Aaron Akaberi, the Binghamton University sophomore who recently ended his 12-day hunger strike against Sodexho, met with University officials this week.

The strike ended on Sunday, when he saw that it was “affecting the wrong people.”

“In terms of my diet, it’s a ‘wait-and-see’ situation,” he said, of what was discussed at Wednesday afternoon’s meeting. He added that he felt Sodexho was still unable to meet the requirement that his meals not be prepared on a metal surface, and that he was “reluctant” to accept them at their word.

“Sodexho continues to work with him and are confident they can accommodate his dietary needs,” University spokeswoman Gail Glover said, in a statement. The University has since asked him to put his requests in writing and to provide some additional research into specific Rastafarian guidelines.

Akaberi also added that while the daily multivitamin he took during his hunger strike was not made meeting Ital standards, he was not — and still is not — on the diet.

ON STRIKE

Akaberi had originally contacted Sodexho, the campus food service provider, saying he wanted to follow Rastafarian dietary customs, known as Ital. He then said he felt Sodexho was unable to meet its requirements, including solely organic vegetarian ingredients and does not permit the use of metal cookware to prepare the meals, he went on a hunger strike.

While University officials maintain they were open to working with Akaberi on fulfilling the requirements of his diet, he has said that their plan was insufficient for his needs.

He said the strike was directed at Sodexho’s policies, and his goal was to represent a wider frustration with the company’s service to students rather than as a reaction to their response to his dietary needs.

THE NEXT STEP

While Akaberi has effectively ended his hunger strike, he has started a petition against Sodexho, and is distributing it with help from some supporters.

He said that while the hunger strike had devolved into “sensationalism,” he has been encountering “very little resistance to the petition movement.”

The petition says that the mandatory meal plan for campus residents “is unnecessary, conflicts with our financial interests, doesn’t meet all student needs and disrespects our right to self-autonomy.” It demands that students be able to exercise “the freedom of choice” in regard to their meals plans.

Akaberi said he felt this was a natural step in order to “ground the campaign.”

INTERNET ACTIVISM

But the “sensationalism” Akaberi referred to is now a part of the discourse on his hunger strike. Local and campus media coverage helped Akaberi’s hunger strike achieve national attention last week when wire services picked it up, and it became fodder for the blogosphere.

While Akaberi created his own group “No more free lunch for Sodexho,” another group, “Aaron Akaberi, tell the truth,” was created shortly after the received widespread media attention.

Online media link catalogue Fark.com listed a link to Pipe Dream’s coverage of Akaberi’s protest. Each Fark entry is tagged with a descriptor; Akaberi’s was marked “Asinine.” As this issue went to print, 160 users had posted responses and the link had been visited 15,174 times since its Sept. 17. posting. Students and alumni at universities across the country responded to the issue of corporate catering services, reacting with both criticism and acclaim for Akaberi’s hunger strike.

“I guess that he was completely unaware that the University required all students to sign up for a meal plan before he enrolled,” one user wrote, within hours of the story going up on the Web. “If he feels so strongly, live off campus or go to another school.”

The site also garnered support for Akaberi, as students at other universities empathized with his cause. One wrote, “At my university, meal plans cost more than your freaking dorm. If you buy the smallest meal plan they offer, it averages out to $7 a meal, which is a complete rip-off.”

Another forum posting of the Associated Press story developed into four pages of responses, mostly negative. The thread has since been removed.

Akaberi said that he had seen some of the online forums about him and his actions, but that ultimately, it would be a “profound waste of time” to respond to them.

Instead, he has decided to “foster some positive outcomes, and that’s how the petition has gone.”