Monday, September 29, 1997
Construction delays cause space crunch, nixing student
lounges
ASUCLA: Rented meeting rooms are now available for student use
at night
By Patrick Kerkstra
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The students’ association has been feeling the pinch in more
areas than its balance sheet lately.
Construction and financial need have combined to cause a
shortage, hopefully temporary, in meeting room and studying space
at the student union.
A lack of space is clearly not the most critical challenge
facing the financially troubled student union, but it is a good
example of the balancing act the association faces – trying to save
itself from bankruptcy while staying true to its mission of
providing services to the university community.
Since the early 1990s, ASUCLA has been financially shaky. Bad
business decisions and a crippling recession have placed the
association at the foot of bankruptcy. In recent years, top
managers have been almost completely replaced, the student-run
board of directors has twice restructured itself, and the
association has adjusted its business mix and priorities – all in
an attempt to stave off insolvency and recover financial
health.
At times, the determination to stay afloat has led to decisions
that some feel have compromised the ideals the association is based
on.
In recent years, ASUCLA has laid off a number of student
employees, abandoned unprofitable service-oriented businesses and
approved an increase in student union fees without putting it to a
student vote.
But the current space crunch doesn’t look like it will require
the same sort of long-term sacrifice for financial stability.
Association officials attribute the current crunch to
still-unfinished construction and bad decisions made by past
managers.
ASUCLA employees who once worked in the Plaza Building (now
occupied by the university) or on the still incomplete floors of
Kerckhoff Hall have moved to rooms that once housed student lounges
and meeting space. Most likely, they are there to stay.
"When we had to restage the folks in the Plaza Building there
wasn’t anywhere to put them. We’ve been put in a bind by
Kerckhoff’s inabilities to house as many people as it should," said
Jerry Mann, director of Student Support Services.
That shortage was made worse by a decision made several years
ago to convert space in the new Ackerman expansion intended for
student meeting rooms into offices as well. That decision, though,
isn’t popular with current ASUCLA officials. They say that while
the third floor of Ackerman is likely to stay administrative, the
new rooms in the expansion should be opened for student use next
year.
Indeed, with construction near completion, there is actually
more ASUCLA space available than even before. The space crunch
seems mostly due to the way the space is being used.
In the renovated first floor of Kerckhoff Hall, 1,639 new square
feet of meeting space is available. In the newly opened Grand
Salon, there is 1,930 square feet of space.
The problem is, ASUCLA often rents out that space to
organizations holding events. Until now, those rooms were
unavailable for free student use.
Now, however, those rooms can be used as free student meeting
space after 5 p.m. Association officials think this will let them
make money off the venues during the day, but also accommodate
student need for space, which is typically strongest in the
evening.
"We really have the (space) crunch in evenings through the week.
But if we met the demand for space at peak time, we’d have lots of
empty space in off hours, like during the middle of the day," said
Patricia Eastman, executive director of the association.
The association hopes, at least in this area, to fulfill both
its duties: provide service and make enough money to survive.
"Our goal here is to try and balance our mission-driven need to
provide meeting space to students … with the need to utilize
those rooms fully to generate some revenue for us," Mann said.
Although the new Kerckhoff rooms were not included in the fall
lottery for meeting space, they are still available by request. The
association says the rooms will be included in the room lottery in
the winter.AELIA KHAN
Study space is one of the services provided by the student
union.