Despite some unforeseen setbacks last year, the association expects to meet their target set in the five-year financial turnaround plan for the upcoming year. Executive Director Patricia Eastman cautiously banks on new or expanded business ventures to fill in some of the gap. Because the association chose not to be as optimistic about Retail Operations and Food Services until those divisions have more experience behind them, those two budgets were adjusted from the original five-year plan to project lower sales. Losses were partially offset by reducing costs and expenses, and increasing the budgets for new or expanded business ventures.
Board members feel that the budget is conservative and realistic.
However, some expressed cautious optimism about the future. It's a slow process getting in the black again. All we can do is sit back and see what happens. Hopefully, we'll be able to return to students soon. One of the association's expanded business ventures include aggressively marketing the student union for outside events.