Yale Alums Object to Food & Beverage Corporate Sponsorship

A Yale University event for women graduates will feature an address by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and some alumnae have reportedly questioned whether she should be participating in a PepsiCo-sponsored event. An architecture graduate apparently called the association “shocking,” despite assurances from the Supreme Court’s public information officer that “[h]er appearance does not suggest any form of endorsement by PepsiCo.”

Public health activist and author Michele Simon, who graduated from Yale with a master’s degree in public health, reportedly said, “PepsiCo has its tentacles deep into Yale. It’s disgusting. What is this nation’s leading educational institution doing participating with this threat to public health?” Details about her report on the relationship between the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the food and beverage industry appear in Issue 468 of this Update.

A legal ethics expert opined that Sotomayor’s participation did not implicate
any judicial ethics concerns, and the university expressed its gratitude for
PepsiCo’s support of the April event. The company itself cited the important
goals of diversity and leadership development when discussing the event. See
The New York Times, February 6, 2013.