University of California, Los Angeles
Encyclopedia
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public
research
university
located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles
, California
, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California
and is the second oldest of the ten campuses. UCLA, considered as one of the flagship institutions of the University of California system, offers over 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines and enrolls about 26,000 undergraduate and about 11,000 graduate students from the United States and around the world. Strengths in liberal arts, sciences and research earned it membership in the Association of American Universities
.
The university is organized into five undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Fourteen Nobel Prize
laureates have been affiliated with the university as faculty, researchers, or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 43 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences
, 21 to the National Academy of Engineering
, 34 to the Institute of Medicine
, and 108 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
.
UCLA student-athletes compete intercollegiately as the Bruins
. As a member of the Pacific-12 Conference, the Bruins have won 125 national championships, including 107 NCAA
team championships as of May 2011, more than any other university. UCLA was also ranked the number one most economically diverse university among "elite schools"
In addition, UCLA has one of the greatest Olympic Games
traditions of any university. UCLA students have won 214 Olympic medals - 106 gold, 54 silver and 54 bronze. The Bruins have had at least one competitor in every Olympics since 1920 with one exception (1924), and UCLA has won a gold medal in every Olympics since 1932 with the exception of 1980 (boycott).
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.
In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue
(now the site of Los Angeles City College
) 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 Legislature to enable the school to become the second University of California
campus, after Berkeley
. They met resistance from 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.
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 turned the campus into the Southern Branch of the University of California and 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.
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 Berkeley. In 1927, the Regents renamed the campus 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 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, Royce Hall
, the Physics-Biology Building, and the Chemistry Building (now Powell Library
, Royce Hall, the Humanities Building, and Haines Hall, respectively), 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 Berkeley.
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:
In 2006, the university completed Campaign UCLA, which collected over $
3.05 billion and is the second most successful fundraising campaign. 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 dollars 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."
When UCLA opened its new campus in 1929, it had 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
. The campus is close but not adjacent to the San Diego Freeway
.
The campus includes sculpture gardens, 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; 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. South Campus is home to the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, psychology, mathematical sciences, all health-related fields, and the UCLA Medical Center.
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. Bruin Walk, a heavily traveled pathway from housing to the main campus, bisects the campus.
style of these first four structures 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
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
. 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. This continuous construction gives UCLA the on-campus nickname of "Under Construction Like Always."
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 Israel. A bust of him, on the entrance to Bunche Hall, overlooks 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.
A mile from campus, the UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is located 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. 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.
was shot at UCLA, as well as John Singleton's Higher Learning
(1995). Legally Blonde
' (2001)', "Old School
" (2003), "The Nutty Professor
" (1995), Erin Brockovich
(2000), "How High
" (2001), and American Pie 2
were all mainly shot at the university campus or locale. In January 2009, the Bollywood
movie My Name is Khan
was shot at UCLA. Some of the exterior shots of the fictional UC Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer , the book Sweet L.A. Life's spin-off The College Years and ABC Family original series Greek
were also filmed at UCLA. In response to the major demand for filming, UCLA instated a policy on 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."
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 one-way or quarterly passes to ride Santa Monica
's Big Blue Bus
and Culver City's Culver CityBus
.
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. 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
.
The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
is a 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 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
.
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
. UCLA medical researchers also pioneered the use of PET scanning to study brain function. The signaling cascade of nitric oxide
, one of the most important molecules in cardiopulmonary physiology was discovered in part by the medical school's Professor of Pharmacology Louis J. Ignarro. For this, he was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology along with two other researchers – Robert F. Furchgott of the SUNY Health Science Center and Ferid Murad of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
In the 2007 edition of U.S. News and World Report, UCLA Medical Center was ranked best in the West, as well as one of the top 3 hospitals in the United States
alongside Mayo Clinic
, Cleveland Clinic
, Massachusetts General Hospital
, and Johns Hopkins Hospital
. In 15 of the 16 medical specialty areas examined, UCLA Medical Center ranked in the top 20.
(ARWU). and in 2007, was ranked 13th in the world (11th in North America
) by Top 500 World Universities, an annual list published by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University
, China
. Global Universities Ranking lists UCLA as 15th in the world. UCLA is ranked 33rd in Financial Times
' Global MBA Rankings in 2010. Human Resources & Labor Review, a national human competitiveness index & analysis, ranked the university 14th in 2010 internationally as one of 50 Best World Universities.
In 2010, UCLA ranked 11th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
.. In 2011, UCLA ranked 34th in the QS World University Rankings
, one position higher than the year previous.
In the High Impact Universities
rankings, UCLA was only one of two universities (the other being Harvard
) which had all of its faculties ranked in the top 10.
ranked UCLA, tied with UVA
, 2nd among public universities. It was also ranked 25th among national universities (tied with UVA
and Wake Forest
.) In the August 21–28, 2006 issue of Newsweek
(also released as the 2007 issue of the Kaplan Guide to Colleges), UCLA was listed as one of "25 New Ivies". The Washington Monthly
ranks UCLA third nationally with criteria based on research, community service, and social mobility, and first in community service participation.
UCLA was ranked third among national research universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance
in 2009. The Princeton Review listed UCLA as a "Dream School" selected by both students and parents in 2010. It was also the only public university in the ranking.
UCLA took the second spot among all universities (surpassed only by Johns Hopkins University
), and 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 million.
UCLA ranks 9th, in a 6-way tie, and 2-way tie among public universities with UC Berkeley
, for producing the largest number of billionaires (9).
(GSEIS), was ranked second among American graduate schools of education in the 2006 edition of U.S. News and World Report, America's Best Graduate Schools. The UCLA School of Law
is also highly-regarded, and is the youngest law school in the country to consistently rank in the top 15 nationally. Also, UCLA Law was named among the Princeton Review's "10 Hardest Law Schools To Get Into" in 2009. Additionally, in 2009, the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television was ranked 3rd nationally by US News and World Reports and the School of Architecture placed 2nd in the country according to The Key Centre for Architectural Sociology. UCLA school of nursing was ranked by US News and World Report as one of the top ten nursing programs in the country,
, eleven departments were ranked in the top ten. Thirty-one of the Ph.D. programs examined were ranked in the top 20, the third highest number of those distinctions in the country. According to US News and World Report, many UCLA graduate programs rank in the top 20 nationally, including Clinical Psychology (1), Psychology (3), Fine Arts (7), Mathematics (8), Sociology (9), History (9), English (10), Public Health (10), Political Science (11), Economics (14), Computer Science (14), Chemistry (16), Earth Sciences (17), and Physics (19).
In the Institute for Scientific Information
's 2004 database, 48 UCLA professors were listed as highly cited, making UCLA faculty 11th in the United States; as of December 2006, there were 54 highly cited faculty.
UCLA's library system has over eight million books and 70,000 serials spread over twelve libraries and eleven other archives, reading rooms, and research centers. It is the nation's 14th largest library in number of volumes.
