The University of California, Los Angeles, popularly known as UCLA, is a public, coeducational university located in the residential area of Westwood within the city of Los Angeles. Established as a university in 1919, it is the second-oldest campus in the University of California system and the largest university in terms of enrollment in the state of California.
UCLA's academic programs are highly ranked; most of its Ph.D. programs rank in the top 20 for academic quality in the United States according to the National Research Council. In 2006, U.S. News & World Report ranked the undergraduate division 25th in the United States, and in addition the school is often ranked tied for 2nd place with University of Michigan, Ann Arbor among public universities, below tied for 1st, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Virginia, thus regarded as a "Public Ivy." The university was also ranked the number one public research university based on the amount of research expenditures in the nation by the National Science Foundation, and second among all American universities, both public and privateNSF ranks UCLA as a top research university. Bizjournals: Los Angeles Business. Accessed May 9, 2006.. In addition, the university received over 47,000 freshman applications for undergraduate admission in Fall 2006, more than any other university in the United States. The school is one of the most selective universities in the nation *, matriculating only 4,800 students of the more than 47,000 who applied for admissions for Fall of 2006.
UCLA's sports teams, which compete as the Bruins, have won 120 national championships and 99 NCAA championships as of 2006—more than any other university. Also in 2006, UCLA completed Campaign UCLA, which collected over States dollar|$" target="_blank" >*3.05 billion and is currently the most successful fundraising campaign in the history of higher education. One of the world's most ethnically and culturally diverse communities, students come to UCLA from all 50 states and more than 100 foreign countries, though the majority of undergraduates are from CaliforniaCampus Profile. UCLA Admissions. Accessed May 13, 2006. .
In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue in Hollywood. In 1917, UC Regent Edward A. Dickson, the only regent representing the Southland at the time, and Ernest Carroll Moore, Director of the Normal School, began working together to lobby the State for the school to become the second University of California campus. On May 23, 1919 their efforts were rewarded when Governor William D. Stephens signed Assembly Bill 626 into law, which turned the school into the Southern Branch of the University of California and added its general undergraduate program, the College of Letters and ScienceHistorical background. UCLA University Archives. Accessed June 20, 2006.. The Southern Branch campus opened on September 15 of that year, offering two-year undergraduate programs to 250 Letters and Science students and 1,250 students in the Teachers College, under Moore's continued direction.
In 1925, the College of Letters and Science awarded its first Bachelor of Arts degrees to 100 women and 24 men. After first identifying themselves with "Cubs," then later "Grizzlies," (which was already taken by the University of Montana) the Southern Branch student council adopted the name "Bruins" for the athletic teams after they entered the Pacific Coast conference in 1926The Daily Bruin Is Born. A History of the UCLA Daily Bruin, 1919-1955. Accessed July 3, 2006., a name offered by the student council at Berkeley.
Enrollment at the Southern Branch expanded so rapidly that by the mid-1920s the institution was outgrowing the 25-acre Vermont Avenue location. The Regents conducted a search for a new location and announced their selection of the so-called "Beverly Site"—just west of Beverly Hills—on March 21, 1925. In 1927, the school was renamed the "University of California at Los Angeles" (the word "at" was officially replaced by a comma in 1958, in line with other UC campuses) and the state broke ground in Westwood on land sold for $1 million, less than 3 times its value, by real estate developers Edwin and Harold Janss, for whom the Janss Steps are namedUC History Digital Archives. University of California History, Digital Archives. Accessed June 20, 2006.. The College Library, Royce Hall, the Physics-Biology Building and the Chemistry Building were the original four buildings, arrayed around a quadrangular courtyard on the 400 acre (1.6 km²) campus. The first undergraduate classes on the new campus were held in 1929 with 5,500 students enrolled. In 1933, after heavy lobbying by alumni, faculty, administration and community leaders, UCLA was permitted to award the master's degree, and in 1936, the doctorate, against resistance from BerkeleyAlumni Stories. Alumni Impact Report. Accessed June 20, 2006..
The UCLA student body in those years quickly gained a radical reputation. In 1934, Provost Moore declared UCLA "the worst hotbed of communism in the U.S," and suspended 5 members of the ASUCLA student government for allegedly “using their offices to assist the revolutionary activities of the National Student League, a Communist organization which has bedeviled the University for some months.” Over 3,000 students gathered to protest in Royce Quad, and campus police officers, attempting to silence the speakers, were thrown into some bushes. The crowd dispersed before any arrests were made, and University President Robert Sproul later reinstated the studentsCommunists on Campus (Part 1 of 3). UCLA Alumni Association. Accessed March 20, 2006.. In 1934, upon the death of William Andrews Clark, Jr., UCLA received its first major bequest—and still one of the most generous in its history—the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The rare books and manuscripts collection includes some of the world's largest collections of English literature, history, and fine printing.
