Village business owner ends his crusade against ASUCLA
Monday, June 1, 1998
Village business owner ends his crusade against ASUCLA
ASUCLA: Avrech still urges student association to reduce role on campus
By Michael Weiner
Daily Bruin Staff
For several months, Westwood Village business owner Gary Avrech has campaigned against ASUCLA.
Avrech claims, among other things, that ASUCLA is nothing more than a money-making endeavor by the state of California and its $51 student union fee is "a hidden form of taxation."
"I don't think ASUCLA has much to do with students," Avrech said. "I think all it is is a funding mechanism for the state of California."
But Avrech, who had been a regular attendee at the association's board meetings up until March, is giving up his crusade. He is selling his publication business, which includes the Student Shopper advertising newspaper and leaving the Westwood business arena.
"My business, like the other businesses here, has seen a demise in activity," Avrech said, implying that his business was in the same boat as many other Westwood businesses that have gone belly-up in recent years.
Avrech's quest included public records requests, letters to both the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the state Attorney General's office, and a petition calling for a moratorium on ASUCLA building any new restaurants.
To many at the association, Avrech is a nuisance they are glad to be rid of.
"I think that he was trying to create interest in his coupon paper, and by creating a controversy, he thought he could further the use of his paper," said ASUCLA Executive Director Patricia Eastman.
In late 1996 and early 1997, Avrech circulated his petition, which he said was signed by 110 Westwood business owners, calling for ASUCLA to stop building new restaurants and stores.
In addition, Avrech calls ASUCLA's pricing policy, particularly on food items, "predatory," saying that the association's restaurants have become unfair competition for Westwood businesses.
But Eastman said that ASUCLA's prices are fair.
"I'd be much more concerned with the campus response if we raised our prices to those in the village," Eastman said.
"It's just not practical to think that students are going to walk to the village (to eat) between classes," she continued.
In response to Avrech's claims that ASUCLA is a fund-raising mechanism of the state, Eastman countered that UCLA's student fee is the lowest in the state and that the association is independent from the state.
"We're a self-supporting entity and we don't receive state funds," Eastman said.
"The fee supports the student union facilities and services, not the store and the restaurants," she said.
Avrech believes that because ASUCLA received a loan from the university, it is under the control of UCLA's administration and the state, but Eastman refutes this claim.
In November, Avrech made several public records requests to the association, asking for such documents as meeting minutes and monthly financial statements. ASUCLA fulfilled most of the request, wavering only on Avrech's request for a tape of the Oct. 24 board meeting. Eventually, Avrech was given the tape.
Avrech thinks the association should return to its days as a smaller operation.
"I would like to see the operations return to where they were 20 years ago, where you had cafeterias and a book store," he said.
"I think the students should drop ASUCLA," he continued. "Student organizations should secede and raise their own money."
Although Avrech is ending his crusade, he feels he has educated many of Westwood's business people.
"I think that most of the business owners in Westwood still know what's going on," he said.
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