The attempt to follow the money filtering into Ohio State coffers from Coca-Cola donations to the university, and OSU’s 15 percent taken from Coke vending machine sales on campus, produces more questions than answers.
As OSU officials scramble to respond to questioning about revenue flowing into the university from the still-unsigned, 10-year Coca-Cola contract, conflicting accounts are emerging as to where the Coke money is actually going.
According to Helen DeSantis, OSU’s assistant vice president for business management, Coke donated $109,000 last year in cash, products and services for student organizations. But figures provided by Coke and OSU’s student government groups show that the multi-billion dollar soda giant contributed only $16,000 to the students in 1998-1999.
When asked about the missing $93,000 in Coke donations, OSU officials could not say for sure whether the Coke donation, as well as OSU’s share last year of the Coke vending machine revenue, went into the university’s $1.5 billion operating budget or the separate $65 million OSU athletic budget.
OSU’s student government organizations, which received $150,000 in funding last year, are supported through the university’s general operating fund.
“My understanding is that the majority of the (Coke) revenue went into the university’s general operating budget,” said William Shkurti, OSU’s vice president for business and finance. “On the vending contracts we had with Sanese (company Coke replaced), that went into the general fund.”
But Shkurti said OSU’s athletic department has a separate contract for Coke sales in the OSU stadium, and “if we ever get this thing signed with Coke, we’ll have one contract.”
“I think what they’re trying to do with this Coke contract is to have one contract that covers the whole thing,” he said.
“Is (OSU’s) athletic department getting money from this Coke budget? Probably,” said Steven Finn, OSU’s budget planning analyst. “I’m sure that the money is distributed in various ways.”
When Coke was selected over Pepsi and R.C. Cola last year for exclusive rights to the OSU market, OSU officials said, among other things, that they were persuaded by Coke’s proposals to aid student life.
But since the Coke machines arrived on campus in July 1998, OSU’s student groups have only received $8,000 in free Coke products, $1,000 for banners and a promise by Coke to reimburse the student groups $7,000 for their Lantern advertising bearing the Coca-Cola logo.
Kathleen Carberry, president of OSU’s Graduate Student Council, noted that the students have still not received Coke’s advertising donations.
The council and OSU’s Undergraduate Student Government have not taken a formal position on the Coke negotiations.