The first library, University library (presently Powell), was founded in 1884. In 1910, Elizabeth Fargo became the university's first librarian. Lawrence Powell
became librarian in 1944, and began a series of system overhauls and modifications, and in 1959, he was named Dean of the School of Library Service. More libraries were added as previous ones filled. Page Ackerman became University Librarian in 1973, and was the nation's first female librarian of a system as large as UCLA's. She oversaw the first coordinations between other UC schools, and formed a new administrative network that is still in use today. Since her retirement, the system has seen steady growth and improvement under various Librarians. The present University Librarian is Gary E. Strong, who has been in office since September 1, 2003.
Public university
A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. A national university may or may not be considered a public university, depending on regions...
research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
and is the second oldest of the ten campuses. UCLA, considered as one of the flagship institutions of the University of California system, offers over 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines and enrolls about 26,000 undergraduate and about 11,000 graduate students from the United States and around the world. Strengths in liberal arts, sciences and research earned it membership in the Association of American Universities
Association of American Universities
The Association of American Universities is an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education...
.
The university is organized into five undergraduate colleges, seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Fourteen Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
laureates have been affiliated with the university as faculty, researchers, or alumni. Among the current faculty members, 43 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, 21 to the National Academy of Engineering
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
, 34 to the Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
, and 108 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
.
UCLA student-athletes compete intercollegiately as the Bruins
UCLA Bruins
The UCLA Bruins are the sports teams for University of California, Los Angeles . The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pacific-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation . For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I...
. As a member of the Pacific-12 Conference, the Bruins have won 125 national championships, including 107 NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
team championships as of May 2011, more than any other university. UCLA was also ranked the number one most economically diverse university among "elite schools"
In addition, UCLA has one of the greatest Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
traditions of any university. UCLA students have won 214 Olympic medals - 106 gold, 54 silver and 54 bronze. The Bruins have had at least one competitor in every Olympics since 1920 with one exception (1924), and UCLA has won a gold medal in every Olympics since 1932 with the exception of 1980 (boycott).
History
In March 1881, after heavy lobbying by Los Angeles residents, the California State LegislatureCalifornia State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
authorized the creation of a southern branch of the California State Normal School
California State Normal School
The California State Normal School was a teaching college founded on May 2, 1862, whose original campus later became both the California State University and its San Jose State University campus....
(which later became San Jose State University
San José State University
San Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States...
) in downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. The State Normal School
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
at Los Angeles opened on August 29, 1882, on what is now the site of the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library system serves the residents of Los Angeles, California, United States. With over 6 million volumes, LAPL is one of the largest publicly funded library systems in the world. The system is overseen by a Board of Library Commissioners with five members appointed by the...
system. The new facility included an elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
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.
Vermont Avenue
Vermont Avenue is one of the longest running north/south streets in Los Angeles, California with a length of about . Located just west of the Harbor Freeway for the major portion south of Downtown Los Angeles, it starts in Griffith Park at the Greek Theatre in the Los Feliz neighborhood as a...
(now the site of Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College
Los Angeles City College, known as LACC, is a public community college in the East Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard...
) in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. 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 Legislature to enable the school to become the second University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
campus, after Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. They met resistance from 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.
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
William Stephens
William Dennison Stephens was an American federal and state politician. A three-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1911 to 1916, Stephens was also the 24th Governor of California from 1917 to 1923....
signed Assembly Bill 626 into law, which turned the campus into the Southern Branch of the University of California and 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.
William Wallace Campbell
William Wallace Campbell was an American astronomer, and director of Lick Observatory from 1900 to 1930. He specialized in spectroscopy.-Biography:...
, enrollment at the Southern Branch expanded so rapidly that by the mid-1920s the institution was outgrowing the 25 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
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
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
—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 Berkeley. In 1927, the Regents renamed the campus the "University of California at Los Angeles" (the word "at" was officially replaced by a comma
Comma
A comma is a type of punctuation mark . The word comes from the Greek komma , which means something cut off or a short clause.Comma may also refer to:* Comma , a type of interval in music theory...
in 1958, in line with other UC campuses) and the state broke ground in Westwood
Westwood, Los Angeles, California
Westwood is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles .-History:...
on land sold for $1 million, less than one-third its value, by real estate developers Edwin and Harold Janss
Janss Investment Company
The Janss Investment Company was a family run, Los Angeles, California, real estate development company that operated from 1895 to 1995.-First generation:...
, for whom the Janss Steps are named.
The original four buildings were the College Library, Royce Hall
Royce Hall
Royce Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles . Designed by the Los Angeles firm of Allison & Allison in the Italian Romanesque Revival style and completed in 1929, it is one of the four original buildings on UCLA's Westwood campus and has come to be the...
, the Physics-Biology Building, and the Chemistry Building (now Powell Library
Powell Library
Powell Library is the main college undergraduate library on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles . It was constructed from 1926 to 1929 and was one of the original four buildings that comprised the UCLA campus in the early period of the university's life...
, Royce Hall, the Humanities Building, and Haines Hall, respectively), 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
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
, and in 1936, the doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
, against continued resistance from Berkeley.
Maturity as a university
The campus received its first chancellor in 1951, thereby establishing itself as an autonomous entity within the UC system. The appointment of Franklin David MurphyFranklin David Murphy
Franklin David Murphy was an American administrator, educator, and medical doctor. During his life, he served as Chancellor of the University of Kansas and Chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles ....
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.'"
In 2006, the university completed Campaign UCLA, which collected over $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
3.05 billion and is the second most successful fundraising campaign. 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 dollars 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."
Campus
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, north of the Westwood
Westwood, Los Angeles, California
Westwood is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles .-History:...
shopping district and just south of Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
. The campus is close but not adjacent to the San Diego Freeway
Interstate 405 (California)
Interstate 405 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass of Interstate 5, running along the western areas of the Greater Los Angeles Area from Irvine in the south to near San Fernando in the north...
.
The campus includes sculpture gardens, fountains, museums, and a mix of architectural styles. It is located in the residential area of Westwood
Westwood, Los Angeles, California
Westwood is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles .-History:...
and bordered by Bel-Air
Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California
Bel Air is an affluent residential community in the hills of the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. Together with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills it forms the Platinum Triangle of Los Angeles neighborhoods....
, Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
, and Brentwood
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
Brentwood is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. The district is located at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, the Santa Monica city limits on the southwest, the border of Topanga State...
. 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. South Campus is home to the physical sciences, life sciences, engineering, psychology, mathematical sciences, all health-related fields, and the UCLA Medical Center.
John Wooden
John Robert Wooden was an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period — seven in a row — as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games...
Center, the Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe
Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was a professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States...
Health and Wellness Center, the Student Activities Center, Kerckhoff Hall, the J.D. Morgan Center, the James West Alumni Center, and Pauley Pavilion
Pauley Pavilion
Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, commonly known as Pauley Pavilion, is an indoor arena located in the Westwood Village district of Los Angeles, California, on the campus of UCLA. It is home to the UCLA Bruins men's and women's basketball teams...
stand at the center of the campus. Bruin Walk, a heavily traveled pathway from housing to the main campus, bisects the campus.
