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The Associated Students of UCLA made the right choice in deciding on Friday not to expand Ackerman Union by about 35,000 square feet, according to Student Union Director Jerry Mann. At this point, the $20 million it would have cost can be better spent expanding the services available to students in the existing spaces in Ackerman and Kerckhoff Hall.

ASUCLA has already discussed some measures that would increase the quality and quantity of student services while also saving money it doesn’t really have. For example, they have considered adding Internet terminals to Kerckhoff, facilitating professor-student communication with brown bag lunches, and making a pub out of the Cooperage. The pub would not only be the most significant change to the union in years, it also seems to have the best chance out of all of ASUCLA’s ventures to pay for itself. ASUCLA’s best idea is to do their own programming – which would complement whatever programming the student governments and their affiliate groups put on during the year.

The common denominator in all of these proposals, and the source of their strength, is providing a social atmosphere for students. It’s difficult to accomplish this because interests are so varied – only so many people like arcades, or pool tables, or shopping for CDs. By doing its own programming, ASUCLA would have something constantly present, but always varied. Helping Campus Events bring in more noteworthy bands or shows here, or helping Kerckhoff Coffeehouse expand its evening programming, for example, would build on things already popular with many students.

Major student programming done by student government usually focuses on major events that happen once a year, like the JazzReggae Festival, Welcome Week or the Hip Hop Xplosion; having ASUCLA help them increase the day-to-day entertainment on campus would be good for the campus atmosphere at large.

Of course these things cost money, but most students are willing to pay more than the $7.50 a year they do now for better entertainment, especially when they think about the considerably higher prices students at other universities pay for their services. It would be ideal for ASUCLA to be able to sustain all of its proposals with its own profits, but until it can, students shouldn’t let their own quality of life deteriorate because of ASUCLA’s financial difficulties.

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