Cotton-ball clouds garnish clear, blue, rain-washed skies on this perfect September day. It is the first Monday of the first week of the fall quarter, and the northwest corner of campus teems with backpack-toting students making their morning trek to class. Arriving on foot from every direction — from the residence halls, from across Gayley and up Strathmore avenues, from apartments and fraternity houses — they funnel onto Bruin Walk, the primary walkway to campus. The sounds of their voices and laughter mix with the buzz of cars and construction work at the new UCLA hospital rising just to the south, contributing to a dynamic urban vibe in what might otherwise be a tranquil community setting.
Witnessing this mass influx of foot traffic from the surrounding neighborhoods leaves little doubt that UCLA is not only a school where students come to learn, it is a school where students choose to live.
But it was not always this way. Reflecting the car-dependent culture of Los Angeles, UCLA was, for much of the 73-year history of the Westwood campus, a commuter school with a large percentage of its students living at home with their parents and driving to classes each day. Even among those who lived outside the home in private rooms or apartments in, for example, 1961, more than 60 percent resided more than 2 miles away. A University of California committee on residence halls reported in 1964 “the percentage of students [systemwide] living on or within one-half mile of campus is remarkably consistent — 60 to 70 percent — except at Los Angeles.”
UCLA opened its first “high-rise” residence hall, Dykstra, in 1959. At that time, the UCLA Southern Campus yearbook declared “the end of the 40-year ‘commuter campus’ era.” The opening of Dykstra may not have brought on the immediate end of the commuter campus, but it did mark the beginning of the end. In quick succession, Dykstra was followed by Sproul, Rieber and Hedrick halls.
So today the campus once known as the “university on wheels” is increasingly a residential school. To accommodate the growing number of students who want to live on campus — today about one-third of the total of 25,000 undergraduates live in UCLA housing, including more than 7,000 on campus and another 1,000 in nearby university-owned buildings — the university has responded by building more and more residential facilities.
The demand for on-campus housing has become so great that putting three students in a room, rather than two, now is the norm for incoming freshmen. (“It’s not our preference to have students living in this kind of density for any extended period of time,” says Alan Hanson Ed.D. ’71, director of the Office of Residential Life, “and we’re doing everything we can to resolve it so that it’s not a situation that is with us for very long.”)
In spite of the crowding, some 94 percent of each year’s approximately 4,200 incoming freshmen and 70 percent of returning second-years elect to live in UCLA’s four high-rise residence halls, two residential-suite complexes, the three Sunset Village buildings and the new DeNeve Plaza community, all neatly tucked into the northwest corner of campus referred to as the Hill.
Certainly the drudgery of negotiating L.A. traffic and the difficulty of finding parking once you get here has contributed to the trend, but there’s more these days to the desire for a Hill address than mere convenience.
The debut of Sunset Village in 1991 reinvigorated the Hill and set in motion an evolution that is continuing today, a transition away from an aggregation of disconnected residence halls to a true residential community.
The Village — three smaller buildings, each of a distinct design by a different well-known architect and arrayed around a broad central courtyard anchored by the modern-Romanesque Covel Commons — was created to incorporate living space, classrooms, counseling offices, computer facilities and recreational areas. There’s even a separate auditorium for live performances, films and lectures. The goal of campus planners was to provide undergraduate students with more than just a place to live while attending UCLA; their intent was to create a hilltop environment that would help to quickly integrate students, particularly freshmen, into the academic life of the university.
Today through Academics in the Commons, which is a division of the College of Letters and Science, students can receive tutoring or attend workshops on everything from choosing a major to time management. There is an academic-mentoring network for first-year students, as well as counseling services.
Says Bruce Barbee Ed.D. ’85, director of Academics in the Commons: “Let’s put services where the students are.”
The services obviously are popular with students, who line up hundreds deep to sign up for tutoring sessions. While waiting in the long lines, many are on their cell phones trying to locate friends elsewhere in the column that snakes through the plaza.
“Students are getting a value-added education by having their academic life happen not just in the classrooms on campus, but also in their residential setting,” says Hanson.
Even if some students aren’t immediately taking advantage of the services, they like knowing that they’re available. “It’s definitely positive that they are here,” says Matt Rubin, a freshman from San Diego living in Hedrick Hall. “I’m not necessarily using them right now, but I probably will as things come up.”
Four years ago when the College of Letters and Science unveiled the centerpiece of its revamped General Education program — a 15-unit multidisciplinary course that would span all three freshman quarters — it was held at the Northwest Campus Auditorium. This fall, six cluster courses are being offered on the Hill, with lectures in the 450-seat auditorium of DeNeve Plaza, the newest housing complex, and discussion sections held nearby at Covel Commons.
“With most freshmen now living on campus, it is important to build a strong academic community, and to do that by weaving in a strong academic program that is a part of student life,” says Judith Smith, vice provost for undergraduate education in the College of Letters and Science, of the clusters. “We really like the idea of bringing the lectures to the students’ living room.”
