Rinckey: The problems with Coca-Cola on campus

Staying up until 3 a.m. can be hard to do on my own. Usually it takes some extra help to keep me awake and functioning Tuesday nights when The Independent Collegian staff is putting the newspaper together. As bad as it is for me, it is part of my Tuesday routine to get a caffeinated pop from the vending machines in the Student Union.

If you haven’t noticed, the pop machines across Main Campus, the University of Toledo Medical Center and Health Science Campus have changed this year due to the University of Toledo’s new deal with Coca-Cola. The merger started Aug. 1 when UT started selling Coke products instead of Pepsi.

With this change, there are new vending options in the Student Union. Glass bottles of pop are now sold from mini fridges, bottles of water are sold from barrels and energy drinks are sold in vending machines.

I don’t have a problem with the limited selection of having only one pop business on campus. The almost-monopoly — which Coke has formed within walking distance of the university — isn’t a big concern for me at this point. (That’s what we had before, when Pepsi was the only soda provider.) We now have the equal counterparts of Pepsi: Diet Coke instead of Diet Pepsi, Mellow Yellow taking the place of Mountain Dew and Fanta replacing Orange Crush.

People on the Health Science Campus and at UTMC might not like the merger because the pop machines there only sell sugar-free diet pops (which include aspartame, an artificial sweetener thought to cause seizures and migraines).

The things I have problems with are the new vending machines and the selling of glass bottles on campus.

The month before school started, I kept hearing that the vending machines in the Student Union eat quarters. I was told by the IC staff to watch out, because the machines weren’t working correctly. And you know what happened when I tried to buy a pop last Tuesday night? Yeah, you probably guessed it, the machine ate my dollar. It wouldn’t even let me put my coins in the slot.

I’m not the only person this has happened to. I saw a guy pushing all of the buttons out of frustration when the machine wouldn’t distribute any pop. And that was at a different machine in Memorial Field House.

The machines have problems not only with accepting physical money, but also debit cards. The vending machine took money from at least one person’s account, but never dispersed a pop bottle.

It’s not just the new vending machines that are a problem; the new stations where glass pop bottles are available are time bombs waiting to happen. Think of all the times last year when there were spills. There were at least three a week. And adding glass bottles to the mix makes clean up even more difficult. Someone will have to collect all of the glass shards, and the mess can’t sit for a while either, it will have to be cleaned up or someone could step on it. And if it breaks outside, there is wildlife to worry about.

It also doesn’t seem very safe to sell glass bottles that can be used as weapons when hit against a table.

If you want a pop, but are on campus, I would recommend not even trying to use the vending machines, unless you want to lose two dollars for no reason. Instead, either buy a cup from a vendor to fill up or a bottle of pop from Bottle Rocket in the Student Union. Bringing a soda from home is the cheapest option though, and it might be the only way for you to get exactly what you want.

The problems with the new system probably won’t be fixed for a while, but UT has a ten-year contract with Coke, so they have a while to fix the problems.

Morgan Rinckey is a third-year double-majoring in English and communication, and she is the Opinion editor for The Independent Collegian.