News flash: big ban on campus for Coke products!

[Gifted Gourmet]

article here

Coca-Cola, a once-ubiquitous part of student life, is now being faced with expulsion at many levels of academia. As watchdog groups mount a challenge against Coke and other soft drink marketers at high-, middle- and elementary schools, it is now becoming hip to boot the brand from college campuses. More than 130 colleges and universities (mostly in the U.S.) have anti-Coke programs in place.  The country's largest private school, New York University, banned Coke products last week. More are preparing to follow suit, including the University of Michigan

When you were a student, did you consume large amounts of Coca Cola products?

Can you envision colleges without Coke to accompany pizza, hot dogs, burgers, etc.?

This is shocking and I live in Atlanta, which boasts of the national Coca Cola headquarters ...

[jsolomon]

The University I work at, University of Nebraska-Lincoln is a "Pepsi Campus". Several years ago, after a protracted whoredom offering, we got a modest sum of money from Pepsi and kicked Coca Cola out of all University-owned buildings.

The stores just off campus stock almost exclusively Coke products, and the non-university owned buildings on campus--chapels, and frats, mostly--all have Coke machines outside their buildings.

It creates a lot of bitching right away, and some small bitching when new employees or students find out about it, but they adjust relatively quickly.

It tends to be a tempest in a teacup type of issue.

[TPO]

I didn't drink much Coke in college because I couldn't afford it. Vending machines and the college snack bar were expensive, and any soda I had in my fridge was either store-brand soda or something my parents gave me. But I think college kids today have far more disposable income.

One thing that hasn't seemed to change is that some college students are vocal activists:

Student activists want Coke to agree to an independent third-party probe of labor violations at its Colombian bottling plants. There have been at least eight killings in Colombia involving seven union officials and one plant manager since 1989, per CSKC.

Whether they are right or wrong, I think it's good that they are aware of issues outside of their campus walls.

[gethin]

It tends to be a tempest in a teacup type of issue.

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Here in the UK, NUS Services Ltd (which negotiates purchasing arrangements for around 180 Students Unions) have alternated between Coke and Pepsi depending on who offers the best deal. My perception is that most students don't care much either way.

At the moment we can only buy post mix from Coca Cola, but individual Union's can make their own choices as to what cans or bottles they stock. This deal is up for renewal next April and a small number of Union's are arguing for a ban on Coke products.

There are serious issues behind this. The murder of eight trade unionists at the Coke bottling plant in Carepa, and the allegations about the over extraction of ground water in Kerala aren't (or shouldn't be) "tempests in a teacup".

NUSSL have so far followed a policy of constructive engagement and my feeling is that this is working. In March 2004, Coca Cola launched a set of standards on ethical and environmental issues for bottlers (Project Citizenship), in March 2005 they committed themselves to regular meetings with the International Union of Foodworkers and to meeting a a set of minimum conmmitments agreed with the IUF, they have abandoned plans to reopen their plant in Kerala till the water issue is resolved and the Coca Cola Foundation donated $10 million to the Columbian Foundation for Education and Opportunity. All of these were in part a response to pressure from NUS Services.

The only real alternative to Coca Cola for us at least is Pepsi Co, whose bottlers face similar allegations in relation to the over extraction of groundwater in India, similar allegations of undermining trade unions (again in India) and allegations of extensive sexual abuse of female workers at a Pepsi plant in Poland.

Student activists who raise these issues are doing something really worthwhile in making us think seriously about the wider consequences of our choices; about who we do business with and what products we buy.

I'm not convinced bans and boycotts are the best way forward at the moment, but to the extent that progress is being made , I'm sure that its partially driven by those threats.

On a personal level, I think the only Coca Cola owned brand I'd miss at all would be Roses's Lime Juice.

Gethin

[jsolomon]

There are serious issues behind this. The murder of eight trade unionists at the Coke bottling plant in Carepa, and the allegations about the over extraction of ground water  in Kerala aren't  (or shouldn't be) "tempests in a teacup".

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I speak about their effects on campus, not worldwide. My favorite workman's subjugator is coffee, so I tend to not pay attention to issues with soda.

mea culpa

On my campus, the tempest lasted for about 6 weeks when the contract was signed, and now when we bring on new staff from other University's, they kvetch for a day when they find out, but then they adjust. That is what I was meaning. I wasn't speaking on grander social or humanitarian scales.

[acautrell]

Coke was booted off my campus earlier this semester, but it's strictly because of money, not student protesting. Pepsi offered a few thousand more to the University, so the Coke machines are now a thing of the past.

I was always happy about the fact that we did have soft drink choice on campus, but now the lack of Coke is not a huge deal. Diet Dr. Pepper was and is my drink of choice if I'm forced to buy from the office machines.

[DTBarton]

Prohibition never works. As the Nebraska poster said, all the stores just off campus will be Coke heavy. Kind of silly if you don't ban all sugary soft drinks and kind of heavy handed if you do. Meaningless gesture.

I read an article a while back where Rob Reiner was crowing about a large tax increase placed on cigarettes in CA that he had advocated and how it was reducing smoking. The article then went on to interview a guy who ran a store in AZ just over the border. He said, thanks Rob! I've had to build a new building just to house the increased cigarette supply. Prohibition never works.