As you sit there in the cafeteria, reading your copy of The State News (hopefully), the pop you're drinking symbolizes a large debate on campus.
The Students for Economic Justice, or SEJ, accuse Coca-Cola of treating workers poorly and being anti-union. MSU members of SEJ want the university to terminate its contract with Coca-Cola, which provides the fountain machines in every cafeteria on campus.
None of the allegations SEJ has presented are proven, but the University of Michigan halted its contract with Coca-Cola after the company failed to provide evidence to the contrary.
MSU shouldn't just eliminate Coca-Cola on campus or automatically ignore the cries of SEJ. Despite U-M eliminating its contract with Coca-Cola, MSU should not follow the precedent without careful consideration from both sides to determine what Coca-Cola is or is not up to.
It needs to look at both groups involved in the situation.
SEJ is examining a social issue and trying to make changes to the corruption they see. It's an admirable goal — that sort of idealism might be just the thing needed to create changes to improve society.
That's partly why we go to college: to try to find ways to improve the world.
But Coca-Cola is a large, global corporation that's in the business of making money. It's not the only one. If the allegations are true, it wouldn't be surprising if it's been happening for a long time. These injustices happen in other countries and in other industries.
Right now MSU is in discussion with Coca-Cola to find out if the allegations made by SEJ are true, said MSU spokesperson Deb Hammacher.
Coca-Cola has also talked with protesting groups that were unsatisfied with the company's previous efforts at getting down to the truth, Hammacher said.
By the end of March, Coca-Cola will announce what group will serve as the arbitrator, which will investigate the claims made by SEJ.
MSU needs to view the results from the independent third party investigation and watch to see if SEJ is in the wrong or if those fountain machines should be eliminated from campus.
