At Norman Bethune Square on October 27, the Concordia Student Union, Überculture, Free Education Montreal, Sustainable Concordia, and Tap Drinkers Against Privatization (TAPThirst) gathered to protest the Concordia administration’s decision to sign an exclusive PepsiCo contract without student consultation.
TAPThirst, an organization that advocates against the bottled water industry, was the most outspoken of the groups and had been heavily involved in talks with the administration.
Laura Beach, sustainable ambassadors coordinator for Sustainable Concordia and a member of TAPThirst, issued a mise en demeure—a legal notice expressing student concern—to several members of the administration after they failed to consult with students before signing the contract with PepsiCo. Beach said the administration promised her verbally, and in an email, that students would be included in the negotiation process.
“Traditionally, we do not include students in negotiations for contracts,” said Chris Mota, director of media relations at Concordia.
Mota said the administration had intended to seek student input on the contract, and discussed setting up a meeting between student groups and PepsiCo. However, according to Mota, Concordia ran out of time and had to sign the contract because it needed a provider.
“A decision was made at the senior level to sign the contract with Pepsi,” Mota said.
The Concordia protest occurred a few weeks after McGill students rallied on September 22 against the closure of the Architecture Café. Like those at Concordia, McGill students complained that they were not consulted.
Both the Concordia and McGill administrations have tried to make amends. The PepsiCo contract contains a clause that gives the university the option to stop the company from selling bottled water. In addition, Roger Côté, the interim vice president of services at Concordia, is talking with student groups about the issue.
The McGill Senate recently created a “working group to examine how consultations and related communication with students are currently handled at McGill, and to recommend improvements,” said Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson, according to a press release issued by the university on October 19.
Michael Di Grappa, who started his position as the vice president of administration and finances for McGill on November 15, is a recent import from Concordia University. Di Grappa was vice president of services for Concordia and heavily involved in the PepsiCo contract discussions. He didn’t agree with the view some students hold of the Concordia administration.
“I don’t think that you can extract from one particular issue … that there were problems,” said Di Grappa. In addition, he said, the contract included scholarships and job opportunities for students.
Di Grappa added that students were concerned only about bottled water.
“When someone is talking about the beverage contract with all of those elements, and someone is talking about bottled water, that is an infinitesimally small portion of the overall contract,” he said.
Beach, however, said there is more to student concerns.
“What happened this summer wasn’t just about bottled water,” she said. “It was about a more sustainable beverage contract.”
The Environmental Advisory Committee at Concordia made recommendations on the contract, and 35 members of the university’s faculty, from every department, signed on to the recommendations. The Committee’s suggestions, Beach said, were overlooked by the administration.
In addition to the environmental impacts, Beach said, “I haven’t met any student that wants to turn their university into a mall, [but] that’s what’s happening.”
Di Grappa said that while the administration tried to understand student concerns, “It [was] not clear who was speaking on behalf of the students and that [was] part of the problem.”
