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Killer Coke?
Student to spill Coke secrets on university senate
By Jocelyn Beach Sexton
Every day, sophomore Chris Trout, manager at the RPAC’s Courtside Café, serves Coke products to Ohio State students. At the Courtside, and every other University-owned establishment, students are given the choice between a variety of beverage options — Diet Coke, Dasani, Minute Maid, Sprite, and Powerade, just to name a few. But ask for Pepsi anywhere on campus grounds, and you will likely be denied.
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This is no accident. Since 1998, the University has operated under a $30 million, decade-long “exclusivity contract” with Coca-Cola, which means, as far as your thirst and particular taste are concerned, no Pepsi products sold on campus.
But as the contract nears its final year, and the decision to renew lies before University officials, Trout is concerned about more than good taste; he is concerned about good business ethics.
“The contract with Coke is the biggest one [the University] has,” Trout said, “and we [students] have no say in it now.”
Trout’s concern may seem inflated. After all, many other universities are currently partnered with Coca-Cola and other multinationals in similar contracts. These public institutions have looked more and more to private corporations to make up for waning government funds in recent decades.
But the simple business principles guiding their relationships are complicated when ethics come into play. As Trout recently discovered, and many student activist groups at other schools already know, Coca-Cola has received criticism worldwide for human rights violations and environmental damages at its bottling plants.
“I first heard about [Coke’s business practices] when my brother studied abroad in Colombia,” Trout said. “He spoke to a Coke employee there who was part of a union. One of his family members was kidnapped because of this [union participation], and he was forced to leave the union, or else. This happens all the time down there.”
Trout didn’t just take his brother’s word for it, though. He found a website, www.killercoke.org, where similar testimonies and news reports added to his concerns. According to the website, nine union leaders working at Coke bottling plants in Colombia have been murdered since 1992, and hundreds have been kidnapped. Another main ethical issue, which Trout discovered from KillerCoke, deals with alleged continuing pollution of water supplies in India by Coke bottling plants.
While students at other universities (including New York University, University of Iowa and University of Michigan) have recently used these allegations and others to press for change in their schools’ contracts with Coca-Cola, the Ohio State student population has remained largely complacent.
Trout hopes to change this, beginning tomorrow at the Senate meeting, where he will present information on the nature of the contract and Coca-Cola’s business practices to the Undergraduate Student Government.
According to current USG President, and last year’s Vice President, Kate Christobek, Trout’s concerns are welcome. When Trout brought the issue to previous President Ryan Fournier’s attention, Christobek said it was the first time in their terms either one of them had heard about the contract at Ohio State.
“It is about to be up for renewal,” Christobek said, “and we had no idea it was going on this year. The information has to come from the top down, and we never heard about it, which is interesting because we [USG] have a very close relationship with Student Affairs. It’s a shame there hasn’t been open communication with the student body.”
Christobek said she was aware, however, of other schools’ student concerns about their respective contracts with Coke. Attending Big Ten Student Government conferences, she said the issue was “constantly brought up by other schools.”
“Students are very adamant about this subject when they consider Coke’s business practices around the world,” she said. “It’s a good thing that Chris is doing this, because we need to be informed. This is something we can consider and make a recommendation to the University.”
While Christobek is hopeful about student ability to effect change in the University’s decision-making process, Trout is more skeptical. After speaking with a University official on the matter, Trout said the official seemed to “have a bit of a mask on.”
“I don’t think [the official] is going to look any of the facts up,” Trout said, “and probably won’t think of it again.”
The University is thinking about it, though, according to Assistant Vice President of Media Relations Shelly Hoffman. She said the decision to renew with Coke has not yet been made, but Ohio State is considering the corporation’s social responsibility, and continues to “engage the company in dialogue about these issues.”
“We understand that the company is committed to addressing allegations about its labor practices,” Hoffman said. As for the question of student involvement in the decision, Hoffman said that negotiations for contracts are not open processes, for legal reasons. But she added, “Of course we will engage student leaders in the allocation process.
What worries students like Trout, though, seems to deal less with issues of profit allocation and more with the overall concept of the University aligning itself with “Killer Coke.” In fact, the $30 million made by the University in this deal goes largely toward student activities, including diversity programs and scholarship funds—hardly anything to protest about.
“They [Coke] could do one hundred positive things here in America, where it counts, where most of their money is coming from, and still look good.” Trout said. “But at the same time they could let places like Colombia go to shit and no one would notice.”
Coca-Cola’s website does address Trout’s concerns, however, with an entire “corporate responsibility” section available to worried consumers. And Hoffman noted that the University is looking into creating a “corporate accountability” clause for the upcoming contract negotiations.
These answers are a step in the right direction, for Trout, who thinks it is “just important to try to understand what’s happening.”
“I’m not blaming anyone,” Trout said, “and I’m sure Coke isn’t the only company with issues like this. But OSU is one of the world’s largest universities. If we take a stand, it sets a huge precedent for other institutions.”
Originally Published: May 9, 2007
