Sponsorship Policies

 

Issues on Club and Society Sponsorship
 
The Students’ Union has a number of policies that affect who societies and sport clubs may and may not be sponsored by. There are a number of ethical concerns with each of the companies and the Union, largely through Union Council, has decided to ban any sponsorship or advertising from these companies.
 
The current banned company list stands as:
  • McDonalds
  • Esso/ExxonMobil
  • Arms Companies, e.g. BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, AWE, etc
  • Nestle
  • Oil Companies, e.g. Shell, BP, Chevron, Total, etc
 
If you do acquire sponsorship from any of the above companies, it could result in you having to break your sponsorship deal which could affect your activities over the year. If you accept sponsorship from these companies, knowing that they are banned, your society or club could be liable for disciplinary action for being in breach of Union policy.
 
Please make sure your entire Exec are aware of the sponsorship situation. It is especially important that this is included in your handover. More effort will be taken to include this in future training as well.
 
This list is updated regularly with new companies being added while old companies being taken off. The Societies and Sports Officers will update Execs in future when the list changes. This information will also be displayed on the website.
 
If you have any questions about the above, speak to Andy Perkins, Governance and Finance Officer, governance@warwicksu.com, or speak to James or Alex.

Comments

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James Hall
1:10pm on 4 Feb 10

Both of you make very valid points. The SU hasn't made these decisions - they were made by members in the form of policy.

If you have any issues with the sponsorship as it is at the moment then vote in the next referenda!
Thomas Hockenhull
6:27pm on 23 Jan 10

 I agree with the above. There are no benefits to anybody involved from these rules - except perhaps some arbitrary notion of morality for the powers that be. There are plenty of other, less high-brow companies that could be construed as morally objectionable for sponsorship (eg bars, tobacco companies, banks etc etc) - it makes absolutely no sense to blanket ban a specific list of companies.

It makes even less sense to impose this upon all societies. I fail to see how it will benefit anybody. If those in the society have no problem with the sponsors, then there is really no issue. The best this can do is remove societies from sometimes much-needed avenues of sponsorship and opportunities.
Nathan Cox
2:12pm on 12 Oct 09

 It isn't the students union's place to decide to ban these companies from sponsoring societies. The SU is supposed to be about the students, so therefore surely the students in each society should be able to decide for themselves who sponsors them. While many might appreciate that you are trying to be a moral establishment, the SU should remember that its job is to improve welfare and protect the rights of students, not enforce its own views on all students.
Published: 13 Feb 2009 16:16 , Last updated: 24 Jun 2010 14:56