Although the campus co-ops will not be forced to leave their leased spaces on Oct. 15, negotiations for new lease and operating agreements between the university and the co-ops still remain unresolved in the midst of new developments.
Associated Students, the Graduate Student Association and University Centers originally had until Oct. 15 to agree on new documents to replace the Master Space Agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding, which govern the way the co-ops rent their spaces. The university had threatened to evict the co-ops from their spaces if an agreement was not reached by the deadline.
In the first week in October, the university extended the termination deadline to Nov. 15. It also announced that, instead of negotiating with the Associated Students and the Graduate Student Association, it will now deal directly with the co-ops, which had previously been excluded from the negotiation process. University Centers will continue discussing the issue with student government representatives, University Centers Director Gary Ratcliffe said.
At an Oct. 11 press conference, A.S. President Jenn Pae and GSA President Kris Kohler expressed disapproval of the negotiation process.
“Our position has always been that we would like to have the co-ops, A.S., the GSA and the administration at a table discussing what are appropriate revisions and what are inappropriate revisions,” Kohler said. “The university has reversed its position consistently.”
However, according to Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Life Carmen Vazquez, the university decided to change its position after receiving a letter from co-ops attorney Lottie Cohen, which requested that the co-ops be involved in the negotiations.
“It may seem like the university is changing its position, but it’s actually changing in response to the dynamic ongoing communications from attorneys,” Vazquez said.
The current disagreement stems mainly from the MOU, which the university asserts expired in 1998. Pae and Kohler argued that Associated Students and the Graduate Student Association have the legal right to approve two-year renewals of the document, and that the university itself approved and signed renewals in 2000 and 2002.
However, Ratcliffe said that the University Centers Advisory Board must approve renewals passed by the student governments. Since UCAB was negotiating for amendments to the Master Space Agreement and the MOU last spring, it did not approve the 2004 renewal of the documents, he said. The co-op spaces were then leased on a month-to-month basis.
Cohen and the co-ops have contested that the MOU is supposed to last “in perpetuity,” which is against the UC Board of Regents’ policy of a 10-year time limit for all university agreements, according to Vazquez.
Pae and Kohler have denied that any references to perpetual agreements were ever made.
“There are obviously some conflicts as far as the interpretations of these documents,” Pae said. “There haven’t been good-faith negotiations. We haven’t negotiated at all.”
In an official grievance sent to administrators, Cohen and the co-ops accused the university of “wrongful denial of due process” and obstructing the renewal of the Master Space Agreement and MOU.
Another point of contention arose when the student governments decided to seek legal counsel for the situation. According to university protocol, all individuals and groups need to provide a written justification for seeking outside legal counsel, and permission to do so must be given by Student Policies and Judicial Affairs.
Since that department has consistently been on the side of the university, such a procedure creates a conflict of interest, Pae said. The A.S. and GSA representatives have been told that they cannot use funds from student government accounts for legal counsel.
Pae and Kohler also said that the threat of termination of the co-ops’ lease agreements creates an unfavorable negotiating atmosphere.
“These are not negotiations between equal partners, but rather chauvinistic threats by a vice chancellor [of student affairs] who is clearly out of step with students,” Kohler said. “[Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph W.] Watson is perpetuating the inefficient and hostile relationship with students by repeatedly threatening student-run businesses and the elected student governments.”
The university administration and co-ops have a standing history of conflict. In 1992, the university shut down Groundwork Books over winter break. On Jan. 15 of that year, campus police and administrators broke into the General Store Co-op to change the locks and search for financial records that the co-ops had been ordered to release. A superior court judge approved a restraining order on Jan. 16 against the administration and the regents.
“There’s a long history of aggression of the university against the co-ops, and we’re much stronger with the A.S. and the GSA, and therefore a much bigger threat,” said Erik Borowitz, a member of Ché Café.
According to Steven Dubb, former GSA vice president external and a 1996 UCSD graduate, the MOU was negotiated and went into effect in 1993 as a way to resolve the conflicting relationships between the university and the co-ops.
“There was a lot of distrust between the parties,” Dubb said. “The MOU was a document that nobody really liked, but they could live with it. The A.S. and GSA were set as intermediaries between the co-ops and the university.”
The university would like new documents that would hold the co-ops accountable for safety and health regulations and good business practices, Ratcliffe said. In fall 2003, the Ché Café staff made unauthorized alterations to the property and performed electrical work without licensed electricians.
A financial audit from the summer of 2003 also suggested that the co-ops’ financial reports needed accountability, according to Vazquez.
“You may hear from the co-ops that we’re compromising their autonomy,” Ratcliffe said. “But we’re not trying to set a double standard by being stricter with the co-ops than with other business enterprises on campus.”
Readers can contact Lisa Mak at [email protected].
