’s show that would probably feature a talking radish and nothing else. What bothered me is that the Crimson Cafe was essentially forced to close because its revenue stream was being dictated by the University’s relationship with a monolithic company in the form of Aramark.

When owner Rhett Madden had the nerve to question the 21 percent fee that Aramark extracts from every Dining Dollars transaction, Aramark advised him that he would no longer be able to participate in the program.

This is infuriating on several levels, the first being that Aramark is leeching 21 percent, almost a quarter on the dollar, of every transaction from every business that accepts Dining Dollars. They’re also dictating which businesses are able to accept dining dollars, putting independent owners in a catch-22 situation. Any local business would be foolish not to accept a primary means of payment from one of the largest demographics in town – almost 30,000 young people, most of whom are mandated to have a certain amount of cash on their cards.

Aramark’s involvement on campus brings up a whole host of other issues too. All undergraduate students with at least nine credit hours are automatically charged $300 in the fall and spring on their student accounts for Dining Dollar funds.

The only exemptions for the program are students with children and those who are heads of their household. Some former students filed a class action lawsuit requesting their funds be returned in August of 2010. The suit was dismissed.

There’s also the issue of choice, or lack of it, when it comes to dining options on campus. The University’s contract with Aramark limits the options available, pretty much eliminates competition and makes it all but impossible to eat healthy on campus.

Sure, we have Chic-fil-A and Burger King, but that’s just more of the same. Having one major food vendor on campus has made it all but impossible to find something green to eat unless you want to over-pay for a salad at the Ferg.

Put simply, the University’s relationship with Aramark is another example of how the administration views us. They view us as consumers. We aren’t individuals who should be given choice and healthy options and some freedom to spend our dollars where we like. Instead, we’re just a cash register for a juicy contract with a huge corporation that stifles small business owners on The Strip.

I hope Crimson Cafe figures out what it wants to be. I hope it wants to be a coffee shop in the style of those found in larger cities. I hope it stops selling fajitas and takes out the waterfall before I have to invest in one of those bladder bag contraptions I’ve seen die-hard Tide fans sporting at games.

Mostly I hope they survive and thumb their nose at Aramark.

Greg Houser is a graduate student in creative writing. His column runs biweekly on Tuesdays.