University of California, Los Angeles




The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It became the University of California Southern Branch in 1919, making it the second-oldest undergraduate campus of the ten-campus system after the original University of California campus in Berkeley (1873). It offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines  With an approximate enrollment of 30,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students, UCLA has the highest enrollment of any university in California and is the most applied to university in the United States with over 112,000 applications for fall 2015.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2014–2015 ranks UCLA 12th for academics and 13th for reputation.[14][15] In 2014, UCLA was ranked 37th in the QS World University Rankings, 12th in the world (10th in North America) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and 23rd in the world (13th in North America) in Financial Times' Global MBA Rankings.[18] In 2013, Business Insider ranked UCLA as having the most driven students in the world.  In 2015, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked the university 15th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, citations, broad impact, and patents  As of March 2015, U.S. News & World Report ranked UCLA #8 in their "Best Global University Rankings".

The university is organized into five undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools, and four professional health science schools. The undergraduate colleges are the College of Letters and Science; Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSSEAS); School of the Arts and Architecture; School of Theater, Film, and Television; and School of Nursing. Fifteen Nobel laureates, one Fields Medalist and three Turing Award winners have been faculty, researchers, or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 55 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 28 to the National Academy of Engineering, 39 to the Institute of Medicine, and 124 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 Pacific-12 Conference. The Bruins have won 125 national championships, including 112 NCAA team championships. UCLA student-athletes have won 250 Olympic medals: 125 gold, 65 silver and 60 bronze.  The Bruins have competed in every Olympics since 1920 with one exception (1924), and have won a gold medal in every Olympics that the United States has participated in since 1932.

Contents  [hide]
1 History
1.1 Maturity as a university
2 Campus
2.1 Architecture
2.2 Filming
2.3 Transportation and parking
2.3.1 2014 flooding
3 Academics
3.1 Divisions
3.1.1 Undergraduate
3.1.2 Graduate
3.2 Healthcare
3.3 Rankings
3.3.1 Global
3.3.2 National
3.3.3 Graduate school
3.3.4 Departmental
3.3.5 Academic field
3.4 Library system
3.5 Medical school admissions
4 Admissions
4.1 Undergraduate
4.2 Graduate
5 Crime
6 Economic impact
6.1 Trademarks and licensing
7 Athletics
7.1 USC rivalry
8 Student life
8.1 Traditions
8.2 Student government
8.3 Media publications
8.4 Housing
8.5 Hospitality
8.6 Chabad House
9 Faculty and alumni
10 UCLA Medal
11 References
12 External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of the University of California, Los Angeles
In March 1881, after heavy lobbying by Los Angeles residents, the California State Legislature authorized the creation of a southern branch of the California State Normal School (which later became San Jose State University) in downtown Los Angeles to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California. The State Normal School at Los Angeles opened on August 29, 1882, on what is now the site of the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library system. The new facility included an elementary school where teachers-in-training could practice their teaching technique on children. That elementary school is related to the present day version, UCLA Lab School. In 1887, the school became known as the Los Angeles State Normal School


The Los Angeles branch of California State Normal School, 1881.
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 working together 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 Benjamin Ide Wheeler, President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919, who were all vigorously opposed to the idea of a southern campus. However, David Prescott Barrows, the new President of the University of California, 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 merged the Los Angeles Normal School with the University of California as the Southern Branch of the University of California. The same legislation added its general undergraduate program, the College of Letters and Science.  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.


University of California, Southern Branch's Vermont Campus, 1922.
Under University of California 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 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 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.[34] 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 original four buildings were the College Library (now Powell Library), Royce Hall, the Physics-Biology Building (now the Humanities Building), 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. In 1933, after further lobbying by alumni, faculty, administration and community leaders, UCLA was permitted to award the master's degree, and in 1936, the doctorate, against continued resistance from UC Berkeley.

A timeline of the history can be found on its website as well as a published book.

Maturity as a university[edit]
For the first 32 years of its existence, 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 was granted the title of chancellor. Raymond B. Allen was the first chief executive with that title. The appointment of Franklin David Murphy to the position of Chancellor in 1960 helped to 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 in its own right and not simply a branch of the UC system. This change is exemplified by an incident involving Chancellor Murphy, which was described by him later on:

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."


The Bruin statue, designed by Billy Fitzgerald, in Bruin Plaza
In 2006, the university completed Campaign UCLA, which collected over $3.05 billion and is the second most successful fundraising campaign among public universities. In 2008, UCLA raised over $456 million, ranking the institution among the top 10 universities in the United States in total fundraising for the year.

On January 26, 2011, Meyer and Renee Luskin donated $100 million to UCLA  On February 14, 2011, UCLA received a $200 million donation gift by The Lincy Foundation in order to establish The Dream Fund, which is "a community-based fund devoted to the support of medical research and academic programs at UCLA".

In 2014, the university launched the Centennial Campaign for UCLA, which is intended to raise $4.2 billion by 2019.

Campus[edit]
When UCLA opened its new campus in 1929, it had four buildings: Royce Hall and Haines Hall on the north, and Powell Library and Kinsey Hall (now the Humanities Building) on the south. The Janss Steps were the original 87-step entrance to the university that lead directly 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. he campus is close but not adjacent to the 405 San Diego Freeway.

The campus is located 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 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 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.


Janss Steps, in front of Royce Hall
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.

Previous
Next Post »