Architecture
The first campus buildings were designed by the local firm Allison & Allison. The Romanesque RevivalRomanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
style of these first four structures remained the predominant building style on campus until the 1950s, when architect Welton Becket
Welton Becket
Welton Becket was an architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California.Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washington program in Architecture in 1927 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree .He settled in Los Angeles in 1933 and formed a...
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
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, 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
A. Quincy Jones
Archibald Quincy Jones, FAIA was a prolific Los Angeles-based architect and educator known for innovative buildings in the modernist style and for urban planning that pioneered the use of greenbelts and green design.-Childhood and early career:...
, William Pereira
William Pereira
William Leonard Pereira was an American architect from Chicago, Illinois, of Portuguese ancestry who was noted for his futuristic designs of landmark buildings such as the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco...
and Paul Williams
Paul Williams (architect)
Paul Revere Williams, FAIA was a Los Angeles-based, American architect. He practiced largely in Southern California and designed the homes of numerous stars including Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz, Lon Chaney, and Charles Correll...
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
Richard Meier
Richard Meier is an American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.- Biography :Meier is Jewish and was born in Newark, New Jersey...
, Cesar Pelli
César Pelli
César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...
, and Rafael Vinoly
Rafael Viñoly
Rafael Viñoly is an Uruguayan architect living in the United States.-Biography:He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to Román Viñoly Barreto, and Maria Beceiro ....
. 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. This continuous construction gives UCLA the on-campus nickname of "Under Construction Like Always."
Ralph Bunche
Ralph Johnson Bunche or 1904December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Palestine. He was the first person of color to be so honored in the history of the Prize...
, an African-American alumnus, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
for negotiating an armistice agreement between the Jews and Arabs in Israel. A bust of him, on the entrance to Bunche Hall, overlooks 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.
A mile from campus, the UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is located 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. 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.
Filming
With a location near Hollywood and a world-famous film and television school, the UCLA campus has attracted filming for decades. Much of the 1985 film Gotcha!Gotcha! (1985 film)
Gotcha! is a 1985 action film, starring Anthony Edwards and Linda Fiorentino. The movie is directed by Jeff Kanew, who also directed Anthony Edwards in Revenge of the Nerds in 1984....
was shot at UCLA, as well as John Singleton's Higher Learning
Higher Learning
Higher Learning is a 1995 American drama film, starring an ensemble cast. It also featured Tyra Banks' first performance in a theatrical film...
(1995). Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Robert Luketic, written by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, and produced by Marc E. Platt...
' (2001)', "Old School
Old school
In slang, old school can refer to anything that is from an earlier era. Old school refers to something that is fairly old and not very recent. Depending on the context and intent, the term can imply a high regard or respect, or be a pejorative...
" (2003), "The Nutty Professor
The Nutty Professor
The Nutty Professor is a 1963 Paramount Pictures science fiction comedy feature film produced, directed, co-written and starring Jerry Lewis...
" (1995), Erin Brockovich
Erin Brockovich
Erin Brockovich-Ellis is an American legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, or any legal education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of California in 1993...
(2000), "How High
How High
How High is a 2001 stoner comedy starring Method Man and Redman, written by Dustin Lee Abraham, and director Jesse Dylan's debut feature film. Entertainment Weekly rated it third in their "Best Stoner Movie" top ten list...
" (2001), and American Pie 2
American Pie 2
American Pie 2 is a 2001 comedy film and sequel to American Pie and is the second film in the American Pie film series. It was written by Adam Herz and David H. Steinberg, and directed by J. B. Rogers. The film picks up the story of the four friends from the first film as they reunite during the...
were all mainly shot at the university campus or locale. In January 2009, the Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
movie My Name is Khan
My Name is Khan
My Name Is Khan ; commonly referred to as MNIK, is a 2010 Bollywood film directed by Karan Johar, with a screenplay by Shibani Bathija, produced by Hiroo Yash Johar and Gauri Khan, and starring Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, who reunite after nine years...
was shot at UCLA. Some of the exterior shots of the fictional UC Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer , the book Sweet L.A. Life's spin-off The College Years and ABC Family original series Greek
Greek (TV series)
Greek is an American comedy-drama television series, which follows students of the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University , located in Ohio, who participate in the school's Greek system...
were also filmed at UCLA. In response to the major demand for filming, UCLA instated a policy on 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 parkingParking
Parking is the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted, though often with restrictions...
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 one-way or quarterly passes to ride Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
's Big Blue Bus
Big Blue Bus
Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines, more commonly known as the Big Blue Bus, is a municipal bus operator in the Westside region of Los Angeles, providing both local and bus rapid transit service in Santa Monica and adjacent neighborhoods of Los Angeles...
and Culver City's Culver CityBus
Culver CityBus
Culver CityBus is a public transport agency operating in Culver City, California, currently serving Culver City, the unincorporated community of Marina del Rey, and the adjacent Los Angeles neighborhoods...
.
UCLA Healthcare
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
UCLA School of Medicine or David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is an accredited medical school located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
, along with the School of Nursing
UCLA School of Nursing
The UCLA School of Nursing is a nursing school affiliated with UCLA, and is located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The school is in the Factor Building on the UCLA campus, adjacent to the UCLA Medical Center. The current dean of the school is Courtney Lyder, ND, GNP, FAAN...
, School of Dentistry, and School of Public Health
UCLA School of Public Health
The UCLA School of Public Health is the graduate school of public health affiliated with UCLA, and is located within the Center for Health Sciences building on the UCLA campus. UCLA is located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The dean of the school is Linda Rosenstock, MD,...
, comprise the professional schools of health science. 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
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
lines. The California NanoSystems Institute
California Nanosystems Institute
The California NanoSystems Institute is an integrated research center operating jointly at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara whose mission is to foster interdisciplinary collaborations for discoveries in nanosystems and nanotechnology; train the next generation of scientists, educators and technology...
is another project that was created out of a partnership with the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
to pioneer innovations in the field of nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
.
The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California....
is a part of a larger healthcare system, UCLA Healthcare, which also operates a hospital in Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
and seven 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
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Harbor–UCLA Medical Center is a 570-bed public teaching hospital located at 1000 West Carson Street within the unincorporated Los Angeles County area of West Carson, California...
and Olive View-UCLA Medical Center
Olive View-UCLA Medical Center
Olive View-UCLA Medical Center is a hospital, funded by Los Angeles County, located in the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It is one of the primary healthcare delivery systems in the north San Fernando Valley, especially the area's large indigent population...
—as well as the largest private nonprofit hospital on the West Coast, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Originally established as Kaspare Cohn Hospital in 1902, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, tertiary 958-bed hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre located in Los Angeles, California, US. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over...
.
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
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. UCLA medical researchers also pioneered the use of PET scanning to study brain function. The signaling cascade of nitric oxide
Nitric oxide
Nitric oxide, also known as nitrogen monoxide, is a diatomic molecule with chemical formula NO. It is a free radical and is an important intermediate in the chemical industry...
