Amidst a rising student backlash, Big City Coffee was pushed off the Boise State University campus in October 2020, a university administrator said Friday.

“I don’t believe that they left voluntarily,” associate vice president for campus services Nicole Nimmons said in testimony in an Ada County district courtroom.

The Big City Coffee trial is scheduled to resume Wednesday morning. The trial is expected to run through Friday. Boise State University President Marlene Tromp is likely to be one of next week’s witnesses.

But during cross examination, Nimmons did not provide details from Oct. 22, 2020, Big City’s last day on campus. University leaders held an impromptu Big City “strategy meeting” that afternoon; Nimmons recalled no discussion of severing the contract. Soon after, administrators met with Big City owner Sarah Fendley. Afterwards, neither Fendley nor university administrators told Nimmons that the contract was terminated.

The events of Oct. 22, 2020 are central to Big City’s $10 million civil lawsuit against Alicia Estey, Boise State’s chief financial and operating officer and vice president for finance and operations; and Leslie Webb, Boise State’s former vice president for student affairs and enrollment management.

Fendley says she was pushed off campus due to her vocal support of law enforcement and the Thin Blue Line, in violation of her First Amendment rights. Boise State says Big City abruptly — but voluntarily — closed its campus location, after only 42 days in operation.

The Nicole Nimmons-Big City connection

Through the summer and fall of 2020, Nimmons was the point of contact between Big City and Boise State. On Friday, she was the central figure in court, the sole witness on the sixth day of the jury trial. She spent seven hours on the witness stand — providing a long and sometimes contradictory account of Big City’s short and contentious time on campus.

Nimmons played a key role in recruiting Big City to campus to take over a retail space at the university library in 2020. Boise State was replacing a campus Starbucks and wanted to bring in a local vendor.

Nimmons was a frequent customer — she testified that she frequently went to Big City on Fridays to pick up day-old pastries to treat her employees at the Student Union Building. She believed Big City was a good fit for Boise State’s demographics, and student surveys suggested the local vendor would be popular.

Nimmons also received a testimonial from her then-boss. “I love Big City!” Webb wrote in an email in 2020.

But as Nimmons became Big City’s point person on campus, she also became a target of criticism. Some student opponents called for her ouster. One took his complaint directly to President Marlene Tromp, Nimmons testified tearfully Friday afternoon. She said the student later apologized.

Communication gaps

While Nimmons envisioned “a long-term partnership” with Big City, Fendley had reservations. In 2016, a Boise State employee pushed for a boycott of Big City because of its pro-law enforcement positions.

Nimmons didn’t think much of those concerns at the time.

“I wasn’t worried at all for her being on the campus,” she testified. “I believe I was very dismissive.”

But Nimmons also blamed fellow administrators, including Webb, for failing to let her know about the growing backlash over Big City. As administrators met with student activists — and Nimmons said, placed the critics’ concerns above any other considerations — they kept those meetings under wraps. Consequently, she said, Big City was also left in the dark.

“Had I known details, I would have shared it with them,” Nimmons said.

But in laborious and sometimes testy cross examination, defense attorneys Keely Duke sought to poke holes in Nimmons’ narrative. Duke highlighted several emails, dating back to July 2020, that suggested Nimmons was concerned about the potential student backlash. Duke suggested Nimmons could have done more to look into Fendley’s concerns and keep her in the loop about student opposition.

In one email, on Sept. 9, 2020, Nimmons asked a Boise State employee to monitor social media posts, “in order to gather information so that we can be prepared for protests.”

Duke chided Nimmons for failing to share this development with Fendley. “Wouldn’t you think that would be something you would have talked to her about?”

Assurances to Big City?

One of the central issues in the lawsuit comes down to what assurances Big City received — or expected — from the university.

Boise State officials have contended that Big City wanted special treatment. They say the vendor wanted public support from the university — even to the point of muzzling the First Amendment rights of students who opposed Big City’s presence on campus.

In cross examination, Nimmons said the university never promised to make a public statement on Boise State’s behalf. She said she did not suggest the university would try to shut down student protests or boycotts. She also did not promise to use Boise State’s code of student ethics against student critics.

Specifically, Duke asked Nimmons about one social media post central to the case: an Oct. 21, 2020 Snapchat call for a boycott, from an Associated Students of Boise State University officer.

Nimmons said she did not believe the Snapchat post violated the code of ethics.

The pivotal day

The Snapchat post fed a brushfire that spread across the campus during the hours of Oct. 22, 2020. Quelling the backlash was “definitely a high priority” of university leadership, Nimmons said.

At one point — and at Webb’s urging — Nimmons asked Fendley to take down a Facebook response to the Snapchat post. The Facebook item contained a screenshot of the Snapchat item. Even though Fendley obscured the name of the student who made the post, the repost came under criticism. Several students brought it up to Tromp in a leadership class she taught that morning.

Fendley closed the campus shop that day, saying she was concerned for the safety of her student employees.

And under questioning from Michael Roe, Big City’s attorney, Nimmons said she talked to Webb about the university’s options for severing the contract.

At 4 p.m. that day a group of top administrators met to continue a discussion Webb launched on Google Chat, calling for a “new strategy” for Big City. Estey, Webb and Nimmons were in attendance, along with university counsel and other administrators. Nimmons said she could remember no talk about breaking a contract, or about Big City leaving campus. “I don’t recall that specific wording.”

Another meeting convened at 4:30 p.m. Attendees included Fendley and her then-fiance, former Boise police officer Kevin Holtry, who was paralyzed in a 2016 shooting. Webb and Estey were among Boise State’s representatives. Nimmons helped set up the hastily arranged meeting. Moments before the meeting began, Webb told Nimmons that she would not be allowed to attend.

“I didn’t make any assumptions about what the conversation was going to be,” Nimmons testified. “I was pissed off that I wasn’t included.”

As the meeting unfolded, Nimmons waited in a nearby room.

Afterwards, she testified, no one told her Big City was leaving campus — although the shop shuttered its doors for good on Oct. 26.

Fighting back tears Friday morning, Nimmons recalled her post-meeting conversation with Fendley, in the parking lot outside Boise State’s administration building.

“I encouraged Sarah to come to campus, to be a part of campus,” Nimmons said. “I felt that I had failed, and failed her. And the university failed me.”

Boise Dev and Idaho Education News have partnered for coverage of the Big City Coffee case, with senior reporters Margaret Carmel and Kevin Richert sharing court reporting duties.