The Maryland Food Collective, which serves students at the University of Maryland, came under fire recently when one of their workers refused to serve a student because she was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words, “I Stand With Israel.” The incident prompted a letter to the campus newspaper, which in turn led to a public apology from the co-op.

In a statement, the co-op apologized to the student who was denied service, but said [Rachel] Bergstein’s letter [to the newspaper] was a step backward in resolving the issue, writing, “People who were not directly involved with the interaction that occurred on April 24 have greatly misrepresented both parties and have thus slowed down the process of reconciliation.”

Although the female student who was involved in the incident at the collective could not be reached for comment, Avi Mayer, president of the Pro-Israel Terrapin Alliance, said he had spoken to her and could give a rough timeline of events.

On April 24, the student and a friend visited the collective, and when she tried to pay for her items, the worker at the register said the student’s “I Stand With Israel” shirt was offensive and told her to find someone else to help her. The student found another worker and made her purchase, but left the store “emotionally distraught,” Mayer said.

“To my understanding, it was done openly and in front of others, and in a mildly humiliating manner, and that really is something that is not acceptable,” Mayer added. “[The student] really does want to resolve this, but I think it goes way beyond her individual experience because we can’t allow this to occur. We can’t allow this to be an epidemic that goes on.”

The co-op has not clearly outlined what its policy is on individual workers denying service to customers based on political beliefs, and Mayer expressed concern that similar incidents could happen again.

Although Jewish students and leaders of the campus community have been vocal on this issue, the co-op workers have been more hesitant to speak because the collective requires a consensus on any statement made for the whole.

While Bergstein and Mayer said that any dialogue was a sign that the controversy is moving in the right direction, they lamented that those on both sides of the argument haven’t worked harder to reconcile their differences.

“I wanted people to ask positive questions [because of the letter], but instead I heard people are going into the co-op and saying, ‘So I heard you hate Jews,’” Bergstein said.