Notes from Council: Executive reports, Single-Source Cold Beverage Agreement discussed
The current SSCBA is set to expire on June 1.
Helen Zhang“Notes from Council” is The Gateway’s ongoing series of recaps of noteworthy items from Students’ Council meetings.
At the May 20 meeting of the University of Alberta Students’ Union (UASU) Students’ Council, executive reports were presented and the potential one-year extension of the Single-Source Cold Beverage Agreement (SSCBA) with the existing vendor, Coca-Cola Bottling Canada, was discussed.
Executive reports
In his oral report, President Pedro Almeida announced that Vice-president (external) Abdul Abbasi was elected as the chair of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA).
“Now [Abbasi] — beyond just representing the 37,000 undergraduate students here at the U of A — is also responsible for representing the over 500,000 students that are represented by CASA,” Almeida said.
Vice-president (academic) Katie Tamsett said she is working on her plans for the upcoming year and having conversations with Student Representative Associations (SRAs) about the vision for the Council of Faculty Associations (CoFA).
Abbasi discussed his presentation to the Expert Panel on Post-Secondary Institution Funding and Alberta’s Competitiveness. Abbasi said that he is working with Almeida on the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS) annual general meeting (AGM).
He added that they are “working towards making sure that CAUS is a reliable and effective organization for our students.”
Vice-president (operations and finance) Nathan Thiessen said that the Elections Task Force and the Strategic Planning Committee have been struck.
“Reviewing our processes and our goals — not only within our operations, but also in elections — is important to ensure that we are always moving forward,” Thiessen said.
Lastly, Vice-president (student life) Logan West said that the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Task Force has been struck. West also announced that the Student Care website is now available in both French and English. This was one of West’s campaign promises.
“I’m really thrilled to be able to reduce those barriers to accessibility for our Francophone students.”
Board and committee business, Single-Source Cold Beverage Agreement discussed
Nursing councillor Asha Jama was appointed to the SGBV Task Force. Open studies councillor Aamir Mohamed and science councillor Hannan Sandhu were appointed to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. Additionally, arts councillor Arman Chauhan and Mohamed were appointed to the Elections Task Force.
Council then discussed potential one-year extension of the SSCBA with the existing vendor, Coca-Cola Bottling Canada. The SSCBA is a non-competition agreement. Per the SSCBA, the university and the UASU must ensure that no competitor cold beverages are sold on campus. During the 2025 UASU elections, a plebiscite supporting the UASU entering another SSCBA was passed.
The plebiscite did not specify a vendor. The current SSCBA between Coca-Cola Bottling Canada, the university, and the UASU expires on June 1.
Engineering councillor Bassam Dakhel — who represented the no-side of the plebiscite — raised concerns with the potential one-year extension. Dakhel spoke of the UASU’s Ethical Business Partners operating policy.
“Coca Cola … is connected to factories that are on illegally-settled territories of Palestine,” Dakhel said. “Especially knowing that there’s a current genocide going on, I think it would be a very difficult decision to make to be a business partner with a company such as Coca Cola.”
Council then went into closed session to discuss the potential one-year extension. After closed session, a vote was had to endorse the one-year extension of the SSCBA. The motion failed.
