Monday, June 1, 1998
Village business owner ends his crusade against ASUCLA
ASUCLA: Avrech still urges student association to reduce role on
campus
By Michael Weiner
Daily Bruin Staff
For several months, Westwood Village business owner Gary Avrech
has campaigned against ASUCLA.
Avrech claims, among other things, that ASUCLA is nothing more
than a money-making endeavor by the state of California and its $51
student union fee is "a hidden form of taxation."
"I don’t think ASUCLA has much to do with students," Avrech
said. "I think all it is is a funding mechanism for the state of
California."
But Avrech, who had been a regular attendee at the association’s
board meetings up until March, is giving up his crusade. He is
selling his publication business, which includes the Student
Shopper advertising newspaper and leaving the Westwood business
arena.
"My business, like the other businesses here, has seen a demise
in activity," Avrech said, implying that his business was in the
same boat as many other Westwood businesses that have gone belly-up
in recent years.
Avrech’s quest included public records requests, letters to both
the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the state
Attorney General’s office, and a petition calling for a moratorium
on ASUCLA building any new restaurants.
To many at the association, Avrech is a nuisance they are glad
to be rid of.
"I think that he was trying to create interest in his coupon
paper, and by creating a controversy, he thought he could further
the use of his paper," said ASUCLA Executive Director Patricia
Eastman.
In late 1996 and early 1997, Avrech circulated his petition,
which he said was signed by 110 Westwood business owners, calling
for ASUCLA to stop building new restaurants and stores.
In addition, Avrech calls ASUCLA’s pricing policy, particularly
on food items, "predatory," saying that the association’s
restaurants have become unfair competition for Westwood
businesses.
But Eastman said that ASUCLA’s prices are fair.
"I’d be much more concerned with the campus response if we
raised our prices to those in the village," Eastman said.
"It’s just not practical to think that students are going to
walk to the village (to eat) between classes," she continued.
In response to Avrech’s claims that ASUCLA is a fund-raising
mechanism of the state, Eastman countered that UCLA’s student fee
is the lowest in the state and that the association is independent
from the state.
"We’re a self-supporting entity and we don’t receive state
funds," Eastman said.
"The fee supports the student union facilities and services, not
the store and the restaurants," she said.
Avrech believes that because ASUCLA received a loan from the
university, it is under the control of UCLA’s administration and
the state, but Eastman refutes this claim.
In November, Avrech made several public records requests to the
association, asking for such documents as meeting minutes and
monthly financial statements. ASUCLA fulfilled most of the request,
wavering only on Avrech’s request for a tape of the Oct. 24 board
meeting. Eventually, Avrech was given the tape.
Avrech thinks the association should return to its days as a
smaller operation.
"I would like to see the operations return to where they were 20
years ago, where you had cafeterias and a book store," he said.
"I think the students should drop ASUCLA," he continued.
"Student organizations should secede and raise their own
money."
Although Avrech is ending his crusade, he feels he has educated
many of Westwood’s business people.
"I think that most of the business owners in Westwood still know
what’s going on," he said.