UCLA opened in 1929 with only four buildings. Today, the campus currently comprises 163 buildings across 419 acres (1.7 km²) in the western part of Los Angeles, north of the Westwood shopping district and just south of Sunset Boulevard. The campus is close but not adjacent to the San Diego Freeway.
The first campus buildings were designed in an exuberant Romanesque Revival style, by the local firm of Allison & Allison. This remained the predominant building style on campus until the 1950s, when architect Welton Becket was hired to supervise the expansion of the campus over the next two decades. Becket greatly streamlined the general appearance of the campus, adding several rows of minimalist, slab-shaped brick buildings to the southern half of the campus, the largest of these being the UCLA Medical Center. Architects such as A. Quincy Jones, William Pereira and Paul Williams, among others, designed many subsequent structures on the campus during the mid-20th century.
The University campus includes broad green lawns, sculpture gardens and fountains, museums, and a mix of architectural styles. It is located in the residential area of Westwood and bordered by Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, and Brentwood. The campus is informally divided into North Campus and South Campus, which are both on the eastern half of the university's land. North Campus is the original campus core, with its buildings being more old-fashioned in appearance and clad in imported Italian brick. North Campus is home to the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, and business programs and is centered around oak tree-lined Dickson Court. South Campus is home to the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, psychology, mathematical sciences, all health-related fields, and the UCLA Medical Center. The campus is in a constant state of change with multiple construction projects, including new residence areas, teaching and laboratory space, and a new hospital. This ongoing construction throughout the university's history has given it the nickname "Under Construction Like Always" among students.
Undergraduate housing for nearly 8,000 residents is spread across 14 complexes on a ridge on the western side of the campus called "the Hill." Student life on the Hill is under the care of the Office of Residential Life (ORL). Dining facilities include four restaurants and three boutique-style eateries. Students are currently guaranteed three years of on-campus housing, but the Housing Master Plan aims to guarantee housing to all undergraduates for four years by 2010.
In 2002, the university began building Weyburn Terrace, a new graduate housing complex, in order to recruit top graduate students from around the world; there had been no university-operated graduate housing on or near the main campus since 2001. The new complex is located a few blocks from the main UCLA campus on the western edge of Westwood. The project suffered numerous delays, but was finally completed before the Fall 2005 term. Weyburn Terrace enables UCLA to provide housing to approximately fifty percent of incoming graduate and professional students. It also served as housing for displaced Tulane University law students who visited at UCLA during the Fall semester following Hurricane Katrina.
Ackerman Union, the John Wooden Center, the Arthur Ashe Health and Wellness Center, the Student Activities Center, Kerckhoff Hall, the J.D. Morgan Center, the James West Alumni Center, and Pauley Pavilion stand at the center of the campus. The Hill is linked to the remainder of campus by a heavily traveled pathway called Bruin Walk, which bisects the campus. In order to accommodate UCLA's rapidly growing student population, multiple construction and renovation projects are in progress, including expansions of the life sciences and engineering research complexes.
The tallest building on campus is named after Ralph Bunche, an African-American alumnus, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an armistice agreement between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine. A bust of him, on the entrance to Bunche Hall, overlooks the Sculpture Garden. He was the first individual of non-European background and the first UCLA alumnus to be honored with the Prize.
The campus has a large number of parking garages, both above-ground and below-ground. Yet, the university continues to suffer from a severe parking shortage which is further compounded by Southern California's regional housing shortage. The university has given priority in allocation of parking spaces to staff and some students, regardless of living distances. There are many facilities with local buses. There are, in addition, other transportation services that the university provides for its students, such as "rideshares" and vanpools. Also, the popular "BruinGo" program allows students and staff members to use local bus services (such as Santa Monica's "Big Blue Bus") for a reduced fare from numerous terminals located on the campus.
UCLA is organized into the College of Letters and Science, seven general campus professional schools, and four professional schools of health science. Collectively, these schools serve about 25,000 undergraduate and 11,000 graduate students.