, one of the most important molecules in cardiopulmonary physiology was discovered in part by the medical school's Professor of Pharmacology Louis J. Ignarro. For this, he was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology along with two other researchers – Robert F. Furchgott of the SUNY Health Science Center and Ferid Murad of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
In the 2007 edition of U.S. News and World Report, UCLA Medical Center was ranked best in the West, as well as one of the top 3 hospitals in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
alongside Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
, Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic
The Cleveland Clinic is a multispecialty academic medical center located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Cleveland Clinic is currently regarded as one of the top 4 hospitals in the United States as rated by U.S. News & World Report...
, Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
, and Johns Hopkins Hospital
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland . It was founded using money from a bequest by philanthropist Johns Hopkins...
. In 15 of the 16 medical specialty areas examined, UCLA Medical Center ranked in the top 20.
Global rankings
UCLA is ranked 32nd by the U.S. News and World Report's World's Best Universities. UCLA was ranked 12th in Newsweek's annual ranking of the Top 100 Global universities. UCLA was ranked 13th in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World UniversitiesAcademic Ranking of World Universities
The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...
(ARWU). and in 2007, was ranked 13th in the world (11th in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
) by Top 500 World Universities, an annual list published by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University or SJTU), sometimes referred to as Shanghai Jiaotong University , is a top public research university located in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Global Universities Ranking lists UCLA as 15th in the world. UCLA is ranked 33rd in Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
' Global MBA Rankings in 2010. Human Resources & Labor Review, a national human competitiveness index & analysis, ranked the university 14th in 2010 internationally as one of 50 Best World Universities.
In 2010, UCLA ranked 11th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
.. In 2011, UCLA ranked 34th in the QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
, one position higher than the year previous.
In the High Impact Universities
High Impact Universities
Initially launched in September 2010, the High Impact Universities research performance index or RPI is an Australian initiative to benchmark the research performance of world's universities. The pilot project involved a study of over 1,000 universities and 5,000 faculties worldwide. Ranked results...
rankings, UCLA was only one of two universities (the other being Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
) which had all of its faculties ranked in the top 10.
U.S. rankings
U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
ranked UCLA, tied with UVA
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, 2nd among public universities. It was also ranked 25th among national universities (tied with UVA
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
and Wake Forest
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
.) In the August 21–28, 2006 issue of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
(also released as the 2007 issue of the Kaplan Guide to Colleges), UCLA was listed as one of "25 New Ivies". The Washington Monthly
The Washington Monthly
The Washington Monthly is a bimonthly nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C.The magazine's founder is Charles Peters, who started the magazine in 1969 and continues to write the "Tilting at Windmills" column in each issue. Paul Glastris, former...
ranks UCLA third nationally with criteria based on research, community service, and social mobility, and first in community service participation.
UCLA was ranked third among national research universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance
Center for Measuring University Performance
The Center for Measuring University Performance is a research center at Arizona State University. The Center is best known for an annual report it produces, The Top American Research Universities, that ranks American universities on nine different measures: Total Research, Federal Research,...
in 2009. The Princeton Review listed UCLA as a "Dream School" selected by both students and parents in 2010. It was also the only public university in the ranking.
UCLA took the second spot among all universities (surpassed only by Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
), and 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
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
—UCLA spent $773 million.
UCLA ranks 9th, in a 6-way tie, and 2-way tie among public universities with UC Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, for producing the largest number of billionaires (9).
Graduate and Professional schools
The Anderson School of Management and the David Geffen School of Medicine consistently rank among the top ten in the United States. UCLA's oldest operating unit, the Graduate School of Education and Information StudiesUCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
The Graduate School of Education and Information Studies is one of the professional graduate schools at the University of California, Los Angeles...
(GSEIS), was ranked second among American graduate schools of education in the 2006 edition of U.S. News and World Report, America's Best Graduate Schools. The UCLA School of Law
UCLA School of Law
The UCLA School of Law is the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles. It has been approved by the American Bar Association since 1950. It joined the Association of American Law Schools in 1952.- History :...
is also highly-regarded, and is the youngest law school in the country to consistently rank in the top 15 nationally. Also, UCLA Law was named among the Princeton Review's "10 Hardest Law Schools To Get Into" in 2009. Additionally, in 2009, the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television was ranked 3rd nationally by US News and World Reports and the School of Architecture placed 2nd in the country according to The Key Centre for Architectural Sociology. UCLA school of nursing was ranked by US News and World Report as one of the top ten nursing programs in the country,
Departments and professors
In 1995, of the 36 Ph.D. programs examined by the National Research CouncilUnited States National Research Council
The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...
, eleven departments were ranked in the top ten. Thirty-one of the Ph.D. programs examined were ranked in the top 20, the third highest number of those distinctions in the country. According to US News and World Report, many UCLA graduate programs rank in the top 20 nationally, including Clinical Psychology (1), Psychology (3), Fine Arts (7), Mathematics (8), Sociology (9), History (9), English (10), Public Health (10), Political Science (11), Economics (14), Computer Science (14), Chemistry (16), Earth Sciences (17), and Physics (19).
In the Institute for Scientific Information
Institute for Scientific Information
The Institute for Scientific Information was founded by Eugene Garfield in 1960. It was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992, became known as Thomson ISI and now is part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation.ISI offered...
's 2004 database, 48 UCLA professors were listed as highly cited, making UCLA faculty 11th in the United States; as of December 2006, there were 54 highly cited faculty.
Library system
UCLA's library system has over eight million books and 70,000 serials spread over twelve libraries and eleven other archives, reading rooms, and research centers. It is the nation's 14th largest library in number of volumes.
The first library, University library (presently Powell), was founded in 1884. In 1910, Elizabeth Fargo became the university's first librarian. Lawrence Powell
Lawrence Clark Powell
Lawrence Clark Powell was a librarian, literary critic, bibliographer and author of more than 100 books....
became librarian in 1944, and began a series of system overhauls and modifications, and in 1959, he was named Dean of the School of Library Service. More libraries were added as previous ones filled. Page Ackerman became University Librarian in 1973, and was the nation's first female librarian of a system as large as UCLA's. She oversaw the first coordinations between other UC schools, and formed a new administrative network that is still in use today. Since her retirement, the system has seen steady growth and improvement under various Librarians. The present University Librarian is Gary E. Strong, who has been in office since September 1, 2003.
