By Mason Stockstill
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The Associated Students of UCLA will be getting more input from
the university than usual in the coming weeks, as it tackles the
question of how best to turn the UCLA Store into a more profitable
enterprise.
That’s because ASUCLA, which is largely separate from the
university, has joined forces with UCLA administrators to form a
committee that will be making a recommendation to ASUCLA’s
Board of Directors on what course of action to take on the
financially lagging store.
“The goal of the committee is to come to a mutually
agreeable situation, and I’m confident that we’ll do
that,” said ASUCLA Executive Director Patricia Eastman.
The Joint Operations Committee, which will meet formally for the
first time Friday, was formed at the behest of the university in
April. ASUCLA officials and university administrators had been
communicating back and forth for a few months about the issues
facing the association, and the committee came about in order to
facilitate those discussions.
“This is not something that emerged suddenly without any
precedent,” said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor of budget and
finance.
“We determined it was in the interest of the university as
a whole to sit down jointly with ASUCLA to discuss issues before
them,” he said.
ASUCLA, as an entity, is separate from the university and is run
by a student-majority board of directors. The committee is a joint
effort between both the association and the university.
The committee will be discussing different aspects of
ASUCLA’s operations, including the UCLA Store, BearWear
licensing agreements, lecture notes, and the other smaller
operations like the Lu Valle Commons store.
“Our intention is to look at the full scope of all of
ASUCLA’s commercial operations, to determine if they are
operating in a way to provide better financial benefits to
students,” Olsen said.
Olsen chairs the 11-member committee, which includes four
administrators, four ASUCLA student board members, and three ASUCLA
management representatives (including Eastman).
The first thing the committee is likely to tackle is the
situation facing the UCLA Store. Because its income has fallen
below expectations by such a wide margin this year, the association
hired an outside consultant specializing in student stores to
analyze the outcomes of potential changes that could be made to the
store’s operations.
“The consultant gave us two viable options for increasing
revenues,” Eastman said. Those options include restructuring
and reorganizing the store, with the option of leasing out parts of
the floor space; or outsourcing the entire store to an outside
operator.
Because both options will involve significant cutbacks, many
employees are concerned. Eastman has been holding forums for ASUCLA
employees to ask questions about the situation and to get
information directly from the source.
“It’s difficult for (employees) not knowing, and
it’s difficult for me not being able to provide all the
answers,” Eastman said. “I’m committed to sharing
facts as we go along.”
The suggestion that the association outsource the entire UCLA
Store operation has aroused the most concerns, not only because of
the potentially greater number of jobs lost but also because of the
stigma of no longer having a student-run store.
“Outsourcing would turn the student union over to private
interests, and once that happens the entire status of the union
will no longer be to serve students, but to gain profit,”
said Undergraduate Students Association Council President Mike de
la Rocha. ASUCLA, as a non-profit enterprise, is not run with the
goal of turning a profit.
De la Rocha, who as president of USAC appointed two of the
undergraduate members of ASUCLA’s board of directors, said
that while he has full faith and confidence in the recommendations
of Eastman and the decisions of the board, he hopes that
outsourcing will be viewed as the last possible alternative for the
association.
“The store can be reorganized to get back on its feet
within the time frame (Eastman) laid out,” he said.
“That’s the most valuable option, considering that
outsourcing is a great threat to student control and student
power.”
De la Rocha said he was also not pleased with the position he
believes the university has taken toward ASUCLA.
“My personal take on it is the university wants to
eventually take over the students’ association because it
goes against the way… the administration looks at
students,” he said.
“They don’t like it when students have direct
decision-making power and influence, and this board is a prime
example” of that, he added.
But Olsen said that the university is not trying to take
decision-making authority away from ASUCLA’s board of
directors.
“It’s not a decision-making committee,” he
said of the Joint Operations Committee. “Right now it’s
just a group of people getting together, talking about
issues.”