The University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California State Normal School (now San José State University). This school was absorbed with the official founding of UCLA as the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the second-oldest of the 10-campus University of California system (after UC Berkeley).

UCLA offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines, enrolling about 31,600 undergraduate and 14,300 graduate and professional students. UCLA received 174,914 undergraduate applications for Fall 2022, including transfers, making the school the most applied-to university in the United States.

The university is organized into the College of Letters and Science and 12 professional schools. Six of the schools offer undergraduate degree programs: the School of the Arts and Architecture, Samueli School of Engineering, Herb Alpert School of Music, School of Nursing, Luskin School of Public Affairs and School of Theater, Film and Television. Three others are graduate-level professional health science schools: the David Geffen School of Medicine, School of Dentistry and Fielding School of Public Health. The School of Education & Information Studies, Anderson School of Management and School of Law round out the university.

UCLA is considered one of the country's Public Ivies, and is frequently ranked among the best universities in the world by major college and university rankings. , 27 Nobel laureates, five Turing Award winners, two Chief Scientists of the U.S. Air Force and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with UCLA as faculty, researchers or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 55 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 32 to the National Academy of Engineering, 41 to the National Academy of Medicine and 167 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The university was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1974.

UCLA student-athletes compete as the Bruins in the Pac-12 Conference. The Bruins have won 120 NCAA team championships, second only to Stanford University's 128 team titles. In total, 410 Bruins have made Olympic teams, winning 270 Olympic medals: 136 gold, 71 silver, and 63 bronze. UCLA has been represented in every Olympics since the university's founding with one exception (1924) and has had a gold medalist in every Olympics the U.S. participated in since 1932.

History

In March 1881, at the request of state senator Reginaldo Francisco del Valle, the California State Legislature authorized the creation of a southern branch of the California State Normal School (now San José State University) in downtown Los Angeles to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California. The Los Angeles branch of the California State Normal School opened on August 29, 1882, on what is now the site of the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library system. The facility included a demonstration school where teachers-in-training could practice their techniques with children. That elementary school would become the present day UCLA Lab School. In 1887, the branch campus became independent and changed its name to Los Angeles State Normal School.

In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue (now the site of Los Angeles City College) in East Hollywood. In 1917, UC Regent Edward Augustus Dickson, the only regent representing the Southland at the time, and Ernest Carroll Moore, Director of the Normal School, began to lobby the State Legislature to enable the school to become the second University of California campus, after UC Berkeley. They met resistance from UC Berkeley alumni, Northern California members of the state legislature and then-UC President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, who were all vigorously opposed to the idea of a southern campus. However, David Prescott Barrows, the new President of the University of California in 1919, did not share Wheeler's objections.

On May 23, 1919, the Southern Californians' efforts were rewarded when Governor William D. Stephens signed Assembly Bill 626 into law, which acquired the land and buildings and transformed the Los Angeles Normal School into the Southern Branch of the University of California. The same legislation added its general undergraduate program, the Junior College. The Southern Branch campus opened on September 15 of that year, offering two-year undergraduate programs to 250 Junior College students and 1,250 students in the Teachers College, under Moore's continued direction.
Southern Californians were furious that their so-called "branch" provided only an inferior junior college program (mocked at the time by University of Southern California students as "the twig"), and continued to fight Northern Californians (specifically, Berkeley) for the right to three and then four years of instruction, culminating in bachelor's degrees. On December 11, 1923, the Board of Regents authorized a fourth year of instruction and transformed the Junior College into the College of Letters and Science, which awarded its first bachelor's degrees on June 12, 1925.

Under UC President William Wallace Campbell, 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 searched for a new location and announced their selection of the so-called "Beverly Site"—just west of Beverly Hills—on March 21, 1925, edging out the panoramic hills of the still-empty Palos Verdes Peninsula. After the athletic teams entered the Pacific Coast conference in 1926, the Southern Branch student council adopted the nickname "Bruins", a name offered by the student council at UC Berkeley. In 1927, the Regents renamed the Southern Branch the University of California at Los Angeles (the word "at" was officially replaced by a comma in 1958, in line with other UC campuses). In the same year, the state broke ground in Westwood on land sold for $1 million, less than one-third its value, by real estate developers Edwin and Harold Janss, for whom the Janss Steps are named. The campus in Westwood opened to students in 1929.

