Last Tuesdays Student Assembly Senate meeting saw the introduction of the Consumer Freedom Bill, which proposed that the Senate condemn the Coca-Cola company for "human rights abuses" and that the College look into finding other beverage options on campus. Senators Sean Barker, Caitlyn Smith, and Stephanie Glass introduced the bill.
Though called the Consumer Freedom Bill, the bulk of the bill's text references Coca-Cola's alleged human rights abuses. In looking over the bill, only one of the four reasons cited by the authors for the resolution involve consumer choice; the rest discusses the Coca-Cola corporation's involvement in assassinations of union organizers in Colombia and contaminating water supplies in India.
The bill also noted that 119 other colleges and universities were involved in anti-Coca-Cola campaigns, and said that 16 universities had ended their contracts with Coca-Cola for the choice and human rights abuses allegedly committed by the company.
Because these alleged violations of human rights are inconsistent with the College's values, the bill called for the Student Assembly to condemn the international corporation. The bill does not list where the Senators recieved their information on the alleged human rights abuses by the company and presents these abuses as being factual crimes. As of now, there are no criminal charges regarding the assassinations of union organizers against the company. There are civil suits against the company regarding the issue, however.
Barker also announced that there would be a grassroots student movement against Coca-Cola in the future, and it appeared that there were students present at the meeting to speak on behalf of the bill though the Senate did not suspend the rules to allow for public comment.
The bill implicitly calls for Auxiliary Services, Student Affairs, and Dining Services to look into breaking their contract with the Coca-Cola company. Members of the SA Executive and Senator Harry Godfrey asked how this could possibly be accomplished since Coca-Cola is subcontracted through Aramark, the company that supplies Dining Services, and recently had their contract renewed. Barker said that the bill called for the three sponsoring Senators to present the resolution to various members of the Administration and added that the three sponsoring Senators would work with the cited administrators to amend that part of the contract with Aramark.
The Senate debated on the bill for about twenty-five minutes before deciding to send it to a committee.
The Senate then heard a report from Lydia Bailey, the Secretary of the Executive Department of Diversity Initiatives for the SA. Bailey reviewed the accomplishments of the department in an 11 page document. Diversity Initiatives is the most recently created Executive Department and covers issues involving gender, sexual, racial, religious and intellectual diversity.
Bailey discussed the MOSAIC program that the Department sponsored in September as well as the International Earthquake Relief efforts. She also talked about programs the Department is planning, including Special Interest Housing for diversity students. Baileys report was received by the Senate with a round of applause.
At the end of the meeting, Chairman of the Senate Luther Lowe called for the body to meet in closed session to discuss its future and how it would operate next semester. According to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the Senate can only dissolve into a closed session to discuss personnel and financial matters. Members of the Executive questioned the Senates ability to take this action, though Senator Joe Luppino-Esposito later defended the action in an e-mail to members of the Executive, Senate and media saying that the Senate was in essence discussing each individual Senators personnel issues.