Students and faculty at the UA may notice a lack of a spring staple this year on the mall — the local Girl Scouts selling their signature cookies.
According to the Kathy Adams Riester, the associate dean of students, there is not a ban on the sale of cookies. Rather, the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona council has chosen not to oblige the guidelines for selling on the UA Mall set by the university—guidelines that have been in place for some time, but that the UA has been lenient with in the past.
“There is no ban,” Riester said. “The Girl Scouts council contacted us about wanting to secure some dates to sell cookies on campus.”
Riester said that she has been having conversations with the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona council since the end of last semester and into January. According to her, the council was well aware of the opportunity to sell at the UA.
During these discussions, Riester informed the Girl Scouts council that in the past, they had not followed all of the policies and procedures that community organizations are held to when selling items on campus.
In the UA’s Policy and Regulations Governing the Use of the Campus, it is stated that “commercial activity” means:
“(a) all advertising, sales, purchases or agreements for the sale or purchase of goods or services
(b) all giving, demonstration or solicitation for the purchase or sale of goods or services provided by a person, group of persons or other entity
(c) all solicitations of gifts of money or other goods or services by a person, groups of persons or other entity.”
Part of the policy is that any outside organization can’t have commercial activity on campus like selling products on campus for more than five days per semester. In addition to this, there is a charge for community activity.
The policy also states that vendors, who must be sponsored by a UA-affiliated group or individual, are required to pay a $100 fee to utilize space on the Mall.
Riester explained that last year the UA said that it would work with the Girl Scouts for that year, but that they would be held to the same standards as other vendors in the following years.
“We said that they can come and are welcome to be here, they would be admitted up to five times during the semester and, as part of that, there will also be a $100 fee each time they would be on campus,” Riester said.
The Girl Scouts council chose not to pursue that option.
“Honestly I have no idea why we can’t [sell],” said Kathy Luttery, mother of a Girl Scout from Troop 454. “I know that if we want to stay stationed in an area like Frog & Firkin we have to have approval of both the property manager and the council.”
The UA is not banning girl scout cookies from being sold on campus, but rather is choosing to enforce an existing policy. The UA decided that it needed to make sure to have consistency with all of the organizations who try to come and sell on campus.
Students at the UA were not informed of the decision the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona council has made.
“No, I didn’t know that they weren’t selling on campus. I feel like it’s a good environment for Girl Scout cookies to be sold because it’s a safe environment for the girls to be in,” said Symone Banks, a sophomore studying speech language and hearing sciences. “Selling to college students, there wouldn’t be anyone who’s trying to take advantage of them, just people who actually want the cookies.”
If you are looking for girl scout cookies, have no fear. They are still available off campus in front of Circle K and Safeway. You can go to the Girl Scout’s website to look up location and times that the scouts will be selling their cookies.
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