The original four buildings were the College Library (now Powell Library), Royce Hall, the Physics-Biology Building (which became the Humanities Building and is now the Renee and David Kaplan Hall), and the Chemistry Building (now Haines Hall), 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. After lobbying by alumni, faculty, administration and community leaders, UCLA was permitted to award the master's degree in 1933, and the doctorate in 1936, against continued resistance from UC Berkeley.

Maturity as a university

During its first 32 years, UCLA was treated as an off-site department of UC. As such, its presiding officer was called a "provost", and reported to the main campus in Berkeley. In 1951, UCLA was formally elevated to co-equal status with UC Berkeley, and its presiding officer Raymond B. Allen was the first chief executive to be granted the title of chancellor. The appointment of Franklin David Murphy to the position of Chancellor in 1960 helped spark an era of tremendous growth of facilities and faculty honors. By the end of the decade, UCLA had achieved distinction in a wide range of subjects. This era also secured UCLA's position as a proper university and not simply a branch of the UC system. This change is exemplified by an incident involving Chancellor Murphy, which was described by him:

I picked up the telephone and called in from somewhere, and the phone operator said, "University of California." And I said, "Is this Berkeley?" She said, "No." I said, "Well, who have I gotten to?" "UCLA." I said, "Why didn't you say UCLA?" "Oh", she said, "we're instructed to say University of California." So the next morning I went to the office and wrote a memo; I said, "Will you please instruct the operators, as of noon today, when they answer the phone to say, 'UCLA. And they said, "You know they won't like it at Berkeley." And I said, "Well, let's just see. There are a few things maybe we can do around here without getting their permission."

Recent history

On June 1, 2016, two men were killed in a murder-suicide at an engineering building in the university. School officials put the campus on lockdown as Los Angeles Police Department officers, including SWAT, cleared the campus. In February 2022, Matthew Harris, a former lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, was arrested after allegedly making numerous threats of violence against students and faculty members of UCLA's Philosophy Department.

In 2018, a student-led community coalition known as "Westwood Forward" successfully led an effort to break UCLA and Westwood Village away from the existing Westwood Neighborhood Council and form a new North Westwood Neighborhood Council, with over 2,000 out of 3,521 stakeholders voting in favor of the split. Westwood Forward's campaign focused on making housing more affordable and encouraging nightlife in Westwood by opposing many of the restrictions on housing developments and restaurants the Westwood Neighborhood Council had promoted.

Sexual harassment scandals

In 2014, a graduate student adviser and professor in the history department, Gabriel Piterberg, was accused of sexually assaulting two students. A lawsuit was filed against the university by sexual harassment attorney Ann Olivarius for its failure to properly act on the accusations. An editorial in the student newspaper wrote about the university's response, "This outcome is an embarrassment for UCLA. Not only does this represent a huge step backward and a betrayal of students’ trust, but it displays a startlingly low standard when it comes to treatment of sexual assault suspects." The university settled with the plaintiffs and eventually, after simply suspending and fining Piterberg, did more after student protest and legal efforts, including "separation from employment, denial of emeritus status, nddenial of future employment with the University of California."

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights investigated UCLA and other universities for their compliance with Title IX and responses to sexual violence.

In 2018, the university came into the national spotlight again when the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that four UCLA employees had filed lawsuits against UCLA and the UC Board of Regents having accused their workplace supervisor of sexual harassment and the university of failing to properly handle abuse complaints. The harassment allegedly started in early 2016, according to the lawsuits. The women faced retaliation from other supervisors after they filed complaints. The retaliatory behavior included making the women do more work and not allowing them to take time off to see their attorney. They are seeking more than $120 million in damages.

