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Still no clear conclusion in Coke debate

SGA resolution, failed initiative leave student position unclear

by Katie Jares

When Jenny Dale ’06 was younger her parents “took a two-year-old and a four-year-old to live in a war zone.”

For four years of her life, Dale lived in El Salvador amid that nation’s civil war. She says her experience led to a deep shared connection to Latin America. Years later, her father went to Colombia.

Her father’s reports moved Dale, then a junior, to help organize last year’s Coca-Cola boycott with the Latin American Solidarity Group (LASG).

“As a consumer on a campus that supported Coca-Cola exclusively … this is one small, little thing I can do,” she said. “Corporations have a lot of power in the world … they need to take responsibility.”

Dale and LASG wrote and advocated the Coca-Cola resolution through Joint Board this year. At least 20 percent of the student body must vote in favor, in addition to a SGA resolution, for a boycott to go into effect. The SGA standards for student initiatives are different. In order for an initiative to pass, 50 percent of students must vote, and two-thirds of student votes must be in favor of an initiative. Only 55 percent of students who voted cast their votes in favor of the Nov. 9 student initiative to boycott Coke. The initiative failed.

The impact of last year’s Coca-Cola boycott was hotly debated on campus and Plans. Proponents of the boycott say last year’s boycott caused a 40 percent decrease in Coke consumption on campus.

“The reduction was more like four percent,” said Director of Dining Services Dick Williams. “There was some effect on fountain syrup and in the vending area.” Still, both Williams and John Kalkbrenner, vice president of College Services, said local Coca-Cola employees took notice.

“The managers at Coca-Cola were quite concerned about the boycott.  Last year they sent representatives from a number of Coke entities to visit campus and talk with a group of students, faculty and staff,” said Kalkbrenner. “I believe that they sent a total of seven managers from such locations as Ames Iowa, Coke headquarters in Atlanta and from Coca-Cola FEMSA in Costa Rica.”

Since more than 20 percent of students did support a Coca-Cola boycott, there could be a debate over whether stickers announcing the boycott should go back up on fountain dispensers and machines.

Though there is no certainty about whether boycott stickers will go up, Coke alternatives are available in dining halls and the Forum. Tea, coffee, milk, V8 juices, most fruit energy drinks sold in Forum Express and any beverage at Bob’s Underground Café are non-Coke brands.

Williams hoped that confrontation can be avoided. “I do not wish to get caught between the two sides of this issue,” he said. “I would prefer for the student groups and SGA [to] resolve differences amongst the student body.”

Kalkbrenner felt the initiative did not pass this year because of increased information on campus. “This year, as I understand it, the students had more debate about the boycott and the evidence for and against Coke.  I am delighted to see that,” he said. “That is what a liberal arts education is about: learning to think.”

Joint Board Senators Max Postman ’08, Davis Hart ’08, Justin Abramson ’08 and Matt Johnshoy ’06 organized the “anti-anti-Coke” campaign in response to what they call “fluff sources” such as killercoke.com cited on boycott posters. The senators formed an ad-hoc committee to find objective sources of information.

“Most of our sources came through their sources,” Postman explained. Ultimately, the group felt LASG and boycott supporters were not providing a full picture of the issues in Colombia.

“This is a college where ideals get put before facts and people are unwilling to be challenged,” Postman said. “It’s enthusiasm that borders on hysteria.”

Postman also said the group was uncomfortable about the alternatives offered. “Good alternatives were not offered. In fact, alternatives were viewed as irrelevant. No consideration was given for the [human rights] record of Pepsi.”

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