Created in 1923, the College of Letters and Science, the largest academic unit in the University of California with 34 academic departments and 900 faculty, houses the majority of UCLA's undergraduate majors as well as the students in the Graduate Division of Letters and Sciences. Its programs are divided into five academic divisions: humanities, social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, and the International Institute.
Approximately 3,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students comprise the general campus professional schools. Students at both levels are enrolled in the School of the Arts and Architecture, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of Theater, Film, and Television, while the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, the Anderson School of Management, the School of Public Affairs, and the School of Law serve graduate students.
The David Geffen School of Medicine, along with the School of Nursing, School of Dentistry, and School of Public Health, comprise the professional schools of health science. These schools, with the UCLA Medical Center and associated research centers, are collectively known as the UCLA Center for Health Sciences. Major centers of health research include the Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Jules Stein Eye Institute. In 2005, UCLA announced its five-year plan to establish the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine; the state of California is rare in its public funding of research with new embryonic stem cell lines. The California NanoSystems Institute is another project that was created out of a partnership with the University of California, Santa Barbara to pioneer innovations in the field of nanotechnology.
In 2005, UCLA was ranked 14th in the world and 12th in North America by an annual listing of the Top 500 World Universities published by the Institute of Higher Education in Shanghai, China. Meanwhile, UCLA was ranked 37th in the world, and 16th in the country, by The Times Higher Education Supplement’s list of the top 200 universities in the world.Education news & resources at the Times Higher Education Supplement, retrieved July 7, 2006 In addition, the Washington Monthly ranked UCLA 2nd, based on national service and enrichment, in its 2005 rankings of the Top National Universities. The UCLA Library, which holds over 8 million volumes, ranks among the top 10 in the United States.
UCLA took the top spot among public universities for research spending in the sciences and engineering during the fiscal year 2004, according to a 2006 report by the National Science Foundation. UCLA spent $773,000,000Research dollars recognized. Daily Bruin. Accessed July 6, 2006., and was followed by the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin. Johns Hopkins University was ranked number one among all research universities, both public and private. UCLA ranked second behind Johns Hopkins among all universities.
UCLA's oldest operating unit, the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSEIS), was ranked 2nd among American graduate schools of education in the 2006 edition of U.S. News and World Report, America's Best Graduate Schools.
At the graduate level, in Fall 2005 the David Geffen School of Medicine admitted 4.5% of its applicants, the School of Law admitted 16.1%, and the Anderson School of Management admitted 30.6%USNews.com: University of California, Los Angeles (2006). U.S. News & World Report. Accessed June 25, 2006..
The Bruin mascots are Joe and Josephine Bruin, and the fight songs are Sons of Westwood and Mighty Bruins. The alma mater is Hail to the Hills of Westwood.
When Red Sanders came to UCLA to coach football in 1949 he redesigned the uniforms. Sanders added a gold loop on the shoulders—the UCLA Stripe. The navy blue was changed to a lighter shade of blue. Sanders figured that the baby blue would look better on the field and in film. He would dub the baby blue uniform "Powder Keg Blue," powder blue with an explosive kick.
In addition to UCLA's NCAA teams, the school fields a number of club sports teams. The UCLA KendoUCLA Kendo. UCLA Student Groups. Accessed June 17, 2006. team won the national title in 2004 and 2006 and competes in many Southern California tournaments as well.
UCLA is competitive in all major Division I-A sports and as of 2006, UCLA has won 120 national championships, including 99 NCAA championships, more than any other university.UCLA championships. Official athletic site. Accessed May 8, 2006. Among these championships, some of the more notable victories are in men's basketball. Under legendary coach John Wooden, UCLA men's basketball teams won 10 NCAA championships, including a record seven consecutive, in 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1975, and an 11th was added under then-coach Jim Harrick in 1995. From 1971 to 1974, UCLA men's basketball won an unprecedented 88 consecutive games. Past rosters of UCLA sports teams have been filled with such greats such as Jackie Robinson, Gail Goodrich, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Bill Walton, Baron Davis, Reggie Miller, and Troy Aikman. Most recently, in 2006 UCLA made it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament with wins over Gonzaga, Memphis and LSU before losing to the University of Florida Gators, 73-57 in the Championship game.
In regards to UCLA basketball and its high expectations, former UCLA basketball player and current Seattle Supersonics player Earl Watson commented, "Eleven national championships, the best coach to coach the game says a lot Wooden. I take offense to those who act like UCLA is just another school compared to Duke. Duke is a great school in the east, but UCLA is worldwide."
