A group of concerned students are sticking up for local business owner Keith Bliss, who they say was forced by Eastern into a contract that prevents him from being profitable.

Bliss signed a lease to manage Java Beanery and Bakery in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union this fall. Bliss also owns the Jitters and Bliss shop on Lincoln Avenue.

The union shop sold java from national distributor Seattle’s Best Coffee instead of cheaper, Champaign-based MicroRoaster, which supplies the off-campus shop. That and Java B & B’s inability to accept Dining Dollars is forcing the shop out of business, said members of Eastern’s Fair Trade Coffee Coalition.

“I’m pretty sure he won’t stay if he doesn’t have Dining Dollars and his own roaster,” said Jen Price, coalition co-chair and junior art major.

Bliss did not return phone calls Wednesday. He plans to opt out of his annually renewable five-year contract and vacate Java B & B shortly after the spring semester ends.

Price and other members of Fair Trade set up shop in Coleman Hall and the Union for several days, passing out fliers alleging that Bliss was “forced” into the Seattle’s Best agreement and “denied access to Dining Dollars.” The fliers also said the university plans to accept Dining Dollars in its operation despite remarks that Bliss’ shop couldn’t handle the volume.

Price said the group learned of problems between Bliss and the university while working with Bliss and Mark Hudson, director of housing and dining, to promote Fair Trade Coffee on campus.

About 300 students signed letters voicing support for Bliss’ demands, and Fair Trade plans to deliver them early next week to Hudson, interim President Lou Hencken and Shirley Stewart, acting vice president for student affairs.

That won’t change the fate of the shop, Stewart said.

“We’ve accepted his letter to leave in May,” she said. “We know he has a thriving business on Lincoln Avenue, and we wish him luck.”

Stewart said Bliss chose not to accept Dining Dollars in favor of collecting more commission and using Seattle’s Best was a provision since the beginning of talks.

“He agreed to it. He signed the contract,” she said. “He shouldn’t have signed if he didn’t want to do Seattle’s Best.”

The university hasn’t yet decided whether to use Dining Dollars in its coffee shop, Hudson said.

When Bliss moves out of the shop, the university will take over operations indefinitely and not seek another operator, Stewart said.

“We’re going to continue offering a coffee and bakery shop business,” she said.

The university built the shop and leased the space to Bliss. Eastern owns most of the major appliances, Hudson said, but Bliss has offered to sell some of the things he owns to the university. But Hudson said even those talks have progressed slowly.

“Our communications have not been as frequent over the last six weeks,” Hudson said, remarking that Bliss has missed his last several regular meetings with university administrators.

Price said Fair Trade still plans to fight for Bliss, who carried the only Fair Trade-approved line of Seattle’s Best coffee at Java B & B, because he is a small business owner up against a university.

“I don’t know if this is so much about Fair Trade but the small local business owner,” Price said. “Fair Trade Coffee is about the small coffee farmer, so we have to support the small business owner, too.”

Hudson and Stewart both said the university is open to the idea of using Fair Trade coffee, a line of coffee grown on ecologically sound farms by farmers paid a decent living wage.