The Thursday Market on campus has officially drawn to an end by Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS), after continued battles with insurance and the failure to find a different service to take over its operations without similar insurance struggles.
The Thursday Market started approximately ten years ago, with the intention of bringing fresh local produce to campus. Over time, it evolved to have more student-based goods, such as artwork, clothing and jewelry. It also provided a space for clubs to table, being able to advertise events or their organizations in general.
Initially, the Market was managed by student or alumni employees. For the last two years of its operation, however, it was managed by CAS full-time employees.
Because CAS is an independent, not-for-profit organization, the Market fell under a branch of the school’s operation. With a mission “to provide goods and services to enrich daily life at SUNY New Paltz,” CAS also provides food services, bookstore, conference scheduling and vending services to the school.
Student vendors were informed on Tuesday, March 5 that the Thursday Market was officially coming to an end as CAS would no longer host it. CAS representatives Jean Ragmac and Melinda Cirillo expressed that CAS has “been trying to deal with issues regarding insurance and liability for over a year with no success. Once we realized that it was no longer a possibility for us to host the Market, we attempted to find other campus organizations to take it over. That process was also met with no success.”
Steven Deutsch serves as the Executive Director of Campus Auxiliary Services at SUNY New Paltz. Overseeing major operations of CAS in his role, Deutsch expressed how for a long time, the Market “added life to the Plaza on Thursdays.” He added how it “provided income for student vendors and a platform for student groups.” Prior to its recent closure, the Market did not pose any lasting challenges to CAS operations, with the most difficulties being practical matters such as setting up tables or paperwork.
Thus, it came as a surprise to many this semester when the Market was initially postponed and then later officially ended. Having received minimal communications as to what the specific struggles were or an exact timeline for a potential re-opening, students grew concerned over their financial plans as well as the ability to sell and interact with customers this semester. Previously covered by The Oracle, the Market provided business opportunities, social networking and interactions between vendors and a closer sense of campus community. Reactions from vendors have shown that losing the weekly tradition has a reaching impact on all those involved, beyond just profit.
Ultimately, the specific issue that closed down the Market was insurance. The insurance company CAS uses had informed them there would be no coverage under their current policy, which meant they would have to require all vendors to carry their own insurance in order to participate in the Market. Deutsch expressed his belief that “this was due to the fact the Market had evolved from a produce market with mainly insured farmers or co-ops into a crafts market with uninsured vendors.”
Deutsch explained this evolution as a “deal killer” for two reasons: CAS would not want to operate anything without insuring it first, and the cost of the event insurance to vendors would have been “prohibitively expensive.” This means that the insurance CAS needed to continue the Market would have cost vendors too much to still ensure the same kind of profit.
CAS’s insurance broker posed the issue as a business decision to be made, common in situations such as public markets. “In today’s litigious society, we always recommend that you require vendors to carry their own insurance as your standard procedure. You can then decide if there are any exceptions you would like to make, knowing that CAS would be exposed to the actions of uninsured vendors. The general liability coverage that CAS currently has, which is standard for most policies like this, would not cover the actions or liabilities of independent vendors.”
Once CAS realized they could not host the market without these hiked insurance policies for vendors, they began a search for other organizations to take over the Market. One option was initially the Student Association (SA). However, the option of SA fell through as well due to the same insurance concerns, proving this development as not isolated to CAS but instead a reaching issue that came with the changing nature of the Market itself. The more student vendors there were, the less privately insured businesses and thus greater need for the hosting organization to ensure independent protections.
SA’s insurance broker expressed understanding of the “desire to have as many events as possible available to students,” but was unable to accommodate because they were not able to secure insurance coverage or do so at a reasonable cost.“This has morphed into a different type of event that includes many vendors and exhibitors who do not carry or have insurance coverage of their own. This creates a problem and puts the SA at risk. [The] current policy does not provide coverage for these vendors and in the event something happens on campus as a result of their actions, the Student Association would become liable and would not have a policy to respond.”
The insurance broker reiterated that their “default position has always been that if an event cannot be insured, it should not take place.” Protecting both SA and the vendors themselves who would then fall under SA’s supervision in the Market, the simple exposure for uninsured vendors was too great a risk and not worth the imposed limits and the cost of forcing each vendor to pay the increased insurance cost was not able to be rationalized.
While CAS was not able to find a new organization to host the market without facing similar concerns with insurance, Deutsch expressed a lasting openness to new options for students to sell, buy and maintain the Market experience. “We are open to listening to any opportunities to support this kind of programming as long as it doesn’t put CAS at risk,” said Deutsch.