In the wake of the Grove Caffe’s steadily ballooning debt, the A.S. Council discussed multiple solutions – including replacing the business – at its March 14 meeting to begin mending communication gaps and financial issues related to the store’s decline. Student Center employees met councilmembers with staunch opposition.
Grove Caffe employee and Thurgood Marshall College senior Matt Finkelstein, accompanied by employees from multiple Student Center businesses, expressed support for the Grove as the A.S. Council considered the eatery’s future. The Grove lost $23,000 in revenue last year.
Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Affairs Sydney Goldberg presented three primary options, all ultimately aimed at recovering funds and resources lost by the Grove’s mounting financial deficit. The first was to keep the store functioning as it has been, and attempt to improve the Grove through more extensive publicity and stronger communication between councilmembers and Grove employees.
Goldberg’s second proposal was considerably more controversial; the student official suggested hiring a full-time nonstudent professional manager. The option largely addressed the council’s concern about the transitory quality of student management, since executive positions tend to change hands as students graduate.
“”If there was a full-time manager, they would have the experience to ensure continuity throughout the year,”” Goldberg said. “”It would cost $40,000 a year to hire this person, increasing the debt that we already owe before lessening it.””
The third option affirmed rumors that circulated throughout the week among Student Center employees: The council mulled closing the Grove and renting the space to an outside vendor. Under the plan, Goldberg proposed that the council and Craft Center form a task force with student-run organizations in the Student Center to set new criteria for the business and determine a hiring process.
“”The [council] would then withdraw, and not have a hands-on enterprise as we have with the Grove now,”” she said.
Employees of the Grove and the surrounding co-ops in the Student Center, along with several members of the A.S. Council, protested latent flaws in Goldberg’s choices, and instead argued that the crucial issue at hand was not financial, but grounded in the apparent lack of communication between council officers and Grove employees.
“”We don’t see much action from anyone,”” Grove Manager and Thurgood Marshall College senior Jennifer Daley said.
Daley said that hiring permanent a management would be unwise.
“”There’s not many people we can go to, and when we do, we are blown off,”” she said. “”It’s unfair to say that, ‘We’ve let the students try it over and over again, and it’s failing.””
Countering allegations of ineffective student management, Grove workers said that decreased store accessibility due to surrounding construction, as well as a general lack of student knowledge about the Grove, has proved detrimental to the business’ success.
Earl Warren College Junior Senator Daniel Palay agreed with the concerns, remarking on the necessity of maintaining enterprises vital to the university’s history.
“”We cannot lose the things that give us institutional memory,”” Palay said. “”We can’t give up because of less profit. Let’s fight for our own enterprise that will be revitalized.””
A.S. President Harry Khanna was more hesitant to assume a direct correlation between construction and loss of profit, although he concurred with the council’s general aversion to potentially disrupting the rich student culture associated with the Grove. Though he said communication needs to be strengthened, Khanna argued in favor of introducing a new manager to the Grove.
“”The co-ops are not designed to make profits – the Grove is,”” Khanna said. “”I think students should hire the new manager and be able to discharge him.””
Vice President of Student Life Janine Dellomes also spoke of the additional benefits of a nonstudent manager, saying that students may be taken more seriously by administration, thereby improving communication. Furthermore, she criticized the current ambiguity of the Grove’s charter.
“”The Grove’s charter should be re-assessed,”” Dellomes said. “”I don’t know where it’s specifically stated what the enterprise administrator is supposed to do.””
Generally, however, the Grove’s employees were less than ready to accept permanent hired management, opting to focus on discussion of increased publicity and alternate solutions.
“”Getting a manager would increase debt, whereas increasing publicity would ultimately make up for a loss in profit margin,”” Grove employee and John Muir College senior Jason Grishkoff said, presenting the financial numbers necessary to make up the deficit. “”Seventy-five students a day would not be an unfeasible amount to draw from a population of around 20,000 students.””
Several of the Grove employees publicly courted the prospect of breaking free entirely and acting as an independently run student co-op, a management structure similar to other surrounding organizations.
“”It just comes down to doing what it takes to make the Grove an effective business,”” Grove employee and John Muir College senior Derrick Phillips said. “”The council should keep in mind commitments made to students of UCSD to foster student life and a fruitful community on campus. To take steps to shut the Grove down would be to dismantle this community.””
