Plebiscite question to gauge student opinion on new beverage deal

The University of Alberta’s campus-wide Coca-Cola contract will expire in July.

As the decade long agreement comes to an end, the Students’ Union will be gauging campus with a plebiscite question regarding the stipulations of the next single source cold-beverage deal.

The plebiscite question will ask students if they support the SU entering a university-wide single source-cold beverage agreement and if they support the proposed conditions.

The proposed conditions include a 10-year term of the next agreement, a minimum of $3 million provided for bursaries and scholarships, a minimum of $500,000 to fund student priorities, competitive pricing with off-campus markets, that the supplier commits to on-going campus sustainability practices and that the supplier is ultimately selected by a joint committee comprised of university officials and the SU.
The SU is currently preparing a request for proposal and the agreement is expected to go out for tender next month. After the request for proposal is advertised to vendors.

SU Vice-President (Operations and Finance) Cory Hodgson is running the “yes” campaign for the plebiscite question.

1. What are you trying to accomplish with the plebiscite question?

Cory Hodgson: We want to put out the benefits of what the Single-Source Cold Beverage Agreement will do. It brings $3 million in scholarships, $500,000 in student priorities, a solid commitment to waste reduction and competitive pricing on campus.

It’s just getting the details of the contract out there and letting students make an informed decision.

2. Some students thought of the last university-wide single source-cold beverage agreement as “contentious.” Why do you think they held that perspective?

Hodgson: There’s a few angles. Right now, we’re not talking about any specific company. There are some issues about bottled water and the waste produced by these companies have, so that’s one of the reasons why we asked for a solid commitment to waste reduction initiatives. So yes, these touchy, but we’re working to actively address them.

3. Why is the single source-cold beverage agreement important?

Hodgson: I think now, more than ever, it’s going to be important for alternative means of providing scholarships.

We have a pretty rough provincial budget, so we’re anticipating cuts to post-secondary and increases in tuition. we need resources for scholarships, and the single source-cold beverage agreement won’t be affected by that.

4. If you could have one single beverage campus-wide, and just one, what would it be?

Hodgson: Yop. Because it’s delicious … just bizarre and odd with a fun name. So you can get your yogurt intake in liquid format.