ASUCLA on shaky financial ground

By Rachel Makabi
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
rmakabi@media.ucla.edu

As Associated Students of UCLA board members begin to finalize
their budget for the upcoming year, top executives within the
association disagree about the extent of the financial difficulties
they will face.

In the past two weeks, the association has planned several cuts
to next year’s budget, including a reduction in merit
increases for current career employees and issuing a 55 percent
reduction to the budget of student governments.

Though Executive Director Patricia Eastman says the cuts will
enable the association to have a positive net income next year,
ASUCLA Financial Director Rich Delia, who works under Eastman, said
the costs might drive the association to bankruptcy.

The association began to revise its budget when members of the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union
asked ASUCLA to recognize non-student workers’ right to form
a union, which could cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million,
board members say.

“If you have $800,000 net income … and the bill comes
out to $1 million, then it is just simple arithmetic,” Delia
said. “We don’t have a chance.”

Working on the same assumption that the costs would be closer to
$1 million than $500,000, Eastman said the association will not
only avoid bankruptcy, but will probably have a few thousand
dollars of net income on top of it.

The association would do this through “painful” cuts
that “no one wants to do,” but are necessary, Eastman
said.

Eastman pointed out that ASUCLA has hit tough financial times in
the past, but has always managed to emerge, though in numerous
interviews since the union presented its demands, neither Eastman
nor Delia have presented a viable budget if the union’s
demands cost closer to $1 million. They will present a new budget
to the ASUCLA board of directors Friday.

Though ASUCLA, which lacks the authority to bargain with unions,
had to pass the decision to the UC Office of the President, it will
have to bear the $500,000 to $1 million cost. ASUCLA originally
planned to make a net income of $800,000 for the upcoming year.
Much of that money is already slated for building repairs and for a
cash reserve to prepare the association for hard times.

ASUCLA will save the greatest amount of money, about $150,000 to
$300,000, through reducing the 3 percent merit increase for career
employees by about half, Eastman said.

The association is also currently negotiating with members of
the Undergraduate Students Council Association after proposing to
reduce their discretionary funds by 55 percent.

In addition, the association’s insurance costs went down
since the preliminary budget meeting, saving $100,000, Eastman
said.

If the university determines the association to be financially
troubled, the chancellor can appoint more administrative
representatives until there is no longer a student majority on the
ASUCLA board.

Joint Operating Committee Chair Steve Olsen, who provides
administrative perspective in shaping ASUCLA financial policy, said
he does not think the association will ever lose its student
majority on the board.

The association has been in tough financial shape in the past,
Olsen said, but has always “stepped up to the plate”
when it counted.

Though Olsen and Eastman said they think ASUCLA will come out
from the current situation with both money and autonomy, Delia
disagreed.

“If you are in a fight and you get knocked down, then you
get up, and if you get knocked down again, you will get up
again,” Delia said. “But after about six times,
it’s difficult to get up, that is what this $1 million will
be. I don’t know if we can come back again.”

Delia said the association’s autonomy from the university
will be further undermined if the workers become permanent UC union
employees contracted by the association instead of ASUCLA employees
““ an issue AFSCME and the UC are currently discussing.

If these workers become permanent UC employees, it could lead to
more workers following suit, Delia said.

“It goes further and further and further and pretty soon,
there is nothing left to give up,” he continued.

“That’s the message I think students need to
understand,” he said. “This could result in us giving
up autonomy.”

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *