Macalester students consider Coca-Cola boycott

After a lecture from a Colombian labor activist three weeks ago, Macalester students began working on a potential boycott against Coca-Cola based on the corporation’s alleged treatment of union workers in Colombia.

The charges alleged by the group against Coca-Cola involve the deaths of several union workers in Colombia. According to www.killercoke.com, a web site that encourages boycotts of Coca-Cola products, the corporation has forced members out of unions, threatened union leaders and negotiators and used paramilitary soldiers to harass and perhaps kill several workers.

“This is sort of our kick-off meeting,” meeting planner Maggie Gribben ’05 said.

“We’re trying to get a feel [of the situation]. We’re not going to proceed without student support,” fellow organizer Sarah Meyeroff ’04 said. The first meeting’s purpose was to gauge the level of interest among students in a boycott, methods of handling the boycott effectively, the challenges protesters would be faced with and the success of past boycotts at Macalester.

The goal of the boycott will either be to pull Macalester out of its contract with Coca-Cola or to get Coca-Cola to change its behavior in Colombia through organizing with other groups.

“Getting good information and a response from the company will give us a chance to sit down and see if we should renew [our contract in 2005],” said David Wheaton, Vice President for Administration and Treasurer. According to Wheaton, Coca-Cola’s profits, as well as Macalester’s, are partially based upon consumption. Because Coca-Cola is not being paid entirely on a flat rate, organizers said a boycott may have a better chance of working.

“It’s a way for students to send a message to the administration and to express their point of view,” Wheaton said. Gribben and Meyeroff indicated that administration has been very helpful and supportive in their efforts thus far.

Students at the University of Illinois succeeded in changing their school’s contract with Coca-Cola after employing a boycott earlier this year.

(Contributing Writer Veronique Bergeron)
 

Math and Computer Science gets grant to support women in department

The Math Association of America and the Tensor Foundation recently awarded Macalester’s Math and Computer Science Department a $3,200 grant to fund programming to encourage women to pursue careers in math and computer science.

“Women are generally underrepresented in math and computer science; a good undergraduate math program may be forty percent women,” Math Professor Joan Hutchinson said. “Approximately 20 percent of Macalester’s math and computer science majors are women.”

So far, the grant money has been used to fund monthly luncheons and dinners for female professionals in math and computer science to share their experiences with female math and computer science students at Macalester.

Funds have also been allocated to take three female math majors, Jumana Al Hashal ’04, Erin Peterson ’05 and Kate Herbig ’06 to the Joint Mathematics Meeting in Phoenix, Ariz., Jan. 7-10.

Hutchinson said that the Math Meeting is aimed at a wide spectrum of math students, including undergraduates, researchers and teachers, and will provide the students with a good forum to meet people and make useful contacts.

The Women in Science and Math (WiSM) is also making use of the grant money for social events and mentoring geared towards women in the math and computer science areas.

(Contributing Writer Tiffany Smith)