An intriguing conflict, fraught with legal and public relations implications, is brewing on the campus of Northern Michigan University.
Staff members at The North Wind , the student newspaper, are getting an education they never bargained for.
Here’s the background.
Back in October the newspaper submitted a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to the university, seeking the contracts between NMU and its two coffee vendors, Starbucks and Stone Creek. There was a suspicion that the Stone Creek coffee shop on campus was squeezed out of business because of NMU’s cozy relationship with Starbucks.
The Starbucks chairman, president and CEO, as you probably know, is NMU alumnus Howard Schultz.