The University of California, Los Angeles, popularly known as UCLA, is a public, coeducational university situated in the neighborhood of Westwood within the city of Los Angeles. It is the second-oldest campus in the University of California system and the largest university in the state of California.

History

In March 1881, after heavy lobbying by Los Angeles residents, the California Legislature authorized the creation of the state's second normal school in downtown Los Angeles to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California. The Los Angeles 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.

In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue in Hollywood. In 1917, Director Ernest Carroll Moore suggested that the normal school should be added as the second campus of the University of California, and appropriate legislation was signed into law on May 23, 1919 which turned the school into the "Southern Branch of the University of California" and added its general undergraduate program, the College of Letters and Science.

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. Also in 1927, the state broke ground at a new campus on the chaparral-covered hills of a real estate development called Westwood. The first classes were held in 1929 in the four original buildings on the 400 acre (1.6 km²) campus. In 1933, UCLA was permitted to award the master's degree, and in 1936, the doctorate.

Campus

Royce Hall

Today, the campus comprises some 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 quite close, but not actually adjacent to the San Diego Freeway, an oversight avoided in the planning of newer campuses like Irvine (next to Highway 73) and San Diego (which is split by Interstate 5).

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 and its buildings tend to be more old-fashioned in appearance and are usually completely sheathed in brick. North Campus is home to the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, and business programs. North Campus is centered around tree-lined Dickson Plaza, which has appeared in many movies such as The Nutty Professor.

South Campus is newer, with many of the main buildings having been constructed in the 1960's and 1970's. The resulting architectural difference is obvious to anyone entering the Court of Sciences, the main quad area of South Campus. South Campus is home to the sciences, including all physical sciences, life sciences, mathematical sciences, engineering. The Center for Health Sciences and its surrounding health- and health-care related buildings are technically on South Campus, but as the area is only for graduate and professional students, it is often not considered in the North/South Campus divide, home to all undergraduates.

Undergraduate housing for nearly 8,000 residents is spread across multiple buildings on a ridge on the western side of the campus, which is called "the Hill". The predominant structures are the four high-rise residence halls, while two suite-style housing complexes line the far west edge of campus, with two conference-style housing facilities fill out the spaces between the high rises. Residential life on the hill is under the care of the Office of Residential Life (http://www.orl.ucla.edu), which is often considered a leading residential life department. Housing facilities also include four residential restaurants and three boutique-style eateries. UCLA's dining services are often considered the best in the nation, with several concepts having been originated by UCLA Dining Services. While students are currently guaranteed only three years of on-campus housing, the Housing Master Plan aims to guarantee housing to all undergraduates for four years by 2010. This is being facilitated by the construction of three new high-rise units.

Graduate housing is also under construction as an added incentive in order to recruit top graduate students from across the world. This new complex, Weyburn Terrace, located several blocks from UCLA's campus in the heart of Westwood, is still under construction and is scheduled for completion in 2006.

Ackerman Union, the campus student center, the Arthur Ashe Health and Wellness Center, several student organization buildings, and athletic facilities such as the famed Pauley Pavilion fill the shallow valley in the middle 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 continuing efforts to accomodate a growing population, multipel construction projects are underway.

The university also owns a high-rise office tower called UCLA Wilshire Center on Wilshire Boulevard in the Westwood area, one mile (1.6 km) to the south. All off-campus administrative functions are housed in UCLA Wilshire Center.

The campus has a large number of parking garages, both above-ground and below-ground, and reportedly has the second-largest number of parking spaces of any university in the United States. Despite that fact, 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 students commuting from distant locations like Santa Barbara and Anaheim, while encouraging all students living within a 5 mile radius to use mass transit.

Academics

UCLA is organized into the following schools and colleges:

Anderson School of Business

• UCLA College (formerly known as the College of Letters and Sciences, change effective Fall 2004)
• School of the Arts and Architecture
• Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
• The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
• UCLA School of Law
• The Anderson School of Management
• School of Public Affairs (formerly known as School of Public Policy and Social Research, change effective Fall 2004)
• School of Theater Film and Television
• The David Geffen School of Medicine
• Neuropsychiatric Institute
• School of Nursing
• School of Dentistry
• School of Public Health

The five health-related schools above, plus the UCLA Medical Center and associated research and treatment centers are collectively known as the UCLA Center for Health Sciences (CHS). The California Nanosystems Institute was created out of a partnership with the University of California, Santa Barbara to pioneer innovations in the field of nanotechnology.