Subsequently, an audit by the California State Auditor found inconsistent discipline in UCLA sexual misconduct cases. The state audit also found that UCLA did not follow university policy or Title IX requirements.

2019 college admissions bribery scandal

UCLA was one of several universities named in the largest college admissions scandal ever prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice. On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, UCLA men's soccer coach Jorge Salcedo was one of many coaches across the country charged with racketeering and conspiracy, and is alleged to have taken over $200,000 in bribes. Salcedo pleaded guilty to the charges in April 2020, and in March 2021 was sentenced to, among other things, 8 months in prison.

Campus

The new UCLA campus in 1929 had four buildings: Royce Hall and Haines Hall on the north, and Powell Library and Kinsey Hall (now called Renee And David Kaplan Hall) on the south. The Janss Steps were the original 87-step entrance to the university that lead to the quad of these four buildings. Today, the campus includes 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. In terms of acreage, it is the second-smallest of the ten UC campuses. The campus is approximately 1 mile east of I-405 (the San Diego Freeway).

The campus is in the residential area of Westwood and bordered by Bel-Air to the north, Beverly Hills to the east, and Brentwood to the west. 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; its buildings are more traditional in appearance and clad in imported Italian brick. North Campus is home to the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, history, and business programs and is centered around ficus and sycamore-lined Dickson Court, also known as the "Sunken Garden". South Campus is home to the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, mathematical sciences, health-related fields, and the UCLA Medical Center. The campus includes sculpture gardens, fountains, museums, and a mix of architectural styles.

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, bordering Wilson Plaza. The campus is bisected by Bruin Walk, a heavily traveled pathway from the residential hill to the main campus. At the intersection of Bruin Walk and Westwood Plaza is Bruin Plaza, featuring an outdoor performing arts stage and a bronze statue of the Bruin bear.

During the 2028 Summer Olympics, wrestling and judo will be held at Pauley Pavilion. The campus will also be the location of the Olympic Village for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In September 2022 UCLA purchased the Palos Verdes (PV) campus of Marymount California University, which had closed its doors that August, after fifty years of classes;Gene D. Block, UCLA Chancello
(27 September 2022) UCLA to Expand with New Sites in Rancho Palos Verdes and San Pedro
/ref>Tyler Shaun Evans and Lisa Jacobs, ''Daily Breeze'
(28 September 2022) UCLA buys Marymount California University property in Palos Verdes Peninsula to ease crowding
"The 35-acre purchase is the largest in the public university’s history". the PV campus joins two other locations, in downtown LA, and in Culver City as satellites of the Westwood campus. A faculty and administration task force will review possible applications of the PV campus for UCLA. The Channel Islands will again be visible from a UCLA campus.

Architecture

The first buildings were designed by the local firm Allison & Allison. The Romanesque Revival style of these first four structures remained the predominant building style until the 1950s, when architect Welton Becket was hired to supervise the expansion of the campus over the next two decades.

Romanesque Revival was chosen as an alternative to Collegiate Gothic to parallel the climate of Southern California to the warm, sunny weather of the Southern Mediterranean.

Becket greatly streamlined its
general appearance, adding several rows of minimalist, slab–shaped brick buildings to the southern half, the largest of these being the UCLA Medical Center. Architects such as A. Quincy Jones, William Pereira, and Paul Williams designed many subsequent structures on the campus during the mid-20th century. More recent additions include buildings designed by architects I.M. Pei, Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Richard Meier, Cesar Pelli, and Rafael Vinoly. 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. This continuous construction gives UCLA the nickname "Under Construction Like Always".

One notable building on campus is named after African-American alumnus Ralph Bunche, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an armistice agreement between the Jews and Arabs in Israel. The entrance of Bunche Hall features a bust of him overlooking the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden. He was the first individual of non-European background and the first UCLA alumnus to be honored with the Prize.