Undergraduate
applications or other unique situations.UCLA is rated "Most Selective" by the Princeton Review, with an admissions selectivity rating of 98 (on a scale of 60–99). The university received 61,517 applications for the Fall 2011 freshman class, retaining its position as the university with the most freshmen applicants, a title it has held since 1998. In 2009, UCLA became the most selective public university in the United States when it admitted a record low 21.7% of applicants, edging out the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. Succeeding years brought no change to UCLA's status as the most selective public university in the United States for new freshmen with only 22.58% and 25.29% of applicants accepted for the freshman classes of 2010 and 2011 respectively.
| Ethnic enrollment, 2007 | Under- graduates |
Graduate students |
Per- centage |
| Black Non-Hispanic | 865 | 438 | 4% |
| Asian or Pacific Islander | 9,968 | 2,253 | 35% |
| Hispanic | 3,812 | 974 | 14% |
| American Indian or Alaskan Native | 108 | 63 | 0% |
| White Non-Hispanic | 8,861 | 4,643 | 39% |
| Unstated, Unknown, Other | 1,075 | 1,695 | 8% |
| Total | 24,689 | 10,066 | 100% |
3,220 transfer students entered UCLA in Fall 2008, 90 percent from community colleges. Over the past 15 years over 45,000 transfer students have entered UCLA. One-third of baccalaureate degrees are awarded to students who entered UCLA as transfer students. One of the major current debates is over the decreasing admission of African-Americans and Latinos, especially since the passage of Proposition 209, prohibiting racial, sexual, or ethnic discrimination at public institutions, in 1996. Out of the 4,700 students in the Fall 2006 class, 96 were African American, and 20 of those were recruited athletes. This is the lowest number of African Americans to enter into a class at UCLA in more than 30 years, and it
comes at a time when the other schools in the UC system are seeing an increase. In response to this issue, UCLA decided to shift to a more holistic admissions process, similar to that of UC Berkeley, starting Fall 2007. Preliminary data show that the overall number of underrepresented student applicants at UCLA — Native Americans, African Americans, and Chicanos/Latinos — increased from 10,097 in fall 2006 (22.2% of 2006 applicants) to 11,414 for fall 2007 (23.6%). 35% of admitted students receive federal Pell grant
Pell Grant
A Pell Grant is money the federal government provides for students who need it to pay for college. Federal Pell Grants are limited to students with financial need, who have not earned their first bachelor's degree or who are not enrolled in certain post-baccalaureate programs, through participating...
s.
Graduate
In Fall 2005, the David Geffen School of MedicineDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
UCLA School of Medicine or David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is an accredited medical school located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
admitted 4.5% of its applicants, the School of Law
UCLA School of Law
The UCLA School of Law is the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles. It has been approved by the American Bar Association since 1950. It joined the Association of American Law Schools in 1952.- History :...
admitted 16.1%, and the Anderson School of Management admitted 30.6%.
According to the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Guide to Dental Schools, 44th Ed., the UCLA School of Dentistry had more than 1,465 applicants for 88 seats in the entering class of 2006. The average Dental Admissions Test (DAT) scores for admitted students in the entering class of 2007 were 22 on the academic portion (3rd highest average in the nation after Harvard and Columbia) and 20 on the perceptual aptitude portion of the exam (3rd highest average after Harvard and University of Washington). In 1949 The Regents of the University of California authorized the School of Nursing as one of the professional schools of the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences. The Graduate School of Nursing is ranked by US News and World Report as one of the top graduate nursing programs in the country,
Economic impact
Trademarks and licensing
The UCLA trademark also sells as an overseas clothing and accessories brand. This trend arises from the school's athletic and academic reputation, and popular images of the Southern CaliforniaSouthern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
lifestyle. High demand for UCLA apparel has inspired the licensing of its trademark to UCLA brand stores throughout East Asia. Since 1980, 15 UCLA stores have opened in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, and 43 are currently open in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. There are also stores in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. UCLA makes $400,000 in royalties every year through its international licensing program.
Athletics
UCLA Bruins
The UCLA Bruins are the sports teams for University of California, Los Angeles . The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pacific-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation . For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I...
, with colors True Blue
True Blue (color)
True Blue is a tone of blue deeper than powder blue and lighter than royal blue that was developed by the UCLA Athletic Department and Adidas to be the color for all of UCLA's athletic teams starting in the 2003–2004 school year. Previously, the football team had worn powder blue while the...
and gold. The Bruins participate in NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Division I-A as part of the Pacific-12 Conference. Two notable sports facilities serve as home venues for UCLA sports. The Bruin men's football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team plays home games at the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
; the team won a national title in 1954. The men's and women's basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and men's and women's volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
teams, and the gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
team (women's) play at Pauley Pavilion
Pauley Pavilion
Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, commonly known as Pauley Pavilion, is an indoor arena located in the Westwood Village district of Los Angeles, California, on the campus of UCLA. It is home to the UCLA Bruins men's and women's basketball teams...
on campus. The school also sponsors men's and women's cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, men's and women's soccer, women's rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
, men's and women's golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, men's and women's tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, and men's and women's water polo
Water polo
Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a...
, and women's softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
.
The Bruin mascots are Joe and Josephine Bruin, and the fight songs
Fight Songs
Fight Songs is the fourth studio album by American alternative country band Old 97's, first released on April 27, 1999. It features the song "Murder ", which was named one of the top songs of all time by Blender magazine....
are Sons of Westwood
Sons of Westwood
Sons of Westwood is the official fight song of the University of California, Los Angeles . The tune comes from "Big C", a school fight song for the University of California, Berkeley and UC Davis....
and Mighty Bruins
Mighty Bruins
"Mighty Bruins" is a fight song of University of California, Los Angeles sports teams. Composed by Academy Award-winning composer Bill Conti , the song was commissioned by the UCLA Alumni Association on its fiftieth anniversary...
. The alma mater is Hail to the Hills of Westwood
Hail to the Hills of Westwood
Hail to the Hills of Westwood is the school song or alma mater of the University of California, Los Angeles. It was written by Jeane Emerson, a 1929 graduate of UCLA, and adopted by the school in 1960. The current arrangement performed by the UCLA Marching Band was written by band member Dwayne S...
.
When Henry "Red" Sanders
Henry Russell Sanders
Henry Russell "Red" Sanders was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Vanderbilt University and the University of California at Los Angeles , compiling a career college football record of 102–41–3...
came to UCLA to coach football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
in 1949, the uniforms were redesigned. 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 dubbed the baby blue uniform "Powder Keg Blue," a powder blue with an explosive kick. This would also differentiate UCLA from its older brother, UC Berkeley (and all other UC teams, as all UC campuses' official colors are blue and gold).
UCLA is competitive in all major Division I-A sports and has won 124 national championships, including 107 NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
championships, more than any other university.UCLA's softball program is outstanding Women's Softball won the 106th National Championship, on June 8, 2010. Among these championships, some of the more notable victories are in men's basketball
UCLA Bruins men's basketball
The UCLA Bruins men's basketball program, established in 1920, owns a record 11 Division I NCAA championships. UCLA teams coached by John Wooden won 10 national titles in 12 seasons from 1964 to 1975, including 7 straight from 1967 to 1973. UCLA went undefeated a record 4 times, in 1964, 1967,...
.
Under legendary coach John Wooden
John Wooden
John Robert Wooden was an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period — seven in a row — as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games...
, 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 (through 2008, the most consecutive by any other team is two). From 1971 to 1974, UCLA men's basketball won an unprecedented 88 consecutive games.
UCLA has also shown dominance in men's volleyball
NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship
The NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship is the tournament that determines the national championship of American college volleyball.The "Final Four" is a term used exclusively by NCAA Basketball but is commonly used to describe the Men's Volleyball Championship...
