UCLA has resources to save BruinGo!

Dorothy Kim is the internal vice president of the Graduate
Students Association.

By Dorothy Kim

In the last several months, GSA has made its case for BruinGo!
on a number of different fronts. Recently, Michael
Dukakis and Donald Shoup have called attention to the ways in
which the program aids commuters and the envi ronment. In addition,
it is an excellent program that complements Chancellor
Carnesale’s initiative, UCLA in L.A.: Partnerships for a
Greater Los Angeles. It gives direct financial aid to both
undergraduate and graduate students and is a benefit to UCLA staff
and faculty. All the program’s benefits have been pointed out
repeatedly to Carnesale and Mark Stocki, the director of
transportation.

However, their answer to this barrage has always been about the
bottom line. They ask, “Where is the money to support this
program?” They cite the huge debt that Transportation
Services must pay for the construction of past and current parking
structures. They also refer to the Transportation Services model as
a business enterprise that cannot go into the red and must always
remain financially solvent.

This “bottom-line only” attitude seems to have made
both Carnesale and Stocki unaware of BruinGo!’s capacity as a
huge public relations benefit for UCLA in the larger Los Angeles
community. If they choose not to retain and expand the program, all
they will be able to show for their efforts in alternative
transportation will consist of a small number of vanpools and
carpools. This meager effort will be obvious to the campus,
environmentalists, city officials and prospective donors.

Considering this business-only mentality, I have a business
proposition to present to Carnesale and Stocki that will not only
save BruinGo! but also provides capital to expand the program to
Culver City and MTA transit lines. This proposal will not affect
the bottom-line of Transportation Services’ $30 million-plus
debt. A recent evaluation of the program prepared for the Faculty
Welfare Committee of the UCLA Academic Senate shows BruinGo! has
reduced the demand for daily parking by 1,380 spaces. These
freed-up spaces should be made permanent daily sale spaces with the
majority of the funds going to an expanded BruinGo! program.

In monetary terms, imagine that those 1,380 spaces are parking
permit spaces that cost $144 a quarter or $48 dollars a month.
Thus, Transportation Services acquires only $66,240 a month for
these spaces. If these spaces were converted to daily parking
permit sales at the current rate of $6 a day, then, at a
conservative estimate of about 20 weekdays in a month, the money
generated from these 1,380 spaces would come out to $165,600 a
month.

This latter number is an incredibly conservative estimate
because I am not only limiting the number of daily permit sale days
to weekdays, I am also limiting the number of daily permits sales
for that space to one a day. In reality, one parking space that is
designated for daily permit sales will often have more than five
different vehicles paying the price for that day. Even at a
conservative estimate, this system would generate $1,987,200 for 12
months “”mdash;plenty of money to support the BruinGo! program
including an expansion.

Even after a subtraction of $794,880, the amount paid for 1,380
regular parking permits for a 12-month year, there is still plenty
of money for the BruinGo! program. In fact, the BruinGo! program
cost $810,000 last year. This means that even at an extremely
conservative revenue evaluation, this plan would generate enough
income to fund BruinGo! along with its expansion.

There will be a Save BruinGo! speakout today at noon at
Meyerhoff Plaza sponsored by GSA and USAC. GSA has passed a Save
BruinGo! resolution outlining this business proposal and USAC will
be voting Tuesday night to pass this resolution. Please come out
and voice your opinion about this program. If you cannot, feel free
to e-mail Chancellor Carnesale ([email protected]) and Mark
Stocki ([email protected]) voicing your
support for the BruinGo! program.