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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 18, July 26, 1976.
What to Do?
What to Do?
This loss involves two problems; how to recover the $50,000 loss and how to ensure it doesn't happen again. It is very unlikely the cafe will be able to trade out of it, so it was decided at Executive to give the cafeteria a clean sheet as from July 1st.
It was felt this was important for the morale of the cafeteria, and will probably by a significant force in helping the cafe break even in the future. However the $50,000 has still be be repayed. The money is owed to the University (because they provide the cash-float for the cafeteria).
| (a) | A bank : The credit rating of the Association is such that a loan of this size could be arranged and repaid over 4-5 years. However this would restrict the ability of the Association to raise further loans in the near future as we do not have enough assets to offer as security. |
| (b) | The second building fund. At the last SGM next year's Stud Ass fees were increased to $37.50, $3 of which was to provide a second building fund. This fund basically was seen as providing a goods lift for the union building at the cost of $50,000. We could forget about the lift and pay the cafe loss out of this fund. |
| (c) | An increased studass fee. This would bring next year's fee to approx $40 - $41. |
However, an SGM will soon be called to discuss these questions.
Another prob'em is to stop the cafe losing money in the future. As I have already mentioned, one alternative is reducing services. Another is sub-letting the catering to an outside caterer. (At the moment the catering manager is an employee of the Student Union Subletting the catering would mean a private caterer would take all the profits except 10% which would go to the Student Union). In 1972 and 1973 this was done and in fact a profit was made, but don't forget the economic situation has changed drastically since then. Better accounting and costing will also help the position.
Price rises however will not help because as the Manager of the Union Building Nofo Falealili told me, the takings of the cafeteria have been relatively steady whatever the prices charged. This means students spend a specific amount of money no matter what they get for it.