The A.S. Council is scheduled to discuss a $13,750 Grove Caffe funding allocation at its meeting next week, despite the enterprise’s exorbitant and ever-growing debt. Now $109,214 in the hole ‘mdash; about $10,000 of which was amassed in just the last two months ‘mdash; the cafe has illustrated a complete inability to manage funds. Rather than arguing about the necessity of an outlandish allotment for ill-planned evening programming, councilmembers need to stop the bleeding and finally put an end to the Grove.
Every time the cafe’s troubles come before council review, students are left hearing the same pleas: The Grove’s a landmark, a piece of UCSD history! And irresponsible council after irresponsible council responds the same: OK, we’ll give you just one more chance.
The most drastic of these last chances came in spring 2007, when an oblivious council woke up to find its little coffee shop about $20,000 in the red. The council threatened closure, but after a dramatic outcry from the 10 or so Grove employees at the time, the issue was hijacked by self-important councilmembers who added the enterprise to their failing re-election campaign. At the start of the 2007-08 academic year it seemed like the Grove might get some actual help, as the council hired outside manager Cleveland Thomas, formed an oversight committee, gave employees a year to turn the cafe around and the Student Center underwent substantial renovations. But a year and a half later the debt has more than quintupled, the oversight committee has yet to do anything and the council has apparently abandoned its one-year ultimatum.
Although the Grove is paraded as a part of the school’s history, the blatant truth is that the cafe’s history ‘mdash; at least for the last decade ‘mdash; is one of continual debt perpetuated by a failing business model. For years this editorial board has called upon councilmembers to give their enterprise the attention it deserves, but now it’s painfully clear that every option has been exhausted: Councilmembers have proven time and time again they are unwilling to commit the necessary support and oversight to pull the Grove out of the hole; managers have illustrated atrocious business practices, pushing the cafe deeper and deeper into irreversible debt every month; and the enterprise has received massive hierarchical and structural reform, menu overhaul, tremendous new publicity efforts and a host of customer-seeking activity planning. But in the past year the Grove has only plunged farther into the red.
The upcoming funding request is a slap in every UCSD student’s face, making it undeniably clear that the A.S. Council must take swift action to close this enterprise once and for all.