UCLA has also shown dominance in volleyball, with 19 national championships. All 19 teams were led by current coach Al Scates, which ties him with John McDonnell of the University of Arkansas as NCAA leader for national championships in a single sport.
In addition to its basketball and volleyball championships, UCLA has won NCAA Division I championships in the following events:
Men's sports: Football (1), Golf (1), Gymnastics (2), Soccer (4), Swimming (1), Tennis (16), Track & Field (8), Water Polo (8).
Women's sports: Golf (2), Gymnastics (5), Softball (10), Track & Field (5), Volleyball (3), Water Polo (4).
UCLA has medaled in every Olympic Games they have participated in. In the 2004 Athens games, UCLA sent 56 athletes, more than any other university, who won 19 medals. UCLA shares a traditional sports rivalry with the nearby University of Southern California. The Lexus Gauntlet is the name given to a competition between UCLA and USC in the 18 varsity sports that both compete in head-to-head; in 2006, USC won the Lexus Gauntlet Trophy.
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, a two-day book fair held the last weekend of April, is the largest annual gathering of publishers and authors in the country and free to the public.
The UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival gathers musicians from both genres for a two day concert held every year over the Memorial Day weekend. The annual event is planned and predominately staffed by the Cultural Affairs Commission (CAC) of the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC),a branch of ASUCLA.
Spring Sing is an annually held show of student talent at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus. In addition to featuring student talent, the Spring Sing Committee awards the George and Ira Gershwin Award each year to a major contributor to the music industry. Past recipients have included Stevie Wonder, Babyface, k.d. lang, James Taylor, and most recently Burt Bacharach.
The UCLA Dance Marathon is an annual event on campus with hundreds of student dancers committed to raising money and joining together to support the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
UCLA's official charity is Unicamp which is 72 years old and is a summercamp for lower-income children that is entirely funded and run by volunteers and fundraising.
One of UCLA's newest, and more popular traditions is the quarterly UCLA Undie Run. The event takes place during the Wednesday evening of Final's Week, where thousands of UCLA students relieve their stress and anxiety by running through the UCLA campus in their underwear and other revealing costumes. The event originally took place at the corner of Gayley and Landfair, and ran through the apartments next to campus; however, the event became so large and so wild that safety and legal concerns with LAPD caused organizers to bring the event on campus. The event now starts in its original location on Gayley and Landfair, but leads through the dormitories down to the Bruin Bear, after which it ends with many of the students cheering and yelling while jumping in the fountains outside of Powell Library. Truly a must see event for all UCLA students.
In 1983, Breathless with Richard Gere was filmed in the Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden. Much of the 1985 film Gotcha! was shot at UCLA. TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Felicity, and Alias show college campus scenes. Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor shows the actor running up the famous Janss Steps. Recent movies include Van Wilder, Scream, First Daughter, Old School, Peaceful Warrior, How High, Tomcats, Legally Blonde, Erin Brockovich, Bring It On Again.
Royce Hall appears as The Hague in the 1998 film Mafia!, which parodies the Godfather series of films directed by UCLA alumnus Francis Ford Coppola.
"UCLA is located in Los Angeles, the same place as the American motion picture industry," said UCLA visiting professor of film and television Jonathan Kuntz. "So we're convenient for (almost) all of the movie companies, TV production companies, commercial companies and so on. We're right where the action is."
During the 1969-1970 academic year, various activist organizations were infiltrated by federal agents who provoked conflicts between them. On January 17,1969 UCLA students and Black Panther Party members John Huggins, 23, and Bunchy Carter, 26, were slain in Campbell Hall by members of United Slaves, a rival black power organization headed by Maulana Karenga. Later, it was reported that members of the FBI had infiltrated both groups and exacerbated tensions between them as part of the COINTELPRO program.
Later in 1969, the UC regents fired Angela Davis, a radical feminist and lecturer in the Philosophy Department, for openly identifying as a member of the Communist Party. Outraged faculty threatened to withhold grades if Davis was not reinstated, and nearly 2,000 students crammed into Royce Hall's auditorium when Davis delivered her first lecture despite the regents' decision to remove credit for the class. The overflowing audience gave the 25-year-old professor a standing ovation. On October 22, Vice Chancellor Charles E. Young complied with a state superior court order overruling the regents' decision by restoring course credit to Davis's class. Eight months later, the regents again dismissed Davis from the UCLA faculty.Communists on Campus (Part 3 of 3). UCLA Alumni Association. Accessed March 20, 2006.