, with 19 national championships. All 19 teams were led by current coach Al Scates
Al Scates
Al Scates is an American former volleyball player and is the current volleyball coach of the UCLA Bruins of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation...
, which ties him with John McDonnell
John McDonnell (coach)
John McDonnell is the retired head coach for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks track team. He began as the cross country track coach for the University in 1972 and became head track coach in 1978...
of the University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...
as NCAA leader for national championships in a single sport.
UCLA has medaled in every Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
they have participated in. In the 2004 Athens games
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
, UCLA sent 56 athletes, more than any other university, who won 19 medals.
Former UCLA basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player and current Utah Jazz
Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz is a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are currently a part of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
player Earl Watson
Earl Watson
Earl Joseph Watson, Jr. is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association . Watson is a graduate of Washington High School in Kansas City, Kansas...
commented, "Eleven national championships, the best coach (Wooden) to coach the game says a lot. I take offense to those who act like UCLA is just another school compared with Duke
Duke Blue Devils
Duke University's 26 varsity sports teams, known as the Blue Devils, compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The name comes from the French "les Diables Bleus" or "the Blue Devils," which was the nickname given during World War I to the Chasseurs Alpins, the French Alpine light infantry...
. Duke is a great school in the east, but UCLA is worldwide."
USC rivalry
UCLA shares a traditional sports rivalry with the nearby University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. In football, UCLA has one national champion team and 16 conference titles, compared to USC's 11 national championships and 37 conference championships. Under John Wooden
John Wooden
John Robert Wooden was an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period — seven in a row — as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games...
, UCLA became a dominating power in men's basketball, and has won 11 NCAA championships
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
, against USC's none.
The schools share a rivalry in many other sports. In volleyball, UCLA won 19 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship
NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship
The NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship is the tournament that determines the national championship of American college volleyball.The "Final Four" is a term used exclusively by NCAA Basketball but is commonly used to describe the Men's Volleyball Championship...
s against USC's four. UCLA also dominates the all-time series vs. USC in men's volleyball (86–34). In women's volleyball UCLA leads the all-time series against USC as well. In the popular sport of soccer UCLA leads USC in the all-time series 13–3–0. The Lexus Gauntlet
Lexus Gauntlet
The Lexus Gauntlet was a year-long all-sports competitions between two pairs of rival Pacific-12 Conference universities in California. The original Southern version, now known as the Crosstown Gauntlet, is held between between UCLA and USC; a Northern version between Stanford University and...
is the name given to the official competition between the two schools in 18 varsity sports. This rivalry even extends to the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
, where UCLA athletes have won 213 medals.
The origin is unclear, but the rivalry most likely started when football Hall of Fame coach Red Sanders led UCLA to dominance in the 1950s. USC, long before established as the reigning power, diverted its attention from then-rival University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, and the rivalry began.
Presently, UCLA
UCLA Bruins
The UCLA Bruins are the sports teams for University of California, Los Angeles . The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pacific-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation . For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I...
has the most NCAA championships, winning a combined 107 team championships in men's and women's sports, with Stanford coming in second with 101, followed by USC with 92.
Student life
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
makes excursions to local museums, theaters, or other entertainment venues relatively quick and easy. UCLA offers classical orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
s, intramural sports
Intramural sports
Intramural sports or intramurals are recreational sports organized within a set geographic area. The term derives from the Latin words intra muros meaning "within walls", and was used to indicate sports matches and contests that took place among teams from "within the walls" of an ancient city...
, and over 800 student organizations. UCLA is also home to more than 60 national and local Greek-letter organizations, which collectively constitute the largest membership-based and multi-faceted community on campus. Fraternity and sorority members represent 13% of the student population. Phrateres
Phrateres
Phrateres is a philanthropic-social organization for female college students.- History :Phrateres was founded at UCLA in 1924 by the Dean of Women, Helen Matthewson Laughlin. The intention was to bring "independent" women students into a collective group for the purposes of socialization and...
, a non-exclusive club for women was founded here in 1924 by the Dean of Women, Helen Matthewson Laughlin. Between 1924 and 1967, 23 chapters of Phrateres were installed in schools across North America. The student government at UCLA is the Associated Students UCLA (ASUCLA), governed by a student majority board of directors. It is the umbrella organization that includes the two branches of UCLA's student government, the Graduate Students Association (GSA) and the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC), the UCLA Store, the Student Union, Restaurants, Trademark & Licensing, and Student Media (including the UCLA Daily Bruin). The Student Alumni Association (SAA), a branch under the UCLA Alumni Association but entirely student run, is responsible for maintaining and putting on UCLA's oldest and greatest traditions, such as Blue and Gold Week, Senior Send-off, Spring Sing
UCLA Spring Sing
Spring Sing is UCLA's oldest and greatest musical tradition, an annual music competition held in May at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. The competition brings together UCLA students to perform as solo artists, duets, bands, and a cappella groups in front of an audience of over 7,000 UCLA students, alumni,...
, and Dinners for 12 Strangers amongst many. UCLA also operates a waterfront facility known as the UCLA Marina Aquatic Center in Marina del Rey. Students and staff participate in dinghy sailing, surfing, windsurfing, rowing, and kayaking.
The UCLA community was shocked in 2009 when a student was stabbed multiple times, including in the neck, during a chemistry lab class. Lab classes were canceled the next day and counselors were available for students.
UCLA has an active a cappella student population, with a variety of student organizations across campus. The university is often regarded as the pioneer in the West Coast collegiate contemporary a cappella tradition with its first group, Awaken A Cappella, founded in 1992. The all-male group on campus, Bruin Harmony, has enjoyed a successful career since its inception in 2006, portraying a collegiate a cappella group in the 2010 film, The Social Network
The Social Network
The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits...
. Other groups on campus include The Scattertones, Signature, Random Voices, Medleys, Deviant Voices, and Cadenza.
Traditions
The university has many traditions and annual events involving students, community, or the city. The school hosts events that usually require participation from more than just the student body, and competitions can occasionally involve celebrity judges and performers.Unicamp, founded in 1934, is UCLA's official charity. It is a week-long summer camp for under-served children from the greater Los Angeles area
Greater Los Angeles Area
The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is a term used for the Combined Statistical Area sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County...
, with UCLA volunteer counselors. Because Unicamp is a non-profit organization, student volunteers from UCLA also fundraise money throughout the year to allow these children to attend summer camp.
