Keep Coke On Campus

"GREENWICH VILLAGE — A group of students at New York University are pushing to reinstate a campus-wide ban on all Coca-Cola products that would remove the soft drink from school cafeterias, vending machines and prevent it from being served at university events.

“We are building up momentum to get the ban back,” said NYU third-year law student, Jeff Olshansky, of the group Law Students for Economic Justice, which is spearheading the ban.

Ten student groups are involved in the campaign called the NYU Coalition to Keep Coca-Cola Off Campus. The campaign, led by LSEJ, is circulating flyers around campus that draw attention to the company’s alleged human rights violations.

The latest push for the ban follows a new lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court by Guatemalan workers, who say the company was complicit in violence against union activists.

The ban on Coke products — from Odwalla fruit juices to Fanta and Vitamin Water — had first taken effect in 2005 after student groups lobbied the administration after reports surfaced that the company was involved in intimidating and assassinating union workers in Colombia.

Coca-Cola did not immediately return calls or e-mails from DNAinfo. But the company has denied allegations and, after a report by the International Labor Organization, NYU's administration lifted the ban in 2009.

John Beckman a spokesperson for NYU said the issue has come up periodically and efforts to reinstate the ban would go through the University Senate.

But not everyone wants to see Coca-Cola products banned at the university.

Only half of a randomly selected group of students supported the ban in February 2009, according to a poll by NYU’s student newspaper the Washington Square News.

NYU junior, Sara Saldi, had mixed reactions about the ban.

“I can see why some students wouldn’t want those products on campus,” she said. “But I’m not sure that us not having it is going to make a huge difference anyway.”"

Read more: http://dnainfo.com/20100405/greenwich-village/nyu-student-group-calls-for-campus-ban-on-cocacola-products#ixzz0kFtwIm4v