April sales results are in for Associated Students UCLA, showing a strong fiscal month for the store and food services, due in part to successful sales at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Traditionally, the two-day festival brings in an estimated $250,000 to the association, making it the biggest day of the year for food sales, said Bob Williams, ASUCLA executive director. Preliminary results showed the association was on plan in both food and store sales for the month.
In the Friday board of directors meeting, Williams reported a good month for the student union and a gradual return in apparel sales.
Textbooks and academic materials sales continue to decline as the board searches for a means to turn the trend around.
“There’s no question that we continue to see a degrade of our book sales,” Williams said. “We need to deal with that, and obviously we have plans to deal with that.”
Williams said the store makes very little on textbooks, which are only marked up enough to cover the expenses of shipping and stocking.
The association is also trying to lower excess stock of unsold textbooks, while maintaining enough books to meet the quarterly textbook rush.
“How do you walk the line of pulling your staffing back and … pulling your variety back without losing sales?” Williams said. “At some point, you go too far, and you impact sales. I think if you go to the store you won’t sense that.”
The association does not want to have back-ordered products, said Rich Delia, ASUCLA financial director.
The board of directors also approved a revised stipend policy for its student members.
The stipend is designed to cover the student directors’ student fees, not compensate them for their service on the board. These eight students are appointed at the beginning of the year by the Undergraduate Students Association Council and Graduate Students Association.
Before the change, the policy suspended its student directors’ stipends in the event of a University of California fee increase more than 10 percent until the board voted to increase the stipend proportionally. But the policy was written in a way that froze the stipends under any increase, said Bernice Shaw, ASUCLA vice chair.
After the 32 percent fee increase approved in fall, a general concern among student board members was that it would be a conflict of interest to vote on their own pay, Shaw said.
The amendment changed the threshold for the need to vote from 10 to 15 percent.
The ASUCLA executive committee has yet to decide whether or not to vote on a retroactive increase of its stipends.
It is still possible that they will decide not to vote, Shaw said. Such a vote will probably take place next month or in July, Shaw said.
Also in the coming months, the board plans to promote fair trade coffee and consider The Green Initiative Fund grant that would place solar panels on top of Ackerman Student Union.