Students might want to let their cups runneth over at the soda fountain while they can, as the continued presence of sugary beverages at University of Colorado dining halls might be short-lived.

Boulder’s new soda tax, a 2-cents-per-ounce levy on distributors of drinks with at least five grams of added sugar per 12 ounces, has been causing consternation around Boulder with businesses begging for exemptions.

During a Tuesday City Council meeting, one such institution — CU — came before the council to ask for a time extension to adapt to the tax, admitting they just now realized it would impact them — and one CU official said the tax may cause them to “eliminate them altogether.”

“It was certainly our mistake to assume that we wouldn’t be getting the extra price from the vendor,” said Kambiz Khalili, associate vice chancellor for student support and auxiliary services.

University officials were under the impression that because they were a state entity, the city tax wouldn’t apply to them. But once CU got wind the tax actually goes through a vendor, and the vendor raises the price and sells it back to the university, officials realized they weren’t ready to deal with this change in the next school year.

“I’m a little baffled why CU would think they would be exempted,” Mayor Suzanne Jones said during the council meeting. “This was on the ballot … and we’ve been wrestling with this for six months.”

Jones noted that CU has known about the impacts of the soda tax as early as April, adding: “They’re a valued partner, and we want to accommodate them, but it’s not a best practice to ask for a major exemption two hours before the meeting.”

By an 8-1 margin, the council granted CU a delay of one year, although the university had asked for a two-year delay — through June 30, 2019 — to coincide with the expiration of a PepsiCo contract.

“We’re really grateful to the city for giving us this extra year to take a look and see what we’re going to do,” said campus spokeswoman Deborah Mendez-Wilson.

The course of action: deciding what sweet thirst quenchers are on the chopping block.

“What we’re going to do is start looking at the products that are considered sugary and see if we need to minimize the servings and availabilities or eliminate them altogether, depending on popularity with students,” Khalili said.

During the next school year, students will be surveyed about their dining hall options so CU knows what sugary drinks float their student body’s boat. As it stands, students can treat the three campus dining halls as all-you-can buffets, meaning they can fill up on sodas and sugary juices to their hearts’ content.

Alternatives CU already offers in lieu of sugary drinks include: spa waters infused with fruits, vegetables and herbs; yerba mate; organic iced teas; sparkling and chilled water stations; and coffee and herbal teas.

Aquafina-infused sparkling water is now under consideration to be added to the drink mix, Khalili said.

Products exempt from the tax include milk products, 100 percent juice drinks and diet drinks with artificial sweeteners.

Sweet liquid treats outside dining halls could be saved with a price hike, but students are already locked into the costs of their meal plans, so that’s where Khalili’s main concern is.

He calculated a 3,000 percent increase in funds spent on sugary beverages when the new tax kicks in, coming to roughly an extra $1 million a year.

“It’s going to be a lot less because we’re going to immediately make adjustments to initially lower the variety, and then our hope is by next year to be able to mitigate this issue,” Khalili said.

Either way, he said, costs won’t be passed along to students unless through the potential raised retail prices of sweet beverages on campus.

The university is hoping to use this unexpected inconvenience as a learning opportunity about healthy eating.

“One of our hopes is that with good education in the next year, we can actually move people toward non-sugar sweetened beverages,” Khalili said. “Our intention is to provide healthy products for our students.”

Although the deal brokering was shaky, the city is also pleased with the compromise struck.

“They’re serving sugary drinks to people, so part of this is to figure out how we all change our behaviors to accomplish the goals of the tax the voters requested,” Jones said.

Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-473-1106, hernandeze@dailycamera.com