ASUCLA puts student interests first

Menthe is the graduate student representative to the ASUCLA
Board of Directors.

By Darrel Menthe

All students should take pride in the Associated Students of
UCLA, because we are the largest student-controlled enterprise of
its kind in the nation.

For the better part of a century, UCLA students and the
administration have collaborated, cooperated and sometimes fought
over the direction and provision of services. For those of you who
do not know, Coach John Wooden’s first contract was with
ASUCLA, back when athletics (and parking) were under student
control. We have long been a part of the energy and diversity that
has made UCLA great, and we have done it through business, not
handouts.

The first thing to recognize about ASUCLA is that its governing
board has a student majority. The Student Union fee at UCLA is by
far the lowest of any UC school, because the students use revenue
from the store and restaurants to fund student activities. UCLA
students receive considerable benefits from the dollars spent by
alumni, faculty, administrators, staff and visitors at our stores
and restaurants. We could not survive for a week if we required a
student ID to purchase food or T-shirts, selling these to students
alone. There is also no direct state subsidy for our operations. We
even built the current Ackerman Union ourselves at considerable and
ongoing cost.

ASUCLA is also proud of its tradition of being in the forefront
of social change. We spearheaded divestment in South Africa when
most people thought apartheid was a Swiss confection. And we are
working today to promote fair labor standards through our
licensing. Did you know that royalties from the UCLA logo are split
between ASUCLA and athletics? I bet not. We have a policy of paying
more than the minimum wage to all of our regular employees, and we
make a point of offering “fair trade” coffee in our
cafes.

In the same vein, we decided years ago that smoking and
second-hand smoke are dangerous health risks, so we did not want to
make money pushing dangerous products to fellow students and
alumni. Recently Viewpoint columnist Idan Ivri suggested we are
incorrect in this decision because the majority of the student
population is of legal age and can smoke (“ASUCLA fails to
meet student needs,” Daily Bruin, Jan. 8). But we do not sell
guns, although there is a legal market for them too.

Other than things related to our social mission, our prices and
variety of products are largely determined by the market. This
means we make decisions based on what students actually buy, not
just what they would like to see in a store. We are also bound by
the conditions of operating on a university campus:

First, unlike a regular grocery store or mall, we are subject to
seasonal traffic. For three months of summer, winter break, spring
break and every weekend, the number of people on campus at UCLA
plummets ““ we cannot shrink our store or stop paying bills
during those times. ASUCLA is built and staffed year-round to
handle our peak rush time, particularly the beginning of the
quarter when everyone floods into the store at once.

Second, most of our customers do not live on campus, and we have
no special parking structure to attract visitors.

Third, we are dedicated to having food service all over the
campus, even in locations that can never make much money. Friday
night and Saturday night are the money nights for most restaurants
““ but we must do without them. With all of this, it takes
great effort to keep prices down to current levels while still
providing the convenience of our location to everyone in our campus
community.

Retail is a hard business ““ did you ever wonder why the
face of Westwood Village changes every year? Not many businesses
could sell doughnuts and dental kits and stay alive.

If you want to change ASUCLA, you can apply to your student
government to join the Board of Directors. You can learn the
business and what goes into a budget. This is your association.

Oh, and we do sell eggs. Check Ackerman’s market
section.