ASUCLA searches for balance between business, service

Published: Monday, September 28, 1998

Monday, September 28, 1998

STUDENTS: Association hopes to serve campus needs, yet be profitable

By Michael Weiner

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The Associated Students of UCLA's recent history might be described as a corporate CEO's worst nightmare, an ugly political dogfight or the end of an organization's innocence.

As ASUCLA stabilizes after a turbulent period of financial disaster, organizational restructuring and bad publicity, the association is struggling to redefine its identity.

Is it a business that brings in sacks of money and makes sure the UCLA emblem is on every sweatshirt west of the Mississippi? Or is it a group of students providing services for other students, with little regard for the financial consequences? Or is it a little of both?

"It has to be a profitable business to deliver on its goals," said alumni board Representative Douglas Drew.

ASUCLA formed at the same time as UCLA itself in 1919. Students wanted to provide for each other the services and activities that the university felt was not its role to provide.

When Kerckhoff Hall, the original student union building, opened in 1931, it housed a book store, cafeteria, snack shop, lounges and office space. The association continued to grow in the middle part of the century as an entity completely independent from the university.

During the past five years, the students' association has endured a still-lingering financial crisis, which resulted in the placement of long-serving Executive Director Jason Reed on "administrative leave" in April 1995.

Because of years of financial mismanagement, ASUCLA was forced to take a $20 million loan from the university in June 1996. In return for bailing the association out, then-Chancellor Charles Young required that undergraduate and graduate elected officers no longer be allowed to serve on ASUCLA's governing Board of Directors, spurring a contentious power struggle between student government and the administration. Now, student representatives are appointed to the board by the undergraduate and graduate student presidents.

Some of those elected officials said that this action would weaken the voice of students in the organization that was established to be for and by them.

But 1998 alumnus Hugo Maldonado, a former undergraduate representative to the board, said that the change helped relieve political pressure on board members to make popular decisions rather than those in the best interests of the association. He cited the 1997 student union fee increase as an example of making necessary decisions over popular ones.

"A lot of students will disagree with me," Maldonado said. "I can tell you that I strongly believe that (the removal of elected officers) really did help to strengthen the board."

Also, the members of the board - the majority of whom were appointed by elected student representatives - have in recent years ceded many duties to the association's professional management staff.

The board, which was formed in 1933, is ASUCLA's primary governing structure. It is ultimately responsible for everything the association does.

ASUCLA maintains a staff of about 300 career employees who are responsible for day-to-day operations.

Although student representatives continue to assert the board's relevance, many of the association's major operations have been shifted to management's jurisdiction and away from the student-majority board in the years since the financial crisis began.

In the past, the board set food prices and maintained influence over the store's prices. Now, ASUCLA management only needs to seek board review on such issues if it so chooses.

ASUCLA Executive Director Patricia Eastman, who joined the organization in August 1996, contends that the board still has "ultimate decision-making authority" despite its recent distance from what both Eastman and several board members call "micromanagement."

Board members say that they are confident in the management staff's ability to maintain open lines of communication with the board and to heed the board's advice on issues that may not fall directly under its control.

"We don't rubber stamp what management does," said graduate student board representative Tim Beasley. "We don't let them run (ASUCLA) purely as a business. If it were up to the students, it would be more like a co-op or student aid organization. The board and management try to find a balance."

"Management has been empowered by the board," Beasley continued.

Eastman said she agrees.

"I have to be mindful of the perspective, mission and values of the Board of Directors as I make my daily decisions," she said.

Some say that the changes have helped to alleviate the association's financial woes. And recent numbers show that the organization is slowly but surely heading back toward financial viability, under the leadership of Eastman and Chief Financial Officer Rich Delia.

But, for many of the 2,000 students who work for ASUCLA, primarily in the UCLA Store and UCLA Restaurants, the association is little more than an employer. Many of these students, busy with school, work and trying to maintain a social life, don't have time to concern themselves with ASUCLA's politics.

"I worked here two years and I didn't even know that there was a board," said Jennifer Scheinost, a fourth-year economics and French student who has worked for ASUCLA for two and a half years.

"There's not a whole lot of awareness about the board among the employees," Scheinost continued. "Most (students) don't work here longer than six months."

Gil Gatchalian, a second-year psychology student who just began working in the UCLA Store during the summer, said that the inner workings of the association would not be important to him "unless there was some kind of drastic change."

Gatchalian appreciates the working environment that ASUCLA provides.

"I can get along with the people really easily since they're all students too," he said.

But, Scheinost, who used to work for UCLA Restaurants, had a different take on the working environment in ASUCLA's food services division.

"There's very little respect coming from the customers and management," she said. "People assume that you're a moron because you're working in food services."

Other student employees emphasize the convenience of working for an employer that understands college students' schedules.

"It's right here on campus, and they're flexible about your schedule," said Jason Morales, a fourth-year English student who has worked for ASUCLA for a year.

During their time here, many students will look at the association as just a workplace. Others will know it as just another acronym they read about in the newspaper. Some will look at ASUCLA as something to get involved with and learn about.

No matter what students think of the students' association, it is a part of the university that is difficult to avoid encountering.

"ASUCLA is extremely important on campus and its role should definitely not be taken lightly," said undergraduate student board member Ahmed Shama.

But, the jury is still out on just what that role will be in the future.

With reports from Neal Narahara, Daily Bruin Contributor.

CHARLES KUO

Banners advertising lowered pizza prices at the Cooperage reflect efforts by ASUCLA to attract more business to campus eateries.

Related sites:

•ASUCLA Homepage

•Daily Bruin (5/5/98): Role of ASUCLA changes over time

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