Go, Jameela! I hope others will follow your brave lead!

NO QUARTER!

Also, FYI

Mart Martin (BS, 1978, advertising/PR) is a PR manager at Coke HQ's and a member of the COAL Alumni Advisory Board (and son of former H'Burg Coke Plant owner).  Also, not to question Moutain Dew, but I'm not completely sure if the local plant is owned by Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) -- many/most of the local bottling companies are indepedently owned.  CCE, a separate company from the Coca-Cola Company, does own a good many local bottlers, but I'm not sure they own the H'Burg facility. 

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Originally posted by: Jameela Lares
"I just faxed the following letter to the Public Relations office--which turns out also to be the Media Relations office--at Coca-Cola corporate headquarters in Atlanta, with a copy to Dr. Crofts.  Sorry about all the double spacing--I've never figured out how to single-space paragraph breaks on this board.  Jameela **************************** VIA FAX, 404 515-0329 and Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested Public Relations Director The Coca-Cola Company 1 Coca-Cola Plaza Atlanta, GA 30313-2499   Re: Attack on Comprehensive University by Local Coca-Cola Representative   Dear Public Relations Director: Enclosed please find copies of two recent articles from local newspapers, indicating that area business leaders intend to meet at the Hattiesburg Coca-Cola Bottling Company this Thursday to "discuss the future of the University of Southern Mississippi," and that one of the organizers of this event is Brad Brian, owner of that company. As your office is surely aware, local business people are not the duly constituted authorities for deciding how a comprehensive state university should be run, particularly when those people do not understand even in a rudimentary sense how such an institution operates (e.g., that a comprehensive university includes other faculties besides science and liberal arts, or that such faculties are typically housed in the same college on most campuses, or that all professors at a research university do "research"). Moreover, since our university is currently on probation with its regional accrediting agency, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), such a move threatens loss of accreditation—SACS Principles of Accreditation specifically prohibit "undue influence from political, religious, or other external bodies" (3.2.4). Even though I feel keenly my professional responsibility to safeguard the integrity of my institution, I do not send this communication without trepidation. The president of the university—who grew up in the area and seems to be more comfortable with local business people than with his university colleagues—has treated reasonable dissent as insubordination, and in fact attempted to fire two senior professors just this time last year when they tried to investigate the credentials of an underqualified friend of his whom he had placed in a high administrative position. He actually claimed that my colleagues’ use of office computers to conduct such an inquiry was a "misuse of university property." A web search for the terms Thames, Glamser, and Stringer should return over 500 hits, including news of a stunning no-confidence vote by over 90% of the faculty. In the nearly three years of Dr. Thames’s presidency, the university has virtually hemorrhaged faculty and seasoned administrators, and its rating in the U S News and World Report has moved to the bottom tier. You will see that the organizers of the upcoming meeting at the Hattiesburg Coca-Cola Bottling Company are assuming responsibility for making university decisions and even to dictate curriculum. In fact, it is my understanding that they have interfered in the past in university business. I find it difficult to believe that the Coca-Cola Company—which I find on the web well represented by large donations to higher education, and numerous executives of which in fact extol the virtues of a comprehensive education—would permit a local representative of Coca-Cola to take such a divisive and inappropriate stand in a community. I have been a loyal, high-volume Coca-Cola customer for over 50 years, but I find it impossible to continue to buy your products under the circumstances. I have already heard that many in this community feel the same. Please let me know whether the Coca-Cola Company is in favor of a local representative interfering in the affairs of a state educational institution or whether it is opposed to such interference. Yours sincerely,     Jameela Lares, Ph.D. Associate Professor Encls. (2) cc: Dr. Richard A. Crofts Interim Commissioner State Instititutions of Higher Learning 3825 Ridgewood Road Jackson, MS 39211 Fax: 601 432-6972 www.aaup-usm.org  "

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Are we really certain that Coca-Cola is endorsing this thing? My understanding is that the Coca-Cola building meeting room can be made available for various and sundry purposes for various and sundry community groups. I know a bank or two that have community meeting rooms they make available. But that doesn't necessary mean that they endorse the activities that go on at those meetings. Does anybody know if the local Coca-Coca management is one of the Hattiesburg business leaders participating in this meeting?

Jameela,

Please let us know when you receive a reply.  If you sent your letter to the appropriate place, then I'm sure others of us will want to write or call as well.  If it turns out that we should write or call somewhere else (see comments by Mountain Dew above), that would be good to know.

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Originally posted by: Guilt by association
"Are we really certain that Coca-Cola is endorsing this thing? My understanding is that the Coca-Cola building meeting room can be made available for various and sundry purposes for various and sundry community groups. I know a bank or two that have community meeting rooms they make available. But that doesn't necessary mean that they endorse the activities that go on at those meetings. Does anybody know if the local Coca-Coca management is one of the Hattiesburg business leaders participating in this meeting?"

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Isn't Brad Martin local coca cola management??  local management, local building==

The local Coca-Cola plant is owned by Birmingham Coca-Cola United, Inc. The address is 4600 E. Lake Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35217-4032. Telephone 1.205.841.2653.

While Brad and Mart Martin's father was part of the local plant's upper management for a number of years, he did not own the business. It was owned for many, many years by the Thomson family, who sold it to United.

quote:

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Originally posted by: Guilt by association
"Are we really certain that Coca-Cola is endorsing this thing? My understanding is that the Coca-Cola building meeting room can be made available for various and sundry purposes for various and sundry community groups. I know a bank or two that have community meeting rooms they make available. But that doesn't necessary mean that they endorse the activities that go on at those meetings. Does anybody know if the local Coca-Coca management is one of the Hattiesburg business leaders participating in this meeting?"

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Several points:

As noted above, most Coca-Cola bottling facilities are owned by local persons in a sort of "franchise" status . . . The local owners are responsible for all production and shipping costs and, of course, retain most of the profits. However, they are required by Coca-Cola Corporation to meet and maintain certain standards, as well as to pay CCC a portion of those profits for the right to bottle, market, and distribute CC. Thus, Coca-Cola Inc. would have a certain interest in the "political" activities of local bottlers/distributors. To what exact degree, I don't know.

The meeting/banquet rooms at the Hattiesburg Plant CAN be rented out by just about anyone who is willing to pay the rental fee. My high school class rented the large banquet room for our Senior Prom back in 1982, when the plant was fairly new, from then-owner Mr. Thompson.

The question that needs to be asked in this case is: Is this group renting a room or banquet space? Or has this space been "donated" to them? If it has been donated, then the owner/management of the plant is directly sponsoring/supporting this effort. If not, then they can claim that they are just renting space to a group who requested it.