Struggling computer store, restaurants highlight need for ASUCLA to control costs

Lower-than-expected revenues at North Campus eateries and the student union computer store this year will most likely cause Associated Students UCLA to make adjustments in its services and management for the 2013-2014 school year, according to officials.

As the ASUCLA Board of Directors and administrators prepare to pass next year’s budget plan, they are re-evaluating the expected revenues from financially struggling areas of campus – the student union computer store and ASUCLA restaurants. These divisions were consistently failing to meet expectations because of an “overly aggressive” budget for the 2012-2013 school year, said Bob Williams, executive director of ASUCLA.

The budget for next year, which the ASUCLA Board of Directors plans to approve in May, will be more conservative and will focus on cost control, said Rich Delia, ASUCLA’s chief financial officer. ASUCLA may employ several methods to combat increasing costs of facilities maintenance and future projects. The methods include improvements in management of ASUCLA divisions, according to ASUCLA’s forecast of assumptions for the 2013-2014 school year. ASUCLA may also stop hiring new employees, and would not replace employees who leave their positions, Delia said.

Part of ASUCLA’s proposed budget plans also focus on underperforming food services, in particular the North Campus Student Center, Café Synapse and Lu Valle Commons, which have all lost customers in the past year, said Cindy Bolton, ASUCLA’s director of food services.

North Campus sales and revenue have decreased over the years. In the past six months, North Campus food services made about $720,000 – a 17 percent decrease from last year’s profits, according to an email statement from Delia.

ASUCLA officials said the opening of the new Court of Sciences Student Center last winter may have contributed to the decline in sales at the older eateries on campus.

“Whenever you open a new facility, people tend to shift around where they choose to eat, and that’s what happened here,” said Williams.

ASUCLA has spent about $25 million on renovations of restaurant facilities within the last five years – none of which focused on North Campus, Delia said.

An executive plan of renovations and construction for ASUCLA restaurants, outlined in 2002, did not include Lu Valle Commons or the North Campus Student Center. ASUCLA food services is starting to implement small-scale changes at the North Campus Student Center, including new menus, which are part of the effort to address budget concerns as well as encourage healthy eating habits on campus, Bolton said.

“We decided to take a different approach with North Campus, by replacing storefronts and offering fresher, healthier choices for students,” Bolton said.

The changes to the North Campus Student Center went into effect on Monday, and some students said they liked the improvements to the storefront and menus.

“I think that the changes are great, but there just needs to be more word of mouth about it,” said Nikita Bedi, a third-year biochemistry student.

The ASUCLA Board of Directors has not discussed plans for immediate renovations to the North Campus Student Center, Bolton said. There are, however, some plans to make adjustments to management and potentially reducing staff, she added.

Bolton said she did not have estimates for the possible staff reductions.

Other factors that have affected the ASUCLA budget include the sale trends of the computer store within the UCLA Store.

Since last year, technology sales have dropped 12 percent –  from about $8 million to about $7 million – and it has become difficult to know what customer demand will be, Delia said.

He attributed the lack of computer sales to the increasing sales trends of tablets, such as iPads, and said he and other ASUCLA officials are concerned that more people are shifting to tablets instead of computers, which may be affecting sales.

Delia also said many students are no longer buying the “latest and greatest” of computers, opting to keep their older models for extended periods of time.

Some of ASUCLA officials’ ideas to increase computer sales include a possible remodeling of the computer store to make the area more accessible, and updating the website for the computer store.

The ASUCLA Finance  Committee is scheduled to finalize the 2013-2014 budget proposal in time for the ASUCLA Board of Directors meeting in May, where it will then be presented for approval, Williams said.