ASUCLA agrees to amend budget

JONATHAN YOUNG/Daily Bruin USAC president Karren
Lane addresses the ASUCLA board on budget concerns Friday
afternoon while USAC members look on.

By Debra Marisa Greene
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]

The Associated Students of UCLA board of directors agreed Friday
to amend the 2002-03 budget and return $50,000 in maintenance and
utilities subsidies to student governments.

At the meeting, the Undergraduate Students Association Council,
which has continuously negotiated with the BOD since it first
proposed the cuts, asked the board to return their $40,000
maintenance and utility subsidy. The Graduate Students Association
already approved their budget without negotiating on the loss of
their $10,000 subsidy.

Some USAC members are hoping the USAC Programming Referendum,
which students will vote on in a special election tomorrow and
Thursday, will solve some of its financial difficulties. It calls
for a student fee increase of $8.50 per quarter, with three dollars
going to the administrative overhead of the organization.

Under the original budget, ASUCLA would allocate $57,776 to USAC
for base budgets, instead of the $131,000 USAC was given last year.
The $40,000 subsidy still leaves USAC with $30,000 less than it had
last year.

“I thought there was a very positive outcome, but one that
was expected,” said Jared Seltzer, a BOD undergraduate
representative.

Though ASUCLA will keep the subsidy, the increased costs of
unionization have yet to be determined and could lead to major
revisions in the budget later on.

ASUCLA had an unexpected increase of $700,000 to $1 million in
its projected operating costs when they decided to make ASUCLA
workers, who are currently hired through a temp agency, career
employees with higher wages and benefits, board members said.

USAC members argued that cutting their subsidy would cripple
their ability to function.

“We are members of ASUCLA and we have to share the
impact,” she said. “We fully accept that.”

However, USAC president Karren Lane said the situation can be
problematic if students are being punished, adding that cuts
shouldn’t be proposed that will hurt USAC.

“The removal of the subsidy will virtually kill the
function of USAC,” Lane said at the meeting.

USAC would not be able to support any student groups if the
association removed the entire subsidy, she continued.

USAC representatives explained that because of inflation and
increased costs, the entire subsidy is necessary for the council to
operate.

Community Service Commissioner for USAC Sunny Sanchez said her
commission is faced with transportation fee increases, making the
subsidy a necessity.

“Our mission is to facilitate students to do community
service,” she said, adding, “our transportation is our
livelihood.”

Rahul Marwah, USAC’s Cultural Affairs Commissioner, also
spoke about the need for the subsidy due to rising costs.

“Our expenses have gone up immeasurably because we
moved,” he said, adding they are up over 150 percent from
last year.

Due to the increasing costs of putting on the Jazz Reggae
Festival, USAC was not able to fully fund it this year. The
festival used an outside investor instead.

“We didn’t like doing it,” he said,
“because it takes away from the student programming
initiative.”

In addition, Lane said without the subsidy, USAC won’t be
able to provide student programming which contributes to the
student union’s well-being as a whole.

“Student programming brings traffic to Ackerman and
Kerckhoff,” Lane said, adding that it contributes to the
profits of The UCLA Store and eateries.

“We need 100 percent of the subsidy,” Lane said,
adding that anything less than 100 percent will negatively affect
student programming.

USAC General Representative Theo Apostol said this was the first
time the subsidy is being taken away.

“When ASUCLA was in the red, the subsidy was still
given,” he said.

ASUCLA Finance Director Richard Delia discussed the huge
operational costs with which ASUCLA is faced. He said ASUCLA
absorbed unexpected costs such as a rising costs of insurance rates
as well as a $700,000 cost due to the energy crisis.

“ASUCLA didn’t go to the government to ask for
money, instead the costs were absorbed,” he said. These
economic issues caused ASUCLA to eliminate about 44 of its career
employees about two years ago.

“We are doing the best we can to operate,” Delia
added.

As the board continued discussing the subsidy amount that should
be given to USAC, BOD Graduate Representative Marilyn Gray
suggested giving back 90 percent of the subsidy as a
“symbolic gesture.”

“The cuts should be made in the philosophy that everyone
is sharing in this,” she said.

Lane made it clear that USAC is part of ASUCLA and doesn’t
view itself as having no financial obligation to the association, a
concern felt by some BOD members.

“I hope the board isn’t thinking that USAC has a
lack of commitment to the union,” she said.

For the last five years, the student union fee was increased
from $7.50 to $51 to help ASUCLA get out of the red. This increase
is scheduled to be terminated for the 2002-03 school year, causing
ASUCLA to lose money.

As the board discussed whether or not to cut the subsidy
completely or partially, some board members said cuts should not be
made if they will have such negative implications for students.

“In a student center organization, the last group you
should be looking at cutting is the students,” said BOD
undergraduate representative Joe Manko.

As to whether the financial impact of giving back $50,000 to the
student governments will negatively affect ASUCLA, Seltzer said he
doesn’t believe so.

“I think we will be fine,” he said. “So long
as we can put student interests first, we always will,” he
added.