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.