On May 5,1970 students protesting the Kent State shootings marched through campus and vandalized several buildings, including an ROTC building. A fire caused $5,000 worth of damage, destroying part of Murphy Hall. Chancellor Young declared a State of Emergency and summoned the LAPD on campus; 74 arrests were made and 12 people reported injuries. This demonstration and many others at UC campuses throughout the state caused then-Governor Ronald Reagan to shut down the state's colleges and universities for the first time in California's history.
Campus political debate in the 1980s centered primarily on the South African government's apartheid policies, the U.S.'s Central American policy, as well as the implementation of affirmative action in the state. In the 1990s, student activists tended to focus on university and statewide concerns, such as union recognition for graduate teaching assistants, the expansion of the Chicano/a Studies Center, Proposition 187, which denied social services to illegal immigrants, and Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in California. However, in 1991 there were also sizable protests--including a student occupation of Murphy Hall--against Gulf War I.
More recently, conservatives on campus have initiated prominent political actions. The Bruin Republicans held the first affirmative action bake sale protesting racial preferences in 2003, a practice which has been copied by other conservative student groups at universities across the country. In 2006, Andrew Jones, former Bruin Republicans president and Daily Bruin columnist, founded the IRS-recognized non-profit organization known as the Bruin Alumni Association to expose the "Dirty Thirty" most liberal professors at UCLA. Controversy developed over Jones' offer of monetary compensation for students who recorded the lectures of left-wing faculty members for later exposure on his site.
Other recent activism on campus includes a movement since 2004 to pressure the UC Regents to divest in Sudan because of the genocide in the Darfur region where some 400,000 people have died. In March 2006 the Regents voted to divest becoming the largest university system yet to divest in Sudan. Students groups such as the Darfur Action Committee hosted demonstrations such as "Die-ins" where students laid down on the sidewalks as if dead, and staged a Refugee Camp.
Turing Award laureate, Vinton Cerf, was a doctoral student in the computer science department under Kleinrock in early 1970s and also worked on the ARPANET. He would later team with Bob Kahn in the writing of the seminal 1974 paper A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication. This work proved foundational for their later development of the Transmission Control Protocol - TCP/IP protocol.
In 1988, Kleinrock also chaired a group which produced the report Toward a National Research Network. Toward a National Research Network (1988). The National Academic Press. Accessed March 20, 2006. This report was presented to Congress and was so influential on then-Senator Al Gore that it proved to be the foundation for what would be passed as the High Performance Computing Act of 1991, written and developed by Gore.A bill...to ensure continued United States leadership in high-performance computing. MIT Web archive. Accessed March 20, 2006. This act would prove pivotal towards the development of the Internet during the 1990s; in particular it led to the development of the MOSAIC web browser, which was funded by the High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative, a program created by the High Performance Computing Act of 1991.
On January 11,1994, then-Vice-President Al Gore further articulated the goals of the Clinton administration in the development of the "Information Superhighway" at UCLA's Royce Hall.Archive Index 1994, January 13, 1994: Vol. 14, No. 9. UCLA Today. Accessed March 20, 2006. In 2001, Gore would also later join the faculty of UCLA as a visiting professor in the School of Public Policy and Social Research, Department of Policy Studies, family-centered community building.
In 1981, the UCLA Medical Center made history when an assistant professor named Michael Gottlieb first diagnosed an unknown affliction later to be called AIDS. As of 2005, U.S. News and World Report has ranked UCLA Medical Center as the best hospital in the Western United States for 16 consecutive years, and placed it among its honor roll of best hospitals in the United States.America’s Best Hospitals 2005. U.S. News & World Report. Accessed March 20, 2006.
UCLA Medical Center is a world leader in medical research. Research is conducted at all the UCLA hospitals including Harbor-UCLA,Olive VIew-UCLA and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. UCLA Medical Center has consistently rated highly within many specialties, especially cardiology. UCLA researchers pioneered the use of PET scanning to study brain function. Nitric oxide, one of the most important molecules in cardiopulmonary physiology was discovered by UCLA researchers who were awarded the Nobel Prize. This discovery has revolutionized medicine. UCLA Medical Center rated 5th in the list of the 50 top cardiac medical centers whereas Loma Linda Universty Medical Center, which is a competitor was rated as 48th out of the 50 top hospitals in the area of cardiology.
University of California, Los Angeles | University of California | 1919 establishments | Association of American Universities | Film schools | Pacific Ten Conference | Los Angeles area colleges and universities | Western Association of Schools and Colleges
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