May 25, 2023 by The California Aggie

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VOLUME 146, ISSUE 28 | THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2023

UC Davis’s beverage pouring rights contract with Pepsi set to expire in August

The ASUCD Environmental Policy and Planning Commission urges that the university refrain from entering another contract as they believe it goes against the campus’ environmental standards

BY KAYA DO-KHANH

campus@theaggie.org UC Davis’s 10-year deal with Pepsi Beverages and Co. is expiring on August 31, 2024. The agreement brought approximately $10 million for student scholarships and other support programs for students. It also gave Pepsi nearexclusive rights to sell, advertise and promote its soft drinks and other products on campus, including in the dining commons and for athletic concessions. The university previously signed a 10-year contract in January 2004 with Coca-Cola, which guaranteed $1.5 million in addition to vending commissions to the university. According to the Assistant Director of the UC Davis Preferred Partnership Program (UP3) Ethan Shawlee, there have not been any potential partners identified for a new contract, nor has a Request for Proposal been drafted yet. Once a Request for Proposal is provided, potential partners could respond and then be evaluated. “There are ongoing discussions within the workgroup of risks and benefits of a variety of options going forward, one of which includes not entering into another beverage pouring rights contract,” Shawlee said via email. The mission of UP3 is to secure and manage campuswide, collaborative and strategic partnerships with preferred business partners that line up with the university’s values. The UP3 Advisory Committee is made up of voting and non-voting members from the campus student body, faculty and administration. The committee reviews partnership category working group recommendations and votes on the opportunities for partnership,

Pepsi products and dispensers can be found throughout campus in places such as the Coho and the Dining Commons. (Kazim Jafri / Aggie) which are then sent to the Chancellor’s Leadership Council for final approval. According to Shawlee, the pouring rights contract provides a number of benefits to the campus, such as the inclusion of contractual limits on price increases, funding for student scholarships and activities, disadvantaged youth programs, sustainability and athletics. “The primary limitation of the contract is an exclusivity clause, requiring UC Davis to purchase beverages from Pepsi for specific commodity areas,” Shawlee said via email. “The current contract requires 90% exclusivity in this area, meaning that 10% of UC Davis beverage purchasing can be from other suppliers.” On March 3, the ASUCD Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC) wrote a letter to the Pouring Rights Committee, stressing their concerns over the current contract and requesting that the university not sign another pouring rights contract.

“As the environmental leaders of the #1 Most Sustainable University in North America in 2022, UC Davis’ association with PepsiCo is in contradiction with our campus’ environmental standards,” the letter from EPPC states. “Promoting the sale of beverages in single-use containers on campus directly undermines UC Davis’ waste reduction and carbon footprint goals. For example, the Pouring Rights Contract contributed to UC Davis not reaching its zero waste goal by 2020.” Shawlee said that sustainability is one aspect of the conversation in regards to the selection of a preferred partnership. “Sustainability is an important consideration in aligning with campus priorities and objectives for preferred partners on campus,” Shawlee said. “This is a component of the ongoing conversations with regard to pouring rights and the Office of Sustainability is represented on the Beverage Pouring Rights Industry Working Group.”

The EPPC also partnered with ASUCD Senators to develop SR #6, which calls on the UC Davis Beverage Pouring Rights Industry Working Group to refrain from entering into a new Pouring Rights Contract, and it passed at the May 18 Senate meeting. “I am in support [of the resolution] because I have learned that the pouring rights contract will undermine our campus’ ability to reduce the use of single-use plastics, and because many students have personally told me that they oppose this contract,” ASUCD Senator Stephen Fujimoto and co-sponsor of the resolution said. Third-year Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning major and commissioner of EPPC Leo Hecht, is planning a demonstration for Thursday, June 1 at 12 p.m. in the quad. The tagline for the demonstration is Pepsi Off Campus UC Davis. “The idea was to get student interest and

put it at the forefront of students’ minds,” Hecht said. “I think that if more people were aware of [the contract], they would be against it, and I think we need to show the administration and the decision makers that there is a mass of student support around not having a new contract with Pepsi.” Mackenzie Field, author of SR #6 and EPPC commissioner, said that EPPC is planning to make students more aware of the expiration of the beverage Pouring Rights Contract. “They really haven’t been soliciting enough student feedback, which I feel like is the biggest problem here, because students can go on drinking the sugary drinks that are affecting their health — they have no choice,” Field said. At The California Aggie’s spring quarter editorial board meeting with Chancellor Gary May and other members of the administration, May and Vice Chancellor for Finance, Operations and Administration Clare Shinnerl responded to a question about the pouring rights contract. “Like everything else we do, there’s a process,” May said. “There’s a group committee of experts who are gathering input and having discussions, and they’re going to make a recommendation to the administration on what we should do.” Shinnerl elaborated on the composition of the committee. “The committee is very diverse,” Shinnerl said. “It includes students, it includes staff and faculty, people who are against it and for it. So it’s not just a single viewpoint on this committee. They’re talking to many of you, so we’re waiting to see what their recommendations are.”

