Students all Coked out

>> The cola wars come to McGill

by CRAIG SEGAL

As if it wasn't enough for McGill to have a student hangout called the "Coca-Cola Lounge," the university's student union is now supporting the McGill administration in its bid to push through a long-term exclusivity deal with Coca-Cola to provide nearly all drinks on campus.

The deal has triggered an increasingly noisy rebellion. "The university's message is 'We need money at any price,'" says Francois Tanguay-Renaud, one of four dozen students campaigning against the deal.

All over North America, universities are responding to education cuts by signing corporate exclusivity contracts. Soft drink companies like Coke currently have deals with over 20 Canadian universities.

But some Canadian schools are fighting the trend. Student pressure has killed similar deals at the University of Toronto, Simon Fraser University and the Universite du Quebec a Montreal. UQAM students had a showdown with police when the university tried to approve the deal without their say-so; 66 students were arrested and are to appear in court next month.

Human rights blah blah blah
At McGill, some students are frothing at the nose over the secret 11-year deal worth $10 million. Students are worried Coke will exercise influence over university research and even infringe on the editorial autonomy of the student press. "I'm infuriated that only two students have seen this contract," says Tamana Kochar, a third-year Management student.

"The deal was to be passed without students' knowledge, for our 'best interest,'" adds Pauline Hwang, a Cognitive Science student.

The student in charge of the Coke deal dismisses the anti-Coke sentiment. "Opponents aren't going to tell students about the deal's benefits," student union rep Kevin McPhee told the McGill Daily. "Instead they're going to focus on, oh, violation of human rights, blah, blah, blah, blah." McPhee told the Mirror that the student union's ethics committee investigated Coca-Cola and found nothing wrong.

McPhee's blase attitude rankles his opponents. "How can we trust Kevin McPhee to protect students' rights when he says things like 'human rights blah blah blah blah?'" asks Tanguay-Renaud.

Secrets unveiled
Coke dealer McPhee inadvertently shared some of the contentious contents of the secret deal with the Mirror, including the fact that Coke might put their name on sports teams' water bottles. He also admitted this would be the first time the university signed a deal with quotas on how much the university must sell. On the other hand, McPhee said students didn't care when he signed secret deals with Scotia Bank and Molson.

Anti-Coke students are campaigning against the deal with posters, stickers and petitions. No Logo author Naomi Klein speaks at McGill on March 1; a student-initiated referendum on the deal takes place March 7-9. :

FASCIST FOOD FOR THOUGHT
While McGill students take the taste test over colas, Concordia students have had conflicts of their own with their exclusive food provider, Marriott. After students voted overwhelmingly to water down the Marriott stranglehold on campus food last November, Marriott and the university administration reached a deal that better suited student groups who were previously barred from selling their own food in fundraising activities.
But student leaders and activists were surprisingly silent on other issues surrounding Marriott, which is a part of the massive Marriott restaurant and hotel chain, owned by the American Mormon family of the same name.
Marriott has come under fire before, in particular by gay activists, who point out that 15 per cent of the corporation's annual profits are donated directly to the Mormon Church. In his 1997 book Life Outside, Michelangelo Signorile charged that this money goes to a church which "oppresses gays in Utah... and exerts its muscle nationally, teaming up with the religious right and the Catholic church to roll back gay rights across America." Indeed, the Mormon church has been extremely active in urging Californians to vote against gay marriage in a ballot slated for March 7.
Tom Keefer, Concordia Student Union's VP Communications, seemed surprised by Marriott's right wing connection. "We were certainly aware that they were a large multinational. But student concerns around Marriott are more about the crappy food and high prices. People tend not to know a lot about the Mormons. Utah's a long ways away." :
-- Matthew Hays

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