To introduce new students to clubs and activities, UCLA begins the fall quarter with Welcome Week activities (renamed True Bruin Welcome in 2009). The week includes the newly-added Day of Service for all first-years, the Enormous Activities Fair, the Sports Fair, and other events. At the end of move-in and the beginning of Welcome Week, UCLA holds Bruin Bash. Hosted by the USAC Campus Events Commission and USAC Cultural Affairs Commission, Bruin Bash includes a concert, dance, and movie. Past performers include Thrice
Thrice
Thrice is an American rock band from Irvine, California, formed in 1998. The group was founded by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Kensrue and guitarist Teppei Teranishi while they were in high school....
and Common
Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. , better known by his stage name Common , is an American hip-hop artist and actor....
in 2005, Xzibit
Xzibit
Alvin Nathaniel Joiner , better known by his stage name Xzibit , is an American rapper, actor, and television host. He is known as the host of the MTV show Pimp My Ride, which brought him mainstream success...
and Rooney
Rooney
Rooney may refer to:People*Rooney , the forename of various people*Rooney , the surname of various people*The Rooney family, of the Pittsburgh Steelers American football franchise...
in 2006, T.I.
T.I.
Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. , better known by his stage name T.I., is an American rap artist, film and music producer, actor and author. He is also the founder and co-chief executive officer of Grand Hustle Records....
in 2007, The Cool Kids
The Cool Kids
The Cool Kids is an American hip hop group. Consisting of rappers Antoine "Sir Michael Rocks" Reed and Evan "Chuck Inglish" Ingersoll , the group is based in Chicago, Illinois and Detroit, Michigan...
, Estelle
Estelle (musician)
Estelle Fanta Swaray commonly known as Estelle, and formerly as Est'elle, is an English R&B singer-songwriter, rapper and record producer.-Early Life:Estelle was born 18 January 1980 in Hammersmith, London, England...
, Hellogoodbye
Hellogoodbye
Hellogoodbye is a power pop band that was formed in Huntington Beach, California in 2001 by singer Forrest Kline. They were signed to Drive-Thru Records and released their first full-length album Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! in 2006, in addition to their previously released EP Hellogoodbye...
in 2008, LMFAO
LMFAO (group)
LMFAO is an American electro pop duo consisting of rappers, producers, dancers, and DJs Redfoo and SkyBlu . The group formed in 2006 in Los Angeles, California. Redfoo is SkyBlu's uncle. Redfoo is also the son of music mogul Berry Gordy, SkyBlu a grandson...
and Clipse
Clipse
Clipse is a Virginia Beach, Virginia-based hip hop duo. Formed in 1992 by brothers Malice and Pusha T , the group is heavily affiliated with production team The Neptunes and signed to Star Trak Entertainment.- Exclusive Audio Footage :The Thornton brothers were born in The Bronx, New...
in 2009, Ying Yang Twins
Ying Yang Twins
The Ying Yang Twins is an Atlanta-based American crunk rap duo consisting of Kaine and D-Roc . The group debuted in 2000 and rose to mainstream popularity in 2003 collaborating with Lil Jon in his single "Get Low"...
, Travis McCoy and The Cataracs
The Cataracs
The Cataracs are an American hip hop indie-pop duo formed in Berkeley, California, consisting of David “Campa” Benjamin Singer-Vine, a songwriter and vocalist and Niles “Cyrano” Hollowell-Dhar, a songwriter, vocalist, and producer. The duo started out as an independent group, during their years at...
in 2010. Bruin Bash was created as a replacement for Black Sunday, a large-scale day of partying including all fraternities, in North Westwood Village, where the majority of off-campus students reside adjacent to campus.
Dance Marathon is an annual event put on by the student group, the Pediatric AIDS Coalition, held in Ackerman Grand Ballroom at UCLA, where thousands of students raise money and dance to support the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs...
, Project Kindle, and One Heartland. Dancers are required to fundraise a minimum amount of $208 before the event, which is a 26 hour dance marathon
Dance marathon
A dance marathon is an event in which people stay on their feet for a given length of time. It started as a popular fad in the 1920s and 1930s, when organized dance endurance contests attracted people to compete to achieve fame or win monetary prizes...
. Dancers are not allowed to sit (except to use the restroom) during the marathon. In 2010, Dance Marathon of UCLA raised a record-breaking $407,000. Since 2002, the Marathon has raised over $2,100,000.
UCLA students also participate in "Midnight Yell" during finals week, a tradition where every night at midnight (starting on Sunday of finals week), students go outside and yell as loudly as possible for one minute, giving everyone a chance to take a short break from studying and release some nervous energy. Students who live in on-campus housing are not allowed to participate.
University of California Police Department
The University of California Police Department is the police agency charged with providing law enforcement to the campuses of the University of California system.-History:...
during the event, to ward off vandalism and dangerous activity. In 2007, the route was changed again to begin at Strathmore and Gayley Avenues instead of Landfair and Gayley Avenues. Tired of the UCLA administration meddling in student-initiated spontaneous traditions, students have begun celebrating finals week in new ways. One way is the "Undie Ride," where students run a predetermined route in their underwear on Tuesday night of finals week. In the summer of 2009, the administration canceled all future undie run events, citing safety concerns. (The Undie Run concept has since spread to other college campuses around the United States, including the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
, and Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
.)
UCLA Spring Sing
Spring Sing is UCLA's oldest and greatest musical tradition, an annual music competition held in May at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. The competition brings together UCLA students to perform as solo artists, duets, bands, and a cappella groups in front of an audience of over 7,000 UCLA students, alumni,...
, organized by the Student Alumni Association (SAA). Spring Sing is UCLA's oldest tradition—it is an annual gala of student talent, which is held at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus. In 2009 the event was held in UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. The committee bestows the George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Achievement Award each year to a major contributor to the music industry. Past recipients have included Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
, and in 2009, Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
. The Dinner for 12 Strangers, a common tradition among universities, is a gathering of students, alumni, administration and faculty to network around different interests. The week before the USC rivalry football game, there is a "Beat 'SC Bonfire and Rally." The bonfire did not take place in 2006 due to fire hazard issues. Nonetheless, UCLA won the football game, upsetting the #2 ranked Trojans. This led many to believe that dispelling of the tradition led to the victory.
The USAC Cultural Affairs Commission hosts the Jazz Reggae Festival, a two-day concert on Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
weekend that attracts more than 20,000 attendees. The JazzReggae Festival is the largest, entirely student produced and run event of its kind on the West Coast. A staff of 30 UCLA undergraduates consistently proves that today’s youth can create something as distinguished and professional as JazzReggae Fest.
Student government
The Graduate Students Association is the governing body for approximately 11,000 graduate and professional students at UCLA.
"USAC" is an acronym for Undergraduate Students Association Council, the governing body of the Undergraduate Students Association (USA) whose membership comprises every UCLA undergraduate student. The student body currently has two major political slates, Students First! (established in 1981) and Bruins United (established in 2006).
USAC's thirteen student officers and commissioners are elected by members of the Undergraduate Students Association at an annual election held during Spring Quarter. In addition to its thirteen elected members, USAC includes appointed representatives of the Administration, the Alumni, and the Faculty, as well as two ex-officio members, the ASUCLA Executive Director and a student Finance Committee Chairperson who is appointed by the USA President and approved by USAC. All members of USAC may participate fully in Council deliberations, but only the thirteen elected student members have a vote.
The thirteen elected positions include: USAC President, Internal Vice President, External Vice President, General Representative (3), Academic Affairs Commissioner, Cultural Affairs Commissioner, Facilities Commissioner, Campus Events Commissioner, Student Welfare Commissioner, Community Service Commissioner, and Financial Supports Commissioner.
