Student groups at UCLA must pay more because of dwindling USAC surplus
By Jillian Beck
Jan. 19, 2012 1:18 a.m.
Tierra Moore made sure she worked 40 hours a week during winter break.
The extra money helped supplement the funding of events for her group, the Afrikan Student Union. She and other members of the group have had to pull money from their own pockets to keep planning programs.
“It’s hard because I’m a struggling student,” said Moore, a fourth-year global studies and political science student, and co-chair of the Afrikan Student Union. “Tuition is rising, I’m paying more for my university, and yet I’m having to pay more for my student organization to even function.”
The Afrikan Student Union is not alone. Many student groups have recently had to make do with significantly less financial support from the Undergraduate Students Association Council than in past years. Over the years, groups have become increasingly dependent on the once-consistent source of funding.
Late fall quarter, the council found out the leftover funds carried over from last year, which are used to supplement student programming, were much lower than originally anticipated. In response to the shortage, USAC instated a 50 percent reduction to weekly allocations for student groups, a source of funding many groups had used to support their events.
This decision was made to ensure the funds would last for the rest of the year.
One of the events the Afrikan Student Union is trying to salvage with other sources of funding brings black high school and community college students to UCLA to encourage them to pursue higher education.
Typically, at least $135,000 of leftover funds have been added to the contingency programming fund midyear. This year, however, they expect only about $50,000, according to a USAC programming and contingency fund analysis report from Jan. 10.
At a November meeting to discuss renting Royce Hall for events, Ronald Arruejo, the USAC Finance Committee chair, warned student groups not to expect as much funding from USAC this year.
“It was kind of a shock,” said Michelle Trang Nguyen, a fourth-year English and Asian American studies student and the director of the Vietnamese Student Union’s Culture Night and one of the student leaders at the meeting.
For the past three years, the Vietnamese Student Union has been able to round up enough funding from multiple sources ““ including USAC ““ to cover the costs of holding its annual Vietnamese Culture Night performance in Royce Hall, Nguyen said.
But this year, with the reduction in USAC programming funds, the Vietnamese Student Union had to come up with new ways of raising money. It began fundraising, and even charged performers a participation fee, Nguyen said.
“We have to plan how to make money before we even get to plan the program,” Nguyen said.
The Olive Tree Initiative, a group focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, had to postpone a three-part event about Jewish, Muslim and Christian negotiation tactics scheduled for November because it did not receive enough money to activate the multimedia equipment necessary for its educational program, said Corey Feinstein, a fourth-year anthropology student and president of the group.
“It’s really kind of a pain because we have to postpone programs for a couple of months, and applying for (other sources of funding) takes time,” Feinstein said.
The group’s program will take place in early February, after being postponed for three months.
To continue holding events, some student groups have begun pooling their limited resources.
Sam Neff, a second-year mechanical engineering student and president of the Social Dance Club, said his group teamed up with the Armenian Student Association last quarter to put on a dancing event. They have also been relying on word of mouth as a free source of advertising to cut down on costs.
Although USAC has advised student groups to look for other sources of funding as well, the programming funds are a main source of funding for many organizations.
The council has requested $100,000 from the Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors to provide enough money for student group programming for the rest of the year.
“I plan on continuing to apply (for programming funds) no matter what happens with ASUCLA,” Neff said. “But I would prefer the burst of funding.”
At a meeting Tuesday night, the council voted to only give out a maximum of 33 percent of its contingency programming budget next fall until the amount of surplus funds for the year is finalized, to avoid a similar problem from occurring next year, said Emily Resnick, president of USAC.
