As students filter back onto campus, there's a new coffee percolating in all Brew locations.

The university announced earlier this month that it would replace its previous coffee vendor, Alterra Coffee Roasters, with Stone Creek Coffee. The decision raised questions from students and Alterra.

Alterra co-owner Lincoln Fowler said he was "mystified" by the switch.

"We were never notified in any change or any pending considered change or an opportunity to bid. We were notified to remove equipment first," Fowler said.

Toby Peters, associate vice president of administration, said the university had been in talks with Stone Creek owner Eric Resch for about a year, but the decision to serve his coffee in the Brews was decided in July.

"Eric approached us probably a year or so ago about opportunities on campus and at the time we didn't see a need or desire to change," Peters said. "Between the time he had approached (and now), Eagles CafAc was becoming evident it was not going to prevail."

The administration entertained the idea of starting another coffee shop featuring Stone Creek Coffee. The venture didn't pan out, Peters said, because a coffee shop in the space formerly occupied by Eagles CafAc, 1633 W. Wells St., did not fit. However, Resch had impressed the administration.

"We were certainly convinced that it was a quality product and an important factor was that it was fair trade coffee," Peters said. "Eric started to make commitments to get our students involved in (the) community on a local and potentially global basis, which we were excited about."

The administration and Resch have developed a list of service opportunities that Stone Creek will be pivotal in bringing to the students, including lectures, possible internships, service trips to Brazil and discount cards.

Fowler said activities between Alterra and the student body just weren't on the administration's radar.

"In the last three years, Alterra (has) continued to work with JUSTICE to educate about fair trade," College of Engineering senior and former JUSTICE co-chair Dominique George said in an e-mail interview. "Al Liu from Alterra spoke at Marquette twice last year, once with a coffee farmer from Chiapas, Mexico. It doesn't seem right that Marquette would change the contract so suddenly without any student input or more explanation of their reasoning."

Marquette Student Government President Dan Calandriello, a senior in the College of Business Administration, agreed with George. He said he was "disappointed in the lack of student input with these changes.

"Why weren't students involved with these changes?" he asked.

Peters said he recognized that when the university usually makes decisions, at minimum they communicate to students what's going on, but the timing caused the lack of input.

"In order to not be disruptive to our customers, we needed to move pretty quickly," Peters said. "You have to shut the business down essentially. The best time to do that was during the summer."

A member of the student group JUSTICE said the organization was concerned that the university had not provided more information.

"I think the Marquette administration has a responsibility to conduct business inA a fair and transparent manner — students should be informed, or at least have access to information, of why changes are being made," said group co-chair Peter McCuskey, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Fair Trade Offerings

Members of the Marquette community have questioned the change because fair trade was cited as a primary reason for the switch in the Marquette University News Briefs e-mail for Aug. 7. Alterra and Stone Creek are the two largest local fair trade roasters.

Three years ago, Marquette dedicated itself to fair trade in the Brews when Alterra won the bid for the university contract.

"The reasons that were put out with the internal news releases seem to be interested in coffee to achieve social mission," Fowler said. "The fact is Alterra is one of the top-10 fair trade roasters in the country."

Some students were concerned the university and Stone Creek would offer fewer fair trade coffees.

"Both Alterra and Stone Creek carry fair trade coffee lines, have direct involvement with coffee growers and work within the Milwaukee community. The difference may be in the amount of fair trade coffee they are currently capable of supplying," McCuskey said.

Fowler said counting up the different types and varieties of fair trade coffees a company supplies is meaningless.

"You could say you have 100 types but doesn't say how much is fair trade," Fowler said. "You can blend that and blend that and blend that; variety doesn't illuminate the question. Most significant for farmers in fair trade is how much fair trade coffee do you roast. If the comparison is how much fair trade, we roast over 10 times more than they can."

Resch said Stone Creek will provide all 11 varieties of fair trade and organic coffee that the company roasts to the Brews.

But the company has begun what Resch called the evolution of fair trade with a partnership with Socially Conscious Coffee, providing a direct link to the coffee farms delivering education and resources beyond money to coffee pickers and their families.

"We are trying to push the bounds of what fair trade is; we recognize it's a good thing, we sell quite a bit of it," Resch said. "We will be selling a lot of it to Marquette, but we want to teach and educate about what's next, how do we continue to reach the people who need our help."

Questions of influence

Rumors have swirled that Resch's father Richard, the president and CEO of Green Bay-based furniture maker KI, had influence on the switch. The university denies any influence.

"We've been buying furniture from (KI) for decades," Peters said. "KI has been a generous donor to the university for decades and it had absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we serve Stone Creek Coffee. Absolutely nothing."

Questions were also raised when Tom Pionek, formerly the marketing director of Stone Creek, took a job at Marquette in the Office of Marketing and Communication.

Marquette's Human Resources Department said the position had been open since May and was only filled this month. Brigid O'Brien Miller, director of university communication, said the department received 30 applications and two separate panels interviewed final candidates before a decision had been made.

Eric Lombardi of the Tribune staff contributed to this report.