By Rachel Makabi
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]
Student government members began negotiations with the
Associated Students of UCLA hoping to receive more student funding
for the upcoming year.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council delayed approving
the budget because the earlier version would have cut student
programming funds by 55 percent.
ASUCLA has to make large cuts to offset the possible costs to
the association if some of their non-student workers unionize, said
ASUCLA chief financial director Rich Delia, adding that he
estimates the cost will range from $500,000 to $1 million.
The board originally planned to increase student funding by
$20,000, Delia said, but the association will no longer be able to
afford to maintain the current budget to USAC, let alone increase
it.
“The labor issue could have a severe impact,” Delia
said. “All we are saying is that they will have a fair share
as well.”
The cuts to USAC come after a year of receiving large increases
in funding, Delia said.
In addition, in 1997, the association froze the amount of money
USAC had to pay for utilities at a fixed rate, and did not raise
utility prices for USAC as prices increased throughout the state,
he continued.
But the association will no longer be able to afford this
either, Delia said.
Since tabling the budget approval at their last council meeting,
USAC members have met with ASUCLA executive director Patricia
Eastman to mitigate the cuts and has planned to present the issue
before the chancellor.
“It’s very unfortunate, it could cripple
USAC,” said David Dahle, the current USAC general
representative and president-elect for next year.
In order to combat the decrease in fees, USAC may have a special
election to institute a small student programming fee for
students.
“I think students realize this is in their best
interest,” Dahle said.
The association fears that if the workers unionize, USAC is not
the only one that will have to bear the brunt ““ the entire
association may go bankrupt, or get taken over by the UC, Delia
said.
If the UC takes over, students may lose a majority vote on the
board, some fear.
But ASUCLA Joint Operating Committee chair Steve Olsen said
although there is no question reduced costs for ASUCLA will affect
their financial support to USAC, he is confident the association
will “step up to the plate,” and handle their
costs.
In addition, he said it doesn’t seem likely administrators
would ever have a majority vote on the ASUCLA board over
students.
As the association continues to cite unionization as a prime
factor for their budget problems, some union members say they are
skeptical ASUCLA really lacks the budget to organize its
workers.
“It is premature and it is suspect to start throwing
around numbers and then based on those numbers, to immediately
imply the only place you can make adjustments are student group
funding, student groups that happen to be supporting the
union,” said Brian Rudiger, of the American Federation of
State, County, and Municipal Employees, the union working to
organize the workers.
Some council members are also skeptical.
“We just really want to get down to what is the cause of
why we have so little money. If it is the workers, there are a lot
of other avenues on how to take on those impacts,” said USAC
academic affairs commissioner Bryant Tan.
With reports from Debra Greene and Jenny Blake, Daily Bruin
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