Wednesday, 5/21/97 Interaction fund to get $100,000-a-year
bailout Chancellor’s aid arrives just in time, helps student
activities
By Frances Lee Daily Bruin Staff Over the years, the Associated
Students of UCLA Interaction Fund has seen its good and bad times.
In its heyday, the fund was as high as $400,000, and at its worst,
it fell to a low of $50,000. And with the students’ association
strapped by financial woes, the interaction fund faced the threat
of being cut completely from the budget last year – until
Chancellor Charles Young agreed to step in. In an effort to help
the association, the university has agreed to contribute up to
$100,000 to the student interaction fund for the next five years to
maintain it at that level. The money will come from the
chancellor’s discretionary fund and will be used to augment both
the undergraduate and graduate programming funds. "It’s another
commitment that the chancellor has made to the students on this
campus, to assist in the programming efforts they think are
important," said Assistant Vice-Chancellor of Student and Campus
Life Robert Naples. Historically, the Interaction Fund has been a
major source of funding for student programs, according to Jerry
Mann, the student union and student support services director.
Without this source, programs such as the Jazz Reggae Festival,
WorldFest and various cultural nights would suffer since they
receive the bulk of their funding from ASUCLA, he added. One-third
of the money in the fund goes to the Graduate Students Association,
while the remainder funds programs for the Undergraduate Students
Association. Through the years, the size of the fund has been
determined by the association’s operating budget. However, over the
past two years the association had amassed a $20 million debt
related to the Ackerman Union and Kerckhoff Hall renovations, and
the interaction fund faced the danger of being eliminated. As part
of a loan agreement negotiated with the university, the association
was prohibited from "spending money unless we were making money,"
said James Friedman, vice chair of the ASUCLA board of directors.
This prohibition extended to the interaction fund as well. Student
members of the board, however, were committed to maintaining the
programming fund. "We believed it was the responsibility of the
association to get the money whether it was from our own funds or
somewhere else within the university," said former undergraduate
President York Chang. The chancellor, Friedman said, "understood
our commitment and agreed with it. That’s why he offered the
money." "Programming isn’t something you can fund one year and not
the next," he added, noting that there should be a continuity in
having campus events. For ASUCLA, having the interaction fund is
"very basic to the students’ association’s (mission), to have it be
integrally involved with student activities on campus," Chang said.
Although campus programming isn’t entirely dependent upon the
Interaction Fund, the $100,000 helps considerably. In 1993, the
passage of the Academic Success Referendum guaranteed USA about
$66,000 a year for cultural and educational programming from
mandatorily collected student fees. An additional $66,000 from
ASUCLA augments the undergraduate programming budget. Because the
money in the interaction fund now comes from the chancellor, Mann
said that those funds are being kept separate from the general
programming budget. "If anything looks remotely controversial, (we)
fund it with another source," Mann said. Apart from showing a
commitment to student programming on campus, the chancellor’s
contribution also shows his support for the association, said
ASUCLA Executive Director Patricia Eastman. "It shows support for
the basic mission of the association and our (financial) turnaround
plan," Eastman said. "By taking the interaction fund off the table,
it gives (us) the freedom to invest (our) resources" in other areas
of the association, she added. Previous Daily Bruin stories: Search
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