I just read a blog that links (with a bit of comment prior to the link) to a NY Times article on Private Funding at Public Universities. It makes a good read on its own but especially in light of the debate about Coke that is occuring on the campus of McMaster University.
http://politiblogs.blogspot.com/2005/10/nytimes-public-funds-for-universities.html
I appreciate the link!
I attended the University of Florida, and there were many problems and limitations due to the Coca-Cola and Aramark Contract. Including student groups and the Hare Krishna religious groups fundraising through food/drink sales/donations.
Interestingly, Gatorade was created at U of F (hence, “GATORade”) which is owned by Pepsi-Cola. The contract stipulated that it was the only non-Pepsi drink that could be sold on UF campus. Just last year, U of F ended their Coca-Cola contract and signed a (I belive) 5-year deal with Pepsi. I never heard any reason why, though.
If you want a good laugh, between classes walk into the Grants Dept. and ask for the Coca-Cola contract. They will stonewall you until you point out that you are a student who pays tuition and therefore deserves to know what contracts your university holds with corporations. After 3 days of harrassing them, I was told I could look at it- if I paid the $0.15-per-page copying fee. The document was 400+ pages. I was not allowed to view an already-copied-version, but would have to pay for it myself. I was a very poor college kid, so I never followed through. To this day, I have always wondered what could be in all of those pages…
PS- being in Florida, there was a very active anti-Aramark movement in response to the near-slave-labor of the Immokalee Workers in Southwest Florida. By the time I left, they had not succeeded in removing Taco Bell from campus, but it certainly made for some fun times- including a tour of the workers onto many of the campuses with an actile CIW group.