Rankings

UCLA has a distinguished academic program. Of the 36 Ph.D. programs examined by the National Research Council, UCLA had 33 rank in the top 20 in terms of faculty quality. Twelve departments were ranked in the top 10:

Powell Library

• History (6)
• Geography (8)
• Political Science (8)
• Psychology (4)
• Sociology (5)
• Anthropology (8)
• Chemistry (9)
• Aerospace Engineering (10)
• Physiology (4)
• Philosophy (6)
• Linguistics (3)
• Classics (9)

UCLA offers over 120 undergraduate majors in over 80 different departments, along with approximately 50 minors.

In 2004, US News & World Report ranked UCLA 26th out of national research universities, and third out of public research universities.

Athletics

The school's sports teams are called the Bruins, with colors powder-blue and gold. (Note the parallel to Cal's Golden Bears, with colors Yale Blue and "gold"—in practice yellow.) The Bruins participate in NCAA Division I-A as part of the Pacific Ten Conference.

Powder Keg Blue Football Uniforms - When Red Sanders came to UCLA for the 1949 season 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 lighter Blue would look better on the field and in film. He would dub the uniform -- Powder Keg Blue -- powder blue with an explosive kick. Over a quarter of a century later, Sports Illustrated would proclaim the UCLA home Football Uniforms the best looking uniforms in college football.

As of 2005, UCLA has 95 NCAA championships, more than any other university. Among these championships, some of the more notable victories are the mens basketball championships. The rich basketball history at UCLA has produced a legacy of 11 NCAA championships (1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1995). Holding the record for most basketball championships won, however, is not the only incredible achievement possessed by UCLA. From 1971 to 1974, UCLA mens basketball won an unprecedented 88 consecutive games, a record that many sports pundits consider unbreakable. Past rosters of UCLA basketball teams have been filled with such greats such as Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Bill Walton and Reggie Miller.

UCLA enjoys a traditional sports rivalry with the nearby University of Southern California.

Traditions and Events

The Los Angeles Times Book Fair, held in spring, is the largest annual gathering of publishers and authors in the country.

The UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival gathers musicians from both genres for a two day concert held every year over the Memorial Day weekend.

Spring Sing is a yearly show of student talent held at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus.

Peripheral Enterprises

Unlike its siblings in the UC system, UCLA is unusual in that it operates two major enterprises that are somewhat peripheral to its academic mission.

UCLA Healthcare

The world-renowned UCLA Medical Center is actually part of a larger healthcare system, UCLA Healthcare, which also operates a hospital in Santa Monica and seven primary care clinics throughout Los Angeles County. In addition, the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine uses two Los Angeles County hospitals as teaching hospitals: Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. In all, there are four hospitals in Los Angeles County that carry the UCLA name.

In 1981, the UCLA Medical Center made history when an assistant professor named Michael Gottlieb diagnosed the first cases of HIV/AIDS. As of 2004, U.S. News and World Report has ranked UCLA Medical Center as the best hospital in the western United States for 15 consecutive years, and placed it among its honor roll of best hospitals in the United States.

UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services

Besides operating the usual dormitories and apartment buildings, UCLA also runs a small, full-service, on-campus hotel, the UCLA Guest House, and a full-service conference center, the UCLA Conference Center, in the San Bernardino Mountains near Lake Arrowhead.

Notable UCLA People

• List of notable UCLA alumni
• List of notable UCLA faculty members

External links

• Main UCLA site (http://www.ucla.edu/)
• Official athletics site (http://www.uclabruins.com/)
• The Daily Bruin (http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/) - UCLA newspaper
• Campus maps and landmarks (http://www.ucla.edu/map/)
• Royce Hall Webcam (http://www.saonet.ucla.edu/bruincam.htm)
• UCLA History Project (http://www.uclahistoryproject.ucla.edu/Home.htm)
• UCLA School of Law's Williams Project (http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~williamsproj/home.html) - First legal think-tank on sexual orientation law
• BruinWalk (http://www.bruinwalk.com) - Student-run web portal that features professor reviews