The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is located a mile north of campus, in the community of Bel Air. The garden was designed by landscape architect Nagao Sakurai of Tokyo and garden designer Kazuo Nakamura of Kyoto in 1959. The garden was donated to UCLA by former UC regent and UCLA alumnus Edward W. Carter and his wife Hannah Carter in 1964 with the stipulation that it remains open to the public. After the garden was damaged by heavy rains in 1969, UCLA Professor of Art and Campus Architect Koichi Kawana took on the task of its reconstruction. The property was sold in 2016 and public access is no longer required.

Filming

UCLA has attracted filmmakers for decades with its proximity to Hollywood. Much of the film '' Gotcha!'' (1985) was shot at UCLA, as well as John Singleton's ''Higher Learning'' (1995). ''Legally Blonde'' (2001), '' Old School'' (2003), ''The Nutty Professor'' (1996), ''Erin Brockovich'' (2000), ''How High'' (2001), ''National Lampoon's Van Wilder'' (2002), ''American Pie 2'' (2001), and ''Bring It On Again'' (2004) were all mainly shot around campus. In January 2009, the Bollywood movie ''My Name is Khan'' (2010) was shot on campus. UCLA is also often cast as Stanford in television shows such as ''The Mindy Project'' and ''Chuck''. Some of the exterior shots of the fictional UC Sunnydale in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', and ABC Family original series ''Greek'' were also filmed at UCLA. The site was also used to represent the fictional Windsor College which appears in ''Scream 2'' (1997).

In response to the major demand for filming, UCLA has instated a policy to regulate filming and professional photography at the campus.
"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."

Transportation and parking

The campus maintains 24,000 parking spaces, and operates an award-winning sustainable transportation program. Elements of the sustainable transportation program include vanpools, a campus shuttle system called BruinBus, discounted carpool permits, and subsidized transit passes. One of the pass programs includes BruinGo!, which allows students and staff members to purchase discounted passes to ride Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus and the Culver CityBus. Additionally, UCLA has a grocery shuttle that transports students between the dorms and Westwood, on weekends in order to facilitate students' shopping needs. E-Scooters and e-bikes are popular transportation options on campus; approved vendors include Bird, Lyft, and Wheels.

Academics

Divisions

Undergraduate

* College of Letters and Science
* Social Sciences Division
* Humanities Division
* Physical Sciences Division
* Life Sciences Division
* School of the Arts and Architecture
* School of Education & Information Studies (SEIS)
* Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSSEAS)
* Herb Alpert School of Music
* School of Theater, Film and Television
* School of Nursing
* Luskin School of Public Affairs

Graduate

* School of Education & Information Studies (SEIS)
* School of Law
* Anderson School of Management
* Luskin School of Public Affairs
* David Geffen School of Medicine
* School of Dentistry
* Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health
* School of Nursing

Healthcare

The David Geffen School of Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Dentistry and Fielding School of Public Health constitute the professional schools of health science.

The UCLA Health System operates the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, a hospital in Santa Monica and twelve primary care clinics throughout Los Angeles County. In addition, the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine uses two Los Angeles County public hospitals as teaching hospitals—Harbor–UCLA Medical Center and Olive View–UCLA Medical Center—as well as the largest private nonprofit hospital on the west coast, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The Greater Los Angeles VA Medical Center is also a major teaching and training site for the university. The UCLA Medical Center made history in 1981 when Assistant Professor Michael Gottlieb first diagnosed AIDS. UCLA medical researchers also pioneered the use of positron emission tomography (PET) scanning to study brain function. Professor of Pharmacology Louis Ignarro was one of the recipients of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the signaling cascade of nitric oxide, one of the most important molecules in cardiopulmonary physiology.

The '' U.S. News & World Report'' Best Hospitals ranking for 2021 ranks UCLA Medical Center 3rd in the United States and 1st in the West. UCLA Medical Center was ranked within the top 20 in the United States for 15 out of 16 medical specialty areas examined.

Research

UCLA is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and had $1.32 billion in research expenditures in FY 2018.

Rankings

Global

The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' for 2017–2018 ranks UCLA 15th in the world for academics, No.1 US Public University for academics, and 13th in the world for reputation. In 2020, it ranked 16th among the universities around the world by ''SCImago Institutions Rankings

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