Smith notes that, unlike the original Sunset Village auditorium, which is primarily a performance space, the new hall at DeNeve was designed and built specifically as a teaching auditorium.
“We can have lectures there, we can screen films that are associated with the classes. There can be social activities associated with the classes students are taking,” Smith says. “This all is a way to extend that period of socialization and building of a sense of community. Students come to see UCLA as a university that not only embraces them as students in the classroom, but also recognizes them as people who have interests outside of class, and that our goal is to help them to develop fully as citizens. These kinds of activities really enrich the total experience.”
Additional Hill classes this year include Fiat Lux seminars, one-unit classes limited to 15 students that were born out of the university’s desire to address the complexity of issues that arose in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Some of those seminars are led by Faculty in Residence — members of the faculty who, in exchange for 12 formal hours of programming with students, live rent-free in the residence halls. Thus, for example, a student in Professor of English Fred Burwick’s Tuesday 4:20–5:20 p.m. seminar “Ghost Stories and the Rise of Experimental Psychology” at Hedrick Hall, where Burwick resides, can parlay topics raised in the course into a thoughtful discussion with him over dinner. In addition to the formal Fiat Lux seminar, Burwick offers hands-on workshops on writing term papers and produces an annual student-theater piece at the Northwest Campus Auditorium.
“The best thing about the Faculty in Residence program is that it helps to break down some of those barriers that exist between professors and students,” agrees Kevin Terraciano ’85, M.A. ’89, Ph.D. ’94, a professor of history who lives with his wife and infant daughter in a DeNeve apartment. “As a young professor, and having gone to UCLA, I always considered myself closer to students. But I realized when I started living here that I still had a lot to learn.”
For students, the benefits of having such access to faculty within their living environment are manifest. “It’s nice to see the faculty reaching out to us,” says freshman Andrew Davis. “It’s very encouraging. It shows us that it’s not just about test scores and grades; they are truly enhancing our experience here.”
Academic development is just one aspect of producing a happy, healthy, well-adjusted, conscientious, involved and successful student resident. The Office of Residential Life also delivers programming and provides resources that foster students’ growth as young adults, as community members, as future leaders as well as young scholars.
“Many housing programs just look at one or two of these things,” says Hanson. “We believe it’s important to do all of them. The student who is developing his personal as well as intellectual capabilities is going to be more successful in the long run.”
Toward that end, an infrastructure exists that extends beyond formal programming, one that involves everything from the way that the buildings are set up to guidelines for behavior to messages instilled by the resident and program assistants. Establishing an atmosphere that encourages residents to form bonds and identify with their neighbors is vital.
“I didn’t think I would feel as much a part of a family as I do,” says Davis a couple of weeks after moving into his room in DeNeve. “But this floor I live on has become like a family.”
The entire hilltop complex hums with activity throughout the day and well into the night. At DeNeve, couples stroll hand in hand after midnight through the well-lighted courtyard, its trees illuminated by spotlights, as a lone skateboarder rolls along a concrete path. The students move about freely, even at this hour, and there’s a clear sense of security — a fact cited by several students who decided to return to the Hill for their second year. (“It’s safer living here than in an apartment,” says Nick Lorrel, a resident of the Saxon Suites. “There are people patrolling, and there’re Student Health Advocates available if someone needs help.”) Nearby in the Village plaza, students mill outside the Puzzles Eatery, some wrapped in blankets against the chill. It is a noisy, energetic scene as they chat and laugh together, a great time and place to meet and mingle with new friends.
Learning to live together and to respect the diversity of people from different backgrounds and cultures is critical to UCLA’s residential-life program. But as an army moves on its stomach, so too, to a large extent, does a university population. And the success of achieving those laudable goals might be greatly undermined if stomachs are rumbling and students are grumbling.
UCLA has worked hard to change the way students think about “dorm food.” In the last five years, UCLA Dining Services has overhauled and updated the food program, creating dining halls that are beautiful, inviting places to eat — tiled floors and tables with patio umbrellas and bistro-style chairs lend the rooms the ambiance of a café rather than that of a typical college cafeteria — with varied menus that change daily, entrees that are fresh and cooked on the spot, offered at separate preparation stations scattered throughout the area, all under the guidance of an executive chef who formerly cooked at the ritzy Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. (Among the dinner entrees for Sept. 22, for example, were leg of lamb and chicken fajitas at Rieber, an omelet bar and chicken Parmesan at Hedrick and grilled polenta with basil tomato sauce and Southwestern rotisserie pork at DeNeve.) The changes have been rewarded with a whopping 90-percent student-approval rating and recognition as one of the top-10 university food-service programs in the country. Representatives of schools and institutions from as far away as Japan have come to UCLA to see how it’s done.
