The downturn in the national economy was a prominent topic of discussion at the Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors meeting on Friday, but despite the decreased funds, the association continued to allocate funds for construction projects and student programming.
Bob Williams, executive director of ASUCLA, said in his monthly update that the association has been affected by the recession, though not as much as most national retailers.
Overall, the association has still managed to slightly increase its income from the beginning of the year, Williams said. But several departments, including the computer store and BearWear products, have faced decreasing sales.
The food services division also suffered a weak start to the school year but has steadily increased its business in recent months, Williams added.
“We’re doing a great job keeping costs down and reducing textbook prices,” he said.
Sales are still down 4 to 5 percent from last year, though Williams noted that most major retailers are suffering losses in the double digits.
ASUCLA Chief Financial Officer Rich Delia said that despite the slow economy, the association has maintained its cash in the bank, held firm on its investments, and kept wages steady.
“We still have the cash to fund capital expenditures in the Cooperage and the South Campus Student Center,” Delia said.
Williams added that he expects no quick turnaround with the malaise in the economy but said recent promotional items that ASUCLA has offered have been successful at attracting students to the businesses.
For instance, Northern Lights recently introduced frozen yogurt and offered a coupon worth a free medium-sized yogurt for all UCLA students.
Since the coupon was offered, Williams said the shop has given away 5,000 free yogurts to promote the product.
Additionally, ASUCLA did another promotion for free pizza in the North Campus Student Center, which also saw approximately 5,000 pizza slices given away to bring students into the center.
Due to delayed progress on the Cooperage model, ASUCLA has also hired a new project manager. Recently, under the new management, the Cooperage has added glass doors that lead out to the patio, Williams said.
“The Cooperage looks 300 percent better; it’s not the dingy dark spot anymore,” said alumni representative Mike Soderberg.
Despite the progress on the Cooperage, the Game-On portion remains uncompleted, with no opening date available, board members said.
The South Campus Student Center project, which is a large-scale remodel of the Bombshelter, is underway as well, Williams said.
The landscape plan for the center is now complete, and Williams showed the board a 3-D computer rendition of the project, consisting of jacaranda trees and an outdoor patio.
During the action item proposal session of the meeting, the board approved $140,000 in expenditures to update a ventilation system in the new Cooperage.
Another topic of discussion was regarding the undergraduate students association council’s textbook scholarship plan, which subsidizes the costs of textbooks for dozens of students.
Last September, the board voted to table the USAC financial supports commission’s request, which asked ASUCLA for $10,000 to support the textbook plan. Currently, the financial supports office is independently spending $20,000 on the plan, according to ASUCLA documents.
On Thursday, the office held drawings for spring quarter allotments.
At Friday’s meeting, graduate representative Shelly Sorger expressed some concerns regarding the proposal. Sorger questioned the cost of the scholarship and whether it would be continued next year.
Williams also expressed his hesitation with the proposal, noting that he did not want to see a precedent where ASUCLA funds would go toward supporting undergraduate or graduate student government initiatives. He added that student government already receives a large disbursement from the association. According to Daily Bruin archives, USAC received $3,043,272 for its 2008-2009 budget, while GSA received $518,870.
The board initially voted to table the motion again for further discussion, but administrative representative David Loewenstein added his revision to the motion.
Loewenstein amended the motion to give $5,000 to the textbook plan, with explicit instructions to spend the money on a marketing campaign.
The board agreed on Loewenstein’s amendment with eight in favor and one abstention.