Corporate sponsorships can provide short-term solutions for USAC's recent financial woes

What better way to attract funding than to decorate student events such as Bruin Bash with business banners and signs in return for corporate sponsorship?

The Undergraduate Students Association Council’s current consideration of corporate sponsorship reflects a wise, strategic step in light of the surplus funding shortages USAC has experienced this year.

Each year, USAC allots money from its surplus funds to financially dependent student programs and big-ticket events such as Bruin Bash. This year, however, USAC ran into a financial stumble as surplus from last year’s funds was insufficient for sustainable student programming funds.

The Daily Bruin reported this year that to help cope with this situation, USAC was offered a $76,000 loan from Associated Students UCLA.

Corporate sponsorship is not an entirely novel response to the financial problems that have been plaguing USAC because sponsorships already have precedent on campus, said Roy Champawat, director of the UCLA Student Union.

But shortages in surplus funding have exerted enough pressure on USAC this year to prompt a discussion about expanding corporate sponsorships and the existing funding model.

If corporations could be approached with enough assurance that sponsorships would be beneficial for them, then continuing this conversation becomes worthwhile.

According to Joelle Gamble, external vice president of USAC, there is a necessity to re-evaluate USAC funding for student organizations and to reduce the number of expensive events.

The financial problem therefore requires a complete overhaul of the funding methods used by USAC, Gamble, a fourth-year international development studies student, added.

Although such broad changes would be ideal, USAC currently has neither the time nor the financial flexibility to consider anything other than quick, temporary solutions that would prevent running deficits during the year.

USAC this year has undergone financial strain ““ it first needs to cope with immediate financial issues before moving on to larger restructuring deliberations.

While the short-term effectiveness of such direct funding is evident, it remains to be seen whether corporate sponsorship would provide a long-term solution.

Although a solution involving corporate sponsorships remains in the preliminary stage of discussion right now, USAC stresses that working with alcohol manufacturers and corporations with poor labor practices would be discouraged, said Raquel Saxe, USAC Academic Affairs commissioner and third-year political science student.

This discretion reflects a sensible and measured approach on behalf of the council and also demonstrates that USAC is not willing to blatantly disregard its attachment to principles such as a refusal to endorse underage drinking, Saxe said.

But corporate sponsorships do not have to be the last word in resolving the financial shortage. The use of corporate sponsorships could be supplemented with various collaborative efforts throughout the UCLA community. For instance, students at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management could provide USAC with marketing and advertising tips while also helping ease difficulties USAC might face in establishing connections with large corporations.

Kenn Heller, assistant dean of students, said there are numerous ways of finding additional funds that include both grants and corporate sponsorships.

The latter is appropriate and effective in entertainment-related programs such as Bruin Bash where companies could see the potential to display effective messaging through various outlets such as banners and advertising credits, Heller said.

It remains important nonetheless to present and sell an event as one hosted and created by UCLA in order to minimize the danger of an event becoming too commercialized and detached from students’ interests as students may find it uncomfortable to be bombarded with advertisements at an on-campus event.

Of course, another solution to the funding issue would entail a downsizing of large-scale events such as Bruin Bash and Homecoming. Although these events have been long-standing and traditional initiation activities for first-year students, many argue they seem frivolous and unnecessary when set against the backdrop of UCLA’s financial dilemmas. Lack of funding further deepens and exacerbates this view. However, if we want to preserve these events as time-honored UCLA traditions, it remains in the interest of the school community to support the discussion about corporate sponsorship initiated by USAC. The next step becomes clear ““ centralize the conversation about corporate sponsorship and actualize it into a formal proposal and an efficient venture.

What do you think about USAC funding events with corporate sponsorships? Email Torossian at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected] or tweet us @DBOpinion.