And the program is still evolving. At Sproul Hall, the first-floor eatery is being remodeled as a coffeehouse, deli sandwich shop and smoothie bar. Up the hill at Rieber, two more concept restaurants — one Asian and one Latin-themed — are being created. For students who feel they can’t leave their rooms for extended periods while in the midst of a heavy study session, pizza is available for order online.
The eating patterns of students are changeable, says Connie Foster, director of Dining Services, “and we want to be ahead of the curve.”
Staying ahead of the curve is crucial to the housing program’s success. When UCLA wired every residence-hall room for the Internet in 1996, it was the first system of its kind in the country. UCLA’s is the only residence program with two auditoriums. There’s top-of-the-line equipment in the Hill’s computer labs. Each room has a cable-TV hookup, and a television-production studio was incorporated into the construction of DeNeve Plaza.
“Some of the things UCLA is doing are extraordinary in terms of facilities and expansion plans,” says Gary Schwarzmueller, executive director of the Columbus, Ohio-based Association of College and University Housing Officers-International.
Add to that Residential Life’s comprehensive program, with its academic components and the only Faculty in Residence program in the UC system, and you have a mix that attracts attention from around the nation. A lot of schools want to incorporate academics in the residential community, as UCLA has done, says Schwarzmueller. “But it’s not easy to do.”
Carlos Haro ’69, M.A. ’71, Ph.D. ’76 remembers how it was when he was an undergrad living in Rieber Hall in 1965 and ’66: “Everything was much more dependent on the individual students to make the right decisions, without too many outside influences, such as tutoring and mentoring.”
Likewise, Kathryn Foster ’72 recalls that if she needed extra academic help, she generally had to rely on other students in Dykstra Hall, where she lived in 1967. “The kinds of resources that were available to us in the residence hall were the other students with whom we lived,” she says. And there certainly wasn’t anything like a computer lab. “There were a lot of portable typewriters. I had a little Royal portable — a manual, not an electric — and we would set it up in the sitting area that was off of the elevators and share it while we wrote our papers,” she recalls.
Haro, who today is assistant director of UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center, applauds the changes that have occurred in the intervening years.
“It’s very important to provide that kind of support in the dorms,” he says. “The university has to do all that it can to support the students.”
One key measure of the success of the program is the number of students who return after their freshman year to university housing: 70 percent.
With the completion of DeNeve Plaza this year, one might think that UCLA’s housing officials might take a breather. That, however, is hardly the case as they prepare to launch into a new round of construction to meet the ever-growing demand.
The newest building projects — a 2,000-bed complex for single graduate students and three new high-rise adjuncts to Rieber and Hedrick halls, bringing total Hill inventory to just over 10,000 beds — must rise to meet new challenges faced by the entire campus.
“The campus continues with its planning processes for additional housing to meet the needs of future UCLA students,” says Michael Foraker, director of Housing Administration.
First, the housing program must be able to offer space and services to a projected influx of 4,000 additional full-time-equivalent students by 2010, at least two-thirds of them undergraduates. The revised UCLA Student Housing Master Plan 2000-2010 ups the ante further: The university wants to see 58 percent — about a 10-percent increase — of a fast-growing student population living on or within a mile of campus by 2011.
Additionally, the 2000–2010 master plan guarantees incoming students four years of university housing and transfer students two years, double what was offered to them in the 1990 edition of the master plan.
“The plan is tied directly to the desire of the academic community that there be sufficient housing on the core campus to accommodate all incoming students for a full four years,” Foraker says.
For new single graduate students and professional-school students, the plan promises two years in university-owned housing, or as many years as necessary for those with dependent children. Previously, no housing guarantees were made to these students.
The impetus for these sweeping changes is the immutable desire to keep UCLA soundly ahead of the competition. To vie for the top students in the 21st century — especially with a limited supply of affordable residences near campus — the university needs to be able to provide university-owned housing to all who want it, says Foraker.
While UCLA Housing is busy building these new spaces, Hanson’s Office of Residential Life must plan for the challenge of supervising, supporting and programming for the additional students. It is going to be a particularly interesting challenge since this new mix of students might include upperclassmen.
The needs of these students will be much different, says Jack Gibbons, associate director of Residential Life. “They are more exit-oriented. As a result, we will begin to differentiate our services, target them to a different population.”
Hand in hand with the challenges come opportunities. More classroom space will be included in the new buildings. Academics in the Commons plans to expand its services with additional tutoring available in the high-rises. And the main lounge at Rieber will be redesigned as smaller rooms for individual study or group work.
With upperclassmen on the Hill, there may be new traditions established, including greater collaboration between older and younger students.
“It will be challenging and rewarding,” says Gibbons of the changes ahead. “UCLA’s residential program is very dynamic. It’s constantly changing and growing, improving and innovating, trying to be ahead. Just like the rest of campus.”
