The Associated Students UCLA’s budget for the next fiscal
year was approved at Friday’s board of directors meeting,
reflecting a continual decline in sales, as well as an anticipated
increase in the students living in the residence halls.
ASUCLA is the umbrella organization including both student
governments, the retail and food operations and the Communications
Board.
The budgets for both the Graduate Students Association and the
Undergraduate Students Association Council were approved
unanimously at Friday’s meeting as well, but the budget of
the Communications Board is pending approval.
The budget for ASUCLA’s services and enterprises division,
which includes retail and food operations, as well as trademarks
and licensing, was approved showing a $371,000 loss next year.
The approval was made with the expectation that book and retail
sales will go down and that additional students living in the
residence halls will rely more on services provided by the housing
office than ASUCLA.
Also, an additional $400,000 will be allocated to increased
student wages and student programming in accordance with conditions
in the SAFE referendum, which raised the student association
fee.
The services and enterprises division of ASUCLA adjusted its
budget from a preliminary meeting that took place on April 30.
The budget presented at this earlier meeting accounted for a
$366,000 loss for the next fiscal year.
But because of the insistence of the board, a 4.5 percent
increase in food prices was reduced to a 2.25 percent increase.
The change in the increase caused ASUCLA to adjust its budget so
it would reflect a $371,000 loss in revenue for the next fiscal
year.
ASUCLA’s budget could also reflect contractual changes
reached between the university and service employees in April.
Because of changes to the contract that the university
negotiated with the service employees union, the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the student
association’s budget could be changed once again to reflect
wage increases and added benefits.
Full-time student association employees that are part of AFSCME
are affected by the new contract. The proposed changes would cost
the association an additional $28,000.
ASUCLA finance director Rich Delia said at Friday’s
meeting that the student association would try to further revise
the budget to include the proposed changes and stay as close to
their projected budget as possible.
The Communications Board’s budget was not up for approval
on Friday’s meeting because a Communications Board
representative was not present at the previous finance committee
meeting.
Though the Communications Board, which oversees Student Media
and includes the Daily Bruin, is a part of ASUCLA, it does not
receive funding from the student association.
But as a part of the agreement between ASUCLA and the
Communications Board, ASUCLA must approve the Communications
Board’s budget for fiscal soundness, as it does for both
student governments.
Student Media also includes the BruinLife yearbook, the seven
news magazines as well as radio, television and Internet media.
At Friday’s meeting, Hoi Ning Ngai, graduate
representative and chair of the finance committee, said even though
the budget was not up for approval, the committee recommended that
the Communications Board revise its budget to be more
conservative.
According to the Communications Board’s preliminary budget
and five-year forecast, Student Media is expected to go from an
estimated $80,000 loss this year to a $27,000 loss next year, and
will also see a 26-percent increase in Internet media revenue.
“The Communications Board welcomes the finance
committee’s suggestions,” said Arvli Ward, director of
Student Media
He added that the Communications Board will decide whether to
revise the budget and possible revisions at their June 6
meeting.
The Communications Board’s budget can be up for approval
in July.