BU student on hunger strike over dietary demands
'I refuse to be force-fed the meal plan anymore'
Press & Sun-Bulletin
by Liz Hacken
| Binghamton University student Aaron Kohn Akaberi, 20, enters the ninth day of a hunger strike today protesting the university meal plan's inability to cater to his Rastafarian beliefs. Behind Akaberi at left is the Mountainview College dining hall in the Appalachian Collegiate Center. At right is Marcy Hall, where Akaberi resides. |
Binghamton University student Aaron Kohn Akaberi, 20, enters the ninth day of a hunger strike today protesting the university meal plan's inability to cater to his Rastafarian beliefs. Behind Akaberi at left is the Mountainview College dining hall in the Appalachian Collegiate Center. At right is Marcy Hall, where Akaberi resides.
VESTAL -- A Binghamton University student is entering the ninth day of a hunger strike because he says BU's compromise to meet his religious dietary restrictions made it less convenient to grab a meal.
"It seemed like poetic irony," said Aaron Kohn Akaberi, 20, about his decision to go without food in protest. "I refuse to be force-fed the meal plan anymore."
University officials say they work with students with special diets to make sure their needs are met.
Akaberi, of South Setauket, Long Island, has followed Rastafarianism since this summer. The religion says its members should follow the ital diet of all-organic foods. The diet is up to individual interpretation, Akaberi said, but he won't eat food with any preservatives or any that's cooked on metallic surfaces.
Before coming to campus last month, Akaberi said he contacted Sodexho, the company that provides food service for BU. The company offered a compromise in which he could call ahead for special meals to be prepared when dining halls are open and have a cook at its late-night cafeteria prepare foods meeting the ital diet. But Akaberi said that chef hasn't been available when he has visited the cafeteria since the beginning of the semester.
"If they could provide the same meal structure they provide for all other students, I'd be willing to see what they have to offer," he said.
Akaberi has kept his hunger strike mostly to himself and hasn't done any public protesting. Since going on strike, he has lost more than 13 pounds -- down to 130.2 from 143.6 -- he said, sustaining himself on only a multivitamin each day and some water.
BU requires students who live in residence halls to have a university meal plan, said spokeswoman Gail Glover. Sodexho offers organic food and has dietitians on staff to work with students to provide their special-needs meals. In the more than 20 years the company has provided BU's food services, she said, the company always has been able to meet students' needs.
"Sodexho makes every effort to work within the meal plans to accommodate students with special dietary needs," Glover said.
But Akaberi, who is running for president of his residence hall, said he won't move off campus, especially since his building has a kitchen where students can cook for themselves without the meal plan.
Akaberi's parents support their son standing up for himself, but they were frightened by a call from the BU administration on Wednesday saying they could withdraw their son from school for medical reasons. They didn't know Aaron was on the strike before hearing from BU.
"This is something where all students should have a choice," said his mother, Gail Kohn. "This is one thing they should consider changing."
"We support what he's doing, not just because he's our son; we support him because he is right," said his father, Khosrow Akaberi.
Glover would not comment specifically on Akaberi's case, citing federal student-privacy laws, but said there is a provision in the university's policies where a student can be involuntarily withdrawn without penalty.
The process begins with recommendations from the university health service medical director or counseling center director. Then the associate vice president and dean of students decide whether to act. Students who are involuntarily withdrawn are not readmitted without a recommendation from either the university health service medical director or counseling center director.
Akaberi, a second-semester student who transferred from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, said he is prepared to continue his hunger strike "indefinitely" if necessary. He said a feeling of intense hunger was replaced by a sluggish feeling. But on day eight Wednesday, he said he'd gotten renewed energy.
"This second wind emboldened my conviction," he said. "Every time the hunger pain comes back, it's a reminder of the sacrifice I'm making."
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