Media Alert
Joann Anand
Director of Communications
Union Theological Seminary
3041 Broadway
New York NY 10027
tel:212-280-1510
fax: 212-280-1440
janand@uts.columbia.edu

Union Theological Seminary Kicks Coca-Cola Off Campus

NEW YORK, April 19, 2005 -- Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York has joined the growing number of educational institutions in the United States and around the world who have banned the sale of Coca-Cola products on their campuses.

“Upon the recommendation of the Seminary’s Institutional and Community Affairs Committee, I have approved a boycott of Coca-Cola products on the Union Theological Seminary campus,” said President Joseph C. Hough, Jr., in his announcement to the Seminary community. “This recommendation came with considerable evidence that firms associated with Coca-Cola have been engaged in actions that violate basic standards for human rights and environmental safety in countries outside the United States.”

President Hough and the student leaders who brought this issue to his attention see this action as a symbolic call for the Coca-Cola Company and its affiliates to abandon unfair labor practices in Latin America and other practices that undermine basic human rights and damage the environment in South Asia.

Coca-Cola vending machines will be removed from Union by the close of the semester and replaced by other vending machines; administrative staff members have been instructed not to purchase Coca-Cola products for informal meals and receptions; and Showstoppers, the Seminary’s in-house caterer, has agreed to stop offering Coca-Cola products.

Union Theological Seminary, founded in 1836, is an independent, ecumenical graduate school of theology with the mission to educate men and women for ministries in the Christian faith, service in contemporary society, and study of the great issues of our time. The Seminary believes that the city remains a critical training ground for facing such issues.