What’s next for Davis’s UC Davis students, Unsheltered Community Plan? union members hold Following the Unsheltered Community Plan created in on-campus protest response to the recent stabbings, Davis intends to provide more support for the unhoused community calling for minimumwage increase BY ALMA CULVERWELL

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The AFSCME 3299 protesters are demanding a $25 minimum wage for all UC student workers

The city of Davis and Davis Community Meals and Housing created and implemented an unhoused community shelter plan in response to the recent stabbings. Dana Bailey, social services and housing director for the city of Davis, described the process that went into developing the plan. “The process came together very quickly,” Bailey said. “Once we realized, or once [the police department] informed us that the [third] attack that occurred was a member of our unhoused community, what the city did was to reach back out to the folks that helped us to manage our emergency winter shelter. We had a plan in place that we used for the emergency winter shelter that we operated between November and March of this year.”

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BY JADE BELL campus@theaggie.org

Paul’s Place, located on H street, continues to support the unhoused community following recent crimes. (Cruz Martinez / Aggie) Bailey talked about the process of working with Davis Community Meals and Housing throughout the process to address the issue as soon as possible. “So we reached back out to Davis Community Meals and Housing and said, we’ve got this new emergency, [...] can we reactivate?” Bailey said. “So we developed the work plan to address specific areas. We talked about where we would do this and then what the hours of operations would be, what kind of staffing we needed, what kind of supplies we needed. We had a strategy for meals and for safety and for a health mitigation plan because we still have to make sure that if we’re still on the downside of COVID.” The city provided approximately two dozen emergency beds as well as meals for people in need in response to the stabbings. The emergency beds are typically a limited seasonal resource offered in winter but they reopened them due to the emergency. Davis Community Meals and Housing is offering shelter at Paul’s Place and the 5th Street Location. Bill Pride, the executive director of Davis Community Meals and Housing, described the support Davis Community and Meals provided during a time of need. “Well, we opened up a small shelter for a couple of nights before [...] the perpetrator of the stabbings was arrested

on that Thursday,” Pride said. “So we opened up for three nights, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And during those three nights, between the Fifth Street location and another location we had at Paul’s Place, we were housing up to 24 people a night.” Several other local organizations are also assisting with the plan. Davis CAN will aid with donations, HEART of Davis plans to provide meals and the Daytime Respite Center is increasing staff size in hopes of giving more resources and assistance to unsheltered people. Bailey shared the most important way that community members can help unsheltered people moving forward. “Right now, because we’ve got a really good system in place with our direct service providers, the best way that the community can help is to support those direct service providers. That’s Community Meals and Housing and our Daytime Respite Center that’s operated by community care,” Bailey said.“They are working directly with our unhoused community. They’ve already developed trusting relationships with folks. They know that those are the places that they can come to get services to get laundry done, to get materials like tents and gloves and whatever they need. Those are the two places that they go where they feel safest.”

On Wednesday, May 17, AFSCME 3299 members protested at the Hutchison Intramural Field to demand an increase in University of California (UC) student-worker wages to $25 per hour. This protest was advertised as being in response to planned pay increases for certain UC staff employees, as well as a recent $500,000 raise for UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla. According to an article by the San Diego UnionTribune, the raise was put in place to keep Khosla from leaving UCSD for a position at a private university and is being covered entirely by private donations. Emily Wong, a fourth-year sociology major and a member of AFSCME 3299, shared the general goals of AFSCME and their belief in the importance of the minimum wage increase. “We are asking the university to raise the base minimum wage to $25 an hour because inflation is insanely high in California,” Wong said. “It’s getting really expensive to meet our basic needs to be able to afford our groceries, afford our rent [and] to afford gas. The UC is just not supporting workers.”

Brett Pelletier, a third-year psychology major, said that he works two jobs in order to help him afford to live on campus. “I work at the Arts Administration as a student assistant, and I work at the UC Davis Bookstore as a rush cashier,” Pelletier said. “I work two jobs because one job doesn’t give enough hours. The student assistant job is only six hours per week. The rush cashier job, [...] I think it ranges from 10 hours to 20 hours a week. I have to work two jobs because, if not, I wouldn’t be able to afford living on campus because it’s expensive.” Sophia Sarieva, a wildlife, fish, and conservation biology major, shared their experience as a student worker at the CoHo and said that they hope other students will join the AFSCME cause. “I’m a supervisor in the kitchen, [and] it really helps to see everyone feel like, ‘Okay, yeah, we all feel the same way,’” Sarieva said. “I hope that some more of my coworkers come out here too, [but] I worry that they don’t think actual change is possible. I hope that I can find more ways to be able to support them and know that they are supported.”

AFSCME protestors demonstrate on Toomey Field by Russell Blvd. on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019. (Aggie file)