First the September 29th Movement called for acceptance and diversity on campus. Now the November 14th Movement is calling for diversity, too — a diversity of soft drinks.

David Hansen, a freshman in political science, sent an e-mail message to a number of students recently, trying to spark support for a movement he’s calling “The Equality of Mountain Dew and Mello Yello soda machines on the campus of Iowa State University.” In the message, he said his Movement will “stop at nothing” to achieve its goal. He and a friend co-authored the message.

Hansen called for feedback from fellow students. Hansen’s e-mail message said if he receives enough support, “I will personally handcuff myself to [ISU President] Martin Jischke until he offers acceptance and equality to Mountain Dew drinkers.”

Hansen said since that he wouldn’t actually do that. That part of the message was written by his friend, whom he didn’t wish to identify.

Hansen said the main purpose of the e-mail message was entertainment. “It’s a satire of all the discussions and students’ feelings on campus,” he said.

The message was written in response to an article published in the Iowa State Daily on Nov. 14. The article discussed a bill proposed by Government of the Student Body Senator David Ammann. After an hour of debate, GSB moved to indefinitely postpone the bill that centered on Coca-Cola’s vending hold on campus.

The bill “was about advertising and commercialization,” Ammann said, although most people focused so much on his example of Mountain Dew vs. Mello Yello, that they missed his real point, he said.

The bill asked university officials not to grant exclusive contracts and not to allow advertising on campus in an effort to “keep a few corporate sponsors from dominating on campus,” Ammann said.

While Ammann has received feedback that the bill is not realistic, he stood firm Monday. “It is feasible,” Ammann said, adding that there is currently no advertising on central campus.

Hansen said he has received up to 10 messages in response to his e-mail. Not all were favorable.

Personally, Hansen said he avoids Mello Yello, a Coke product, as much as possible because he does not like the way it tastes. He said it “would be nice” if Mountain Dew, a Pepsi product, became available on campus. He agreed that the larger issue is commercialization.

“I think that he has a decent chance of getting MD on campus as soon as this contract comes up,” Ammann said of Hansen.

The greatest opposition to Hansen’s efforts may come from the soda companies. When the Memorial Union took bids for vending machine drink contracts, both Pepsi’s and Coca-Cola’s bids included requests for the right to be exclusive on campus, said Kathy Svec, Union spokeswoman.

She said such exclusive contracts are “extremely common.” In fact, food service and the Iowa State Center have similar contracts for soda.

When considering the bids, Union officials decided to go with Coke because, “Coke just gave us a better deal, gave everybody a better deal,” Svec said. Among other things, Coke officials offered better service and lower product costs.

The Union provides both Coke and Pepsi products, but on the rest of campus there are no Pepsi products. The five-year vending contract cannot be broken and moreover, “We don’t want to,” Svec said.

Food service has similar exclusive contracts, although officials have separate contracts for fountain sodas and canned pop. While Coke does have the fountain syrup contract, Pepsi has the can contract, said Stewart Burger, associate director of food service.

Food service, therefore, does serve both Mello Yello and Mountain Dew. It merely serves each in a different format: fountain or can. These are three-year contracts that will be up for bid again in a year, Burger said.