Thursday, March 5, 1998
Students’ union wins bid for research center’s cafe
ASUCLA: Capital for plan will be money previously marked for
cash reserves
By Michael Weiner
Daily Bruin Contributor
ASUCLA has received a contract to build and operate a restaurant
on the first floor of the Gonda (Goldschmeid) Neuroscience and
Genetics Research Center.
The students’ association board of directors approved the
project and its funding at its meeting on Feb. 27. The Gonda
project will change ASUCLA’s five-year plan for financial recovery
by using funds that were supposed to be put into reserve next
year.
ASUCLA first bid for the project last fall, made a presentation
of its concepts for the restaurant in December and was notified of
selection in January.
"In the building, there has always been planned a cafe, and last
fall, there was the beginning of a selection process for who would
operate the cafe," said ASUCLA Executive Director Patricia
Eastman.
"We developed a concept for the cafe that included architectural
design, a menu and a management structure, and we presented that to
the selection committee," she continued.
According to George Conde, capital programs project manager for
the Gonda building, ASUCLA was chosen for the project because of
its superior ideas in terms of both menu items and architectural
design. Three other organizations were considered for the
project.
"We had considered other vendors and ASUCLA made the best
presentation," Conde said.
ASUCLA will finance most of the project and changes will have to
be made in its budget for the current year in order to do that.
"Most of the cost of building the restaurant will be borne by
ASUCLA," Eastman said.
"My plan is to forego other capital projects that we had in the
budget," she continued. "There are several small projects, some of
which we don’t have to do because circumstances have changed, and
some of which will wait until next year."
An example of a project that is no longer needed, but was in the
budget, was the installation of doors between the Viewpoint Lounge
and the Viewpoint Cafe. ASUCLA determined that this was not a
change that students felt was necessary.
According to association board member and finance committee
chair Lung-Chi Lee, ASUCLA wanted the contract because the Gonda
building is a part of UCLA and the association wants to maintain a
dominant market share on campus.
"We want it for strategic reasons," Lee said. "The association
has always been a part of UCLA and if UCLA starts moving to other
venues, it looks bad."
Nonetheless, ASUCLA has privatized many of its food services in
Ackerman Union, including recent contracts with Rubio’s Baja Grill
and La Cucina, an Italian restaurant.
According to its five-year plan to restore its financial
strength, ASUCLA was supposed to start putting aside money next
year. Now that money will go to financing the Gonda project. But
Eastman said that there would be a greater risk if the students’
association did not operate the restaurant.
"The risk to our five-year plan would be if we don’t do it,
because of loss of market share," Eastman said.
"I’m confident that this project will have a financial return
that will pay back the capital investment," she said. "If we don’t
operate this restaurant someone else will, and that someone else
will make a profit at our expense."
Eastman said that ASUCLA is aiming to attract researchers from
all over campus, not just people working within the Gonda
building.
"The design for the restaurant is based on tying in with the
architecture of the building and making it a very upscale, inviting
environment that we hope will draw researchers from other on campus
facilities," Eastman said.
The Gonda center will open in October 1998.