ASUCLA sets next year’s budget
The Associated Students UCLA’s budget for the next fiscal year was approved at Friday’s board of directors meeting, reflecting a continual decline in sales, as well as an anticipated increase in the students living in the residence halls.
ASUCLA is the umbrella organization including both student governments, the retail and food operations and the Communications Board.
The budgets for both the Graduate Students Association and the Undergraduate Students Association Council were approved unanimously at Friday’s meeting as well, but the budget of the Communications Board is pending approval.
The budget for ASUCLA’s services and enterprises division, which includes retail and food operations, as well as trademarks and licensing, was approved showing a $371,000 loss next year.
The approval was made with the expectation that book and retail sales will go down and that additional students living in the residence halls will rely more on services provided by the housing office than ASUCLA.
Also, an additional $400,000 will be allocated to increased student wages and student programming in accordance with conditions in the SAFE referendum, which raised the student association fee.
The services and enterprises division of ASUCLA adjusted its budget from a preliminary meeting that took place on April 30.
The budget presented at this earlier meeting accounted for a $366,000 loss for the next fiscal year.
But because of the insistence of the board, a 4.5 percent increase in food prices was reduced to a 2.25 percent increase.
The change in the increase caused ASUCLA to adjust its budget so it would reflect a $371,000 loss in revenue for the next fiscal year.
ASUCLA’s budget could also reflect contractual changes reached between the university and service employees in April.
Because of changes to the contract that the university negotiated with the service employees union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the student association’s budget could be changed once again to reflect wage increases and added benefits.
Full-time student association employees that are part of AFSCME are affected by the new contract. The proposed changes would cost the association an additional $28,000.
ASUCLA finance director Rich Delia said at Friday’s meeting that the student association would try to further revise the budget to include the proposed changes and stay as close to their projected budget as possible.
The Communications Board’s budget was not up for approval on Friday’s meeting because a Communications Board representative was not present at the previous finance committee meeting.
Though the Communications Board, which oversees Student Media and includes the Daily Bruin, is a part of ASUCLA, it does not receive funding from the student association.
But as a part of the agreement between ASUCLA and the Communications Board, ASUCLA must approve the Communications Board’s budget for fiscal soundness, as it does for both student governments.
Student Media also includes the BruinLife yearbook, the seven news magazines as well as radio, television and Internet media.
At Friday’s meeting, Hoi Ning Ngai, graduate representative and chair of the finance committee, said even though the budget was not up for approval, the committee recommended that the Communications Board revise its budget to be more conservative.
According to the Communications Board’s preliminary budget and five-year forecast, Student Media is expected to go from an estimated $80,000 loss this year to a $27,000 loss next year, and will also see a 26-percent increase in Internet media revenue.
“The Communications Board welcomes the finance committee’s suggestions,” said Arvli Ward, director of Student Media
He added that the Communications Board will decide whether to revise the budget and possible revisions at their June 6 meeting.
The Communications Board’s budget can be up for approval in July.


