Wednesday, November 13, 1996
ASUCLA:
Financially struggling association
to introduce its first fee increase since 1959By Frances Lee
Daily Bruin Contributor
Struggling to maintain independence from the university while
trying to stabilize themselves financially, Associated Students
board members on Tuesday reluctantly proposed raising the student
union fee from $7.50 a year to $70 a year at the Undergraduate
Students Association Council meeting.
After considering alternatives to a fee increase, the
financially strapped ASUCLA presented its findings to USAC to drum
up support for the fee hike.
"We need your (USAC’s) support for what we’re trying to do,"
said association Executive Director Patricia Eastman, stressing
that as a students’ association, ASUCLA needed student input on the
increase.
The proposed $70 student union fee would be used to "fill the
gap" between what the association has and what it needs, according
to Eastman.
The fee is part of the financial "turnaround plan" the board is
planning to present to the UC Board of Regents in January. "The
loan (from the university to pay for Ackerman Union’s renovation)
is contingent upon this plan, which includes this fee," Eastman
said.
A $1.5 million line of credit from the university would tide the
association over until the proposed fee would be implemented in
Fall 1997.
While opposed to other fee increases, most of the student
council members voiced support for the student union fee
increase.
"ASUCLA is our association, and we’re in (a period of) financial
instability," said USAC External Vice President Alberto Retana.
"It’s important that we don’t allow (the university) to come in
and impose a fee increase on us," he continued, but rather to
implement a fee increase themselves to convey a sense of
responsibility for their situation.
Council President John Du concurred. "We need to have a fiscally
viable organization. It is our organization, and the decisions (we
make concerning it) should be made by students," he said.
In her presentation to USAC, Eastman stressed that "other
alternatives" had been thoroughly considered before a fee increase,
which included increasing prices in the UCLA Store and food
services and charging students sales tax.
In addition, the ASUCLA board had considered reducing the
association’s services to students by shutting down study lounges
early and charging student groups to use meeting rooms, as well as
the possibility of a university takeover of the association.
Reducing services and transferring the associa-
tion’s functions to the university were especially unpopular
with the board, according to Eastman.
"(ASUCLA’s) mission is to provide service to the students,"
Eastman said. Giving up autonomy and being taken over by the
university was perceived by the board as "the ultimate threat."
Hugo Maldonado, chair of the association services committee,
tried to put the hefty fee increase into perspective. "(The
increase) would be one of the most important (items) in the fiscal
budget and the five-year master (financial) plan," Maldonado
said.
During her presentation, Eastman explained that the student
union fee had not been increased since 1959, and that it had
actually been decreased to its present $7.50 per year in 1987. If
the fee had been adjusted every year for inflation, in 1996, the
fee should have been about $43.
"The association should be very proud that it generated enough
income to support the student union without a fee increase (since
1959)," Eastman said.
Now, the association is in financial trouble and cannot continue
to support the level of service it is providing without additional
help from the students, she added.