The Associated Students of UCLA Board of Directors passed a
motion to maintain the regular stipends awarded to each student
board member during a board meeting July 30.
In a vote with 6-1-3 vote (with three abstentions), the ASUCLA
Board of Directors decided to keep the present regular monthly
stipend that was set in May 1991.
The current stipend policy states that each student board member
receives whichever is the greater of one- twelfth of the mandatory
student fees applicable to that student or $300. The policy also
states that stipends would be limited to their current values in
the event that undergraduate or graduate student fees increased by
10 percent or more in any 12 month period.
From February 2003 to March 2004, graduate student fees had a 35
percent increase of $1,634 and undergraduate student fees had a 33
percent increase or $1,441. From March 2004 to April 2005, graduate
student fees will experience an 18 percent increase of $1,161 and
undergraduate student fees experienced a 13 percent increase of
$766. The greater than 10 percent increase in fees has caused the
board members to reconsider their stipends. According to the ASUCLA
stipend policy, the ASUCLA stipend is not meant to compensate them
for participation or work but is instead intended to ease financial
pressure so that board members will be able to devote time to
attending and taking part in board activities and meetings
Many of the board members devote time to helping run ASUCLA,
said Julie Orf, one of the ASUCLA graduate representatives on the
board. “Many of us have jobs in addition to ASUCLA,”
Orf said. She added that in order to devote the time necessary to
taking part in the board meetings and activities, they often have
to give up another job they could have taken.
The increase in student stipends would ease the financial
obligations that they faced, leaving more time to concentrate on
ASUCLA responsibilities, Orf also said.
Other student board members felt that the increase in
undergraduate and graduate student fees did not necessarily warrant
an increase in the stipends that they received because they said
they had the obligation to decide what is best for the UCLA
community as a whole, and they expressed that they felt awkward
passing what was essentially a pay raise for themselves.
The freeze on the ASUCLA student board member stipend increases
will be in place indefinitely until the board decides to vote
otherwise in future board meetings.