University Times

Campus food service vendors have been told that Pitt's Faculty Assembly doesn't want them serving Nabisco products here.

Whether vendors pay attention to the Assembly is up to them. Pitt's administration won't impose sanctions if they continue to sell Oreos, Ritz crackers or other Nabisco products on campus, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said.

Last month, Faculty Assembly passed a resolution supporting a boycott of Nabisco to protest the company's plan to close its East Liberty plant.

The resolution urged the University community to quit buying Nabisco products and recommended that Pitt, both directly and through its food service vendors, stop selling or serving Nabisco products.

Responding to the latter recommendation, Nordenberg told Senate Council Oct. 12: "The University itself is not a purchaser of products, but rather contracts with service providers who make those purchases. We have advised those suppliers of the Assembly's resolution." At the request of education professor Mark Ginsburg, who proposed the Assembly-approved resolution last month, Nordenberg said the administration will look into the feasibility of communicating Faculty Assembly's resolution to organizations that sponsor events on campus.

— Bruce Steele