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Thirsty? Have Dasani water, Minute Maid or Mad River. Or try a Sprite, POWERade or Nestea, which are just a few of the Coca-Cola drinks sold at Rutgers. However, if a Pepsi is what you are looking for, you might be in for a long dry spell.
A contract between the University and its sponsor, the Coca-Cola Company, is set to expire on July 30. The 10-year and $10 million agreement originally signed July 30, 1994, gives Coke exclusive rights to sell beverages on campus. Coca-Cola also provides snacks in the campus vending machines through a subcontract.
While the University has enjoyed an increase in revenue due to the contract, exclusive rights have raised ethical issues among people on campus regarding its appropriateness.
The Contract
In 1994, the University sent an initial proposal to Royal Crown Cola, Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Pepsi and Coca-Cola replied with an offer because the services required by the University require extensive resources on the companies' part.
Coca-Cola was awarded the contract with the University, which came at a time when the company began an aggressive campaign to get exclusive deals with hotels, airlines and other schools. The agreements were known as "pouring rights" and guaranteed that Coca-Cola products would be the only choice at the location.
Rutgers was one of the first universities to sign such an exclusive agreement. Today, the practice is much more common.
In return for exclusivity, the school earned $1 million a year from 1994-2004. According to a 1994 statement made by Francis L. Lawrence, University president at the time the contract was signed, the funding went to academic and athletic programs.
Since the contract is nearing expiration, the University plans to form a committee of students from the governing associations, faculty and administrators that will review a Request for Proposal before the next contract is opened up for public bidding.
University officials believe enhancing revenue for academic and athletic programs is a priority, and re-signing another contract with Coke could continue to do so.
"If sponsorship enhanced our revenue climate, I'd imagine we'd try to do it again," said Steve Manas, promotion specialist at the office of media relations and communications.
However, changing the distributor could prove to be very difficult.
New Brunswick campuses currently receive their soda shipments from Coca-Cola Enterprises in North Brunswick.
If the contract were given to another company, the University would only have about 20 working days to changeover all the vending machines and fountains before the fall semester begins.
The transition would take several months, said Charles Sams, director of University Dining Services. More than 200 beverage vending machines, 60-70 snack machines and the fountains in all dining halls would have to be replaced.
At the moment, the University is considering extending the contract for the next 10 months, which could allow for a more favorable changeover, and would begin during the summer of 2005, said Michael Quinlan, associate vice president of business affairs for the University.
The extension will be agreed upon with the understanding that a proposal will still be sent out to several companies to find the best deal for students, Sams said.
One of those companies could be Pepsi who said they would make a proposal for the next exclusive contract with the University when the current one expires.
Pepsi is working on competing for the next contract, said Amy Martin, human resources coordinator for the Pepsi Bottling Group in Piscataway. "They'd be foolish not to."
A Choice
"If buying a Pepsi's a crime, what is having a heretical thought? A minority opinion?" said Benjamin Barber, a prominent political theorist and then-University professor of political science in The Daily Targum ("Cola contract sells University name," March 2, 2000).
After the 1994 contract was signed, new vending machines were placed all over campus. Thomas J. Frusciano, University archivist at the Alexander Library, recalled a Pepsi machine that was overlooked for several months after the contracts were signed. He said he could still remember the scene when they finally noticed and took it out.
Coke is currently sold in all Rutgers' convenience stores, student centers, bookstores and most places where someone might get thirsty.
Sitting in Au Bon Pain one day drinking a Diet Coke with lime was Kieran O'Brien, a Douglass College senior. "If I had any other caffeinated choice, I would not be drinking Coke because of their human rights violations," she said.
Currently, the only alternative beverage allowed is milk. "Coke [did] not come up with its own substitute for a cow," wrote journalist Constance L. Hays in her book "The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company."
But if students could choose between freshly squeezed orange juice and Minute Maid, which would they grab? Would it be Gatorade or POWERade? Snapple or Mad River?
Mateo Bueno is a Rutgers Business School senior and primary coordinator for Culture Jam: Students Against Excessive Consumerism that opposes the University's contract with Coke. "Students haven't really been asked if they want this or not," he said about the lack of transparency in the renegotiation process.
