The day of reckoning is almost upon us. With the end of this semester also marks the final days of bottled water on campus. The students have spoken, and bottled water is history kind of.

Bottled water will be off campus in January 2013, but SmartWater, flavored water and other specialty products will stay.

If the purpose of removing bottled water is to preserve the environment and spare landfills, why do some brands get the pardon?

Now the Cynic isnt going to investigate the possibility of any SmartWater contributions to SGA senators campaigns, but the fact that only the unflavored water brands are banned is mildly unsavory and questionable at best.

Additionally, the University will lose $100,000 a year without their contract with Coca-Cola, not to mention it cost $175,000 just to put in the water filling stations. If the University is willing to lose this much money in the name of banning bottles, we at the Cynic think the administration should carry out the action fully by extending the ban to flavored and specialty waters.

Healthy alternatives like low sugar tea beverages and low fait dairy drinks have passed UVMs inspection and will be allowed to remain in UVMs vending machines, at least for the time being. But somewhere along the way, it seems the University lost sight of what war it was supposed to be waging the war on plastic, or the war on nutrition. And those are two very different battles.

Students created this change to help the environment; the focus is on banning the bottles, not the water. By banning SmartWater and other special waters and not creating a water law loophole there will ultimately be less bottles consumed.

Richard Cate, vice president of finance, told NECN that the University hasnt pulled the trigger but is looking to bar SmartWater from campus shelves. This seems like an obvious choice. Its not the water, its the bottle.