Monday, November 2, 1998
Communications board operates without budget
OPERATIONS: ASUCLA approves finances, seeks more accurate
report
By Neal Narahara
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Communications Board budget for the 1998-99 fiscal year,
which was supposed to have gone into effect on Aug. 1, has not been
approved by ASUCLA’s board of directors.
The Communications Board publishes UCLA’s Student Media,
including the Daily Bruin, and has been operating without a budget
for the past three months.
"(Student Media) would continue to operate  but in absence
of a plan," said ASUCLA Executive Director Patricia Eastman. "It
would make it difficult for them to operate."
Despite the problems that have accompanied this year’s budget
review process, Communications Board members still consider their
arrangement with ASUCLA a good one.
"We could survive on our own if we needed to," said Patrick
Kerkstra, chair of the Communications Board and former editor in
chief of the Daily Bruin. "But we want to avoid that."
"It would be premature and irresponsible to dissolve a 30-year
relationship over one year of problems," he said.
According to the documents governing their relationship, the
Communications Board is required to submit its budget to the board
of directors for approval.
"Our role is fiscal oversight of the Communications Board
budget," said Douglas Drew, a member of ASUCLA’s board of
directors.
In the September meeting of the board of directors, Drew was a
vocal critic of the Communications Board’s budget. He questioned
the reasoning behind the numbers and helped convince the rest of
the board to pass the budget only on the condition that some of the
projections were to be changed.
"All we’re doing is exercising fiscal responsibility," Drew
said. "If Student Media got into a pickle financially, the
university would ask us why we weren’t minding the store," he
said.
Because of the association’s own financial problems, it was just
recently able to pay more attention to Student Media.
"The recovery of ASUCLA’s services and enterprises was our top
priority in the past, and as a result, we weren’t able to keep a
watchful eye on (the Student Media budget)," said Rich Delia, chief
financial officer of ASUCLA, referring to the association’s
financial crisis.
The Communications Board, for its part, is unaccustomed to being
watched by such a such a close eye.
"Student Media has never needed a bailout," Kerkstra said
In the past, the relationship between ASUCLA and Student Media
has proven itself to be mutually beneficial, according to both
Kerkstra and Eastman. ASUCLA indirectly subsidizes Student Media
through the use of its buildings and services, and in turn, the
students’ association can count Student Media as one of its
contributions to student services on campus.
According to the "Basic Agreement Between ASUCLA Communications
Board and ASUCLA Board of Control," the governing document between
the two organizations, the ASUCLA Communications Board is a part of
ASUCLA, but it is more than a subordinate entity.
In order to maintain Student Media’s editorial independence,
ASUCLA is responsible for reviewing the Communications Board budget
but is allowed no other decision-making authority.
ASUCLA’s control of Student Media is further limited to
evaluating a budget on three broad points. The association may only
evaluate in order to assure the budget is balanced, the numbers are
accurate and that the budget does not grow or shrink by more than
10 percent in a year.
"ASUCLA is not supposed to be the brains behind the
(Communications Board) budget," Kerkstra said "We need a certain
flexibility in creating it."
ASUCLA officials’ concerns stem from the Communications Board’s
inability to deliver accurate financial information in a timely
manner. The budget currently being considered has gone through
multiple reviews and revisions this year.
"There have been several budgets where (accuracy) has been an
issue," said Jim Friedman, the chairman of ASUCLA’s board of
directors. "Our concern was whether the Communications Board was
structured in such a way to oversee their operations."
There is, however, a basic contradiction in this concern. ASUCLA
is responsible for the financial administration of Student
Media.
The Communications Board has had problems producing accurate
financial statements on which budgets are usually based, due in
part to a change in the accounting staff assigned to Student Media
by ASUCLA within the past year.
ASUCLA fired the accounting controller in charge of the
Communications Board budget because, according to Delia, "He wasn’t
doing a good job."
The new controller, less experienced in Student Media
operations, was set in place to work with Student Media Director
Arvli Ward to create the new budget.
According to Kerkstra, Student Media budgets are not typical of
ASUCLA’s other enterprises because they are based on student
participation.
"For example, right now we don’t have an editor for TenPercent
(UCLA’s gay and lesbian newsmagazine), and therefore we are not
spending any money on it," he said. "(That doesn’t) mean we won’t
budget any money for it next year."
This change in financial administration was not, however, the
only source of problems.
"In my opinion, Communications Board needs to run things
better," Delia said. "Last year we had problems too  their
budget was late, and it was not the accounting staff’s fault."
One of the major problems for the Communications Board was that
it met only once a quarter, allowing it very little control over
its own affairs. Under Kerkstra, the board is scheduled to meet
once a month.
This year’s budget has run the gauntlet up to this point, coming
its closest to approval when it was passed in September, with the
provision that a few minor, specific changes be made. Since then,
though, the Communications Board decided to retract its budget in
favor of a new one which would reflect more accurate figures.
The submission of the new budget starts the whole approval
process over.
"It’s difficult, to say the least," Delia said. "It should not
take this long to approve a budget."
The Student Media director and the chair of the Communications
Board will now attend ASUCLA’s finance committee meetings in an
effort to open lines of communications and ease tensions.
"It’s been a long road, but I’m confident we’re near the end,"
Delia said.
"Things will get better from here," Kerkstra agreed.
The Communications Board’s budget will be up for approval by
ASUCLA’s Board of Directors again on Dec. 21.
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