However, Sams said he does not see the correlation between exclusive delivery services and a monopoly of the industry. The supermarket aisles are stocked with more soda product by different companies than they were 10 years ago, he said.
Revenue
Dining Services will serve more than three million meals this year and purchase thousands of gallons of Coca-Cola's syrup and about $11 million worth of food, Sams said.
"My goal is to keep costs down at a time when costs keep going up [and to] provide a product that the students want," Sams said.
Over the last 10 years, 40 percent of the revenue from the contract went to cost control to make Dining Services more affordable for students, Sams said. "That to me is why it's so valuable" because it eases price pressures, he said.
Athletic programs receive about 35 percent of the funding, which contribute to the price of advertising for sports events.
"It was an important way for us to get money [and is] mutually beneficial," Manas said.
About 25 percent of the $10 million went to the president's discretionary funds. Of that money, projects such as getting Rutgers-Camden Internet access were made possible, Sams said.
Rutgers College Coca-Cola Marketing Funds are also allocated to the Student Activities Advisory Council. The SAAC distributes the funds in the form of T-shirts, pens and soda to clubs at the college.
"The existing contract has maximized value to our students and maximized value for the University, and [that will be] our goal going forward," Quinlan said.
Students
As the University and Coca-Cola work on a contract extension, several student organizations and other members of the University are creating resistance. Those who oppose the contract are convinced exclusive contracts between corporations and schools are not wholly beneficial.
Specifically regarding Coca-Cola, questions have arisen regarding practices in their factories in South America. Last week New Jersey Solidarity hosted Colombian trade unionist Luis Cardona in an effort to raise awareness at the University about these issues.
Cardona said that Coke worked to suppress the ability of workers to organize.
The Coca-Cola Co. has vehemently denied Cardona's specific charges as well as other accusations on this issue. Both Cultural Jam's Bueno and Sams said those issues do not play a role in the negotiations for a University contract.
For Bueno, the main issue remains that exclusivity in an open learning environment goes against fair competition and creates a monopoly in the beverage industry, regardless of which company is involved.
The Culture Jam campaign, sponsored by the Sustainable Purchasing Coalition, is a resistance effort against exclusive contracts and encourages the establishment of ethical business practices at the University. Its campaign slogan is "Enjoy College-Control Since 1994."
Members of the campaign will be attending the Board of Governors meeting today to express their concerns over the contract to the board.
One of Culture Jam's campaign goals will be to get a member onto the committee that will review the Request for Proposal.
Bueno said Culture Jam's goals are to see smaller suppliers are allowed vending machines on campus and water and juice items are removed from the contract.
It is "not a fight against Coke; it's a fight against financial dependence on corporations because we should be receiving primarily public funding," Bueno said.
The organization dubbed the school "Coca-Cola University" in 1994, when the contract was first signed, because the contract guaranteed Coke not only exclusive rights but a very large audience for its advertising.
The contract resulted in ads being hung in the residence halls, a billboard erected at the football stadium and the popular slogan "Always Rutgers, Always Coca-Cola" began to be chanted at basketball games and could be heard in radio plugs.
Culture Jam expressed concerns against the deal because "it's not just a beverage contract; it's also an advertising contract. ... It emphasizes ad space, time and channels that Coke can get," Bueno said.
Another group, Students Against University Commercialization and Exploitation, was formed in 2000 and led by Livingston College senior Robert Stevens.
SAUCE held a protest on April 10, 2000, that drew more than 65 people in front of the Old Queens Building, where the college's lawyers and business executives were working.
Characterizing the contract as the "Great Rutgers Sell-Out," members of the group handed out bottles of alternative soda during the protest.
The contract was finally released to the public last year and can be obtained through Culture Jam's Web site, Bueno said.
SAUCE's message was similar to Culture Jam's campaign that sponsors workshops and rallies around campus. The choice of soda may seem trivial, but diversity and the freedom to make choices are not for sale.
Coca-Cola was contacted for comment, but a media representative directed questions to Sams, who said he felt he could better discuss the particular details of the situation with the University.
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