The USAC President appoints more than seventy undergraduates to administrative committees and the Academic Affairs Commissioner Appoints approximately 25 undergraduates to Academic Senate Committees. Students have an opportunity to serve on the ASUCLA Board of Directors and the Communications Board, as well as on other significant committees. Through their participation on these campus-wide committees, UCLA undergraduates have had input into the decision making process at a high level.
USAC's programs offers additional services to the campus and surrounding communities and provide an opportunity for students to participate in. For example, each year approximately 40,000 students, faculty and staff attend programs of the Campus Events Commission, including a low-cost film program, a speakers program which presents leading figures from a wide range of disciplines, and performances by dozens of entertainers. Two to three thousand UCLA undergraduates participate annually in the more than twenty voluntary outreach programs run by the Community Service Commission. A large corps of undergraduate volunteers also participate in programs run by the Student Welfare Commission, such as AIDS Awareness, Substance Abuse Awareness, Blood Drives and CPR/First Aid Training.
Student Media UCLA is the home of UCLA's student-run media, including the campus newspaper, magazines, and radio and television stations.
Media publications
Most student media publications distributed on-campus are governed by the ASUCLA Communications Board. The Daily BruinDaily Bruin
The Daily Bruin is the student newspaper at the University of California, Los Angeles.-Frequency and governance:When classes are in session, the Bruin is published Monday through Friday during the school year and once a week on Mondays in the summer quarter.It is overseen by the ASUCLA...
is UCLA's most prominent student publication. Founded in 1919 under the name Cub Californian, it has since then developed into Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
' third-most circulated newspaper. It has won over 20 national awards in the last five years, and is regularly commended for layout and content. In 2006, the Society of Professional Journalists
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
awarded it Best All-Around Daily Newspaper in the national Mark of Excellence Awards. The newspaper has not been without scrutiny and controversy, and in 1954, the administration attempted to intervene with the previous policy of electing editors by a student council. UCLA Student Media also publishes seven news magazines, each established to serve a special-interest community on campus: Al-Talib, Fem, Ha'Am, La Gente de Aztlan
La Gente de Aztlan
La Gente de Aztlan is a bilingual student newsmagazine published, circulated, and run at the University of California, Los Angeles. It is the longest continuous running publication of its kind...
, Nommo, Pacific Ties, and Outwrite
Outwrite
OutWrite is University of California, Los Angeles' lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, pan-sexual, fluid, and ally newsmagazine...
, a school yearbook, BruinLife, Daily Bruin Television (DBTV), the student-run radio station, UCLAradio.com
UCLAradio.com
UCLAradio.com is the student-run college radio station affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles. It is staffed by UCLA students and staff, owned by the ASUCLA Communications Board, and funded by underwriting revenue and fundraising...
, formerly known as KLA, and the online campus review-site Bruinwalk.com. Student groups such as The Forum for Energy Economics and Development also publish yearly journals focused on energy technologies and industries.
Housing
Most undergraduate students are housed in 14 complexes on the western side of campus, referred to by students as "The Hill." Students can live in halls, plazas, suites, or university apartments, which vary in pricing and privacy. Housing plans also offer students access to dining facilities, which have been ranked by the Princeton Review as some of the best in the nation. Dining halls are located in De Neve, Rieber, Covel, and Hedrick Halls. Residential cafes include Bruin Cafe, Rendezvous, and Cafe 1919. Cafe 1919's location formerly housed a cafe known as Puzzles. UCLA currently offers three years guaranteed housing to its incoming freshman, and one year to incoming transfer students.
Graduate students are housed in one of five apartment complexes. One, Weyburn Terrace, is located just southwest of the campus. The other four are roughly five miles south of UCLA in Palms and Mar Vista. They too vary in pricing and privacy.
The Student Housing Master Plan, released October 2007, outlines goals to improve and expand student housing, including renovating older residential halls and allowing four years of guaranteed housing to all entering freshmen by 2010. According to the Daily Bruin
Daily Bruin
The Daily Bruin is the student newspaper at the University of California, Los Angeles.-Frequency and governance:When classes are in session, the Bruin is published Monday through Friday during the school year and once a week on Mondays in the summer quarter.It is overseen by the ASUCLA...
, 1,525 beds, 10 faculty in-residence apartments and a 750-seat dining hall will be built on the Northwest Housing Infill Project on the Hill by 2013. The buildings are tentatively titled De Neve Gardenia Way, De Neve Holly Ridge, Sproul Cove, and Sproul Landing.
Hospitality
Hospitality constituents of the university include departments not directly related to student life or administration. The Hospitality department manages the UCLA Guest House, a full-service, on-campus hotel. The 61-room Guest House services those visiting the university for campus-related activities. The department also manages the UCLA Conference Center, a 40 acre (0.2 km²) convention centerConvention center
A convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...
in the San Bernardino Mountains
San Bernardino Mountains
The San Bernardino Mountains are a short transverse mountain range north and east of San Bernardino in Southern California in the United States. The mountains run for approximately 60 miles east-west on the southern edge of the Mojave Desert in southwestern San Bernardino County, north of the...
near Lake Arrowhead
Lake Arrowhead, California
Lake Arrowhead is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in the San Bernardino Mountains of San Bernardino County, California, within the San Bernardino National Forest, adjacent to Lake Arrowhead Reservoir...
. Hospitality also operates UCLA Catering a Vending operation, and summer conference center located on the Westwood campus.
Chabad House
The UCLA Chabad HouseChabad house
A Chabad house is a centre for disseminating Orthodox Judaism by the Chabad movement. Chabad Houses are run by the local Shaliach , who was sent to that place by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who founded all Chabad Houses...
is a community center for Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
students operated by the Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
Chabad
Chabad
Chabad or Chabad-Lubavitch is a major branch of Hasidic Judaism.Chabad may also refer to:*Chabad-Strashelye, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism*Chabad-Kapust or Kapust, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism...
movement. Established in 1969, it was the first Chabad House at a university. In 1980, three students died in a fire in the original building of the UCLA Chabad House. The present building was erected in their memory. The building, completed in 1984, was the first of many Chabad houses worldwide designed as architectural reproductions of the residence of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe among his followers, was a prominent Hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was fifth in a direct paternal line to the third Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel...
at 770 Eastern Parkway
770 Eastern Parkway
770 Eastern Parkway is the street address of the central headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, located on Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, in the United States of America...
in Brooklyn, New York.
Other
The official UCLA site is ranked the sixteenth most accessed university site in the worldWorld
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
by Alexa
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
. Of universities in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, it is ranked third trailing only Stanford and UC Berkeley.
Faculty and alumni
Six professors (two of whom are current faculty) and six alumni have been awarded the Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
for achievements in science, economics, and peace; notably Glenn T. Seaborg
Glenn T. Seaborg
Glenn Theodore Seaborg was an American scientist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements", contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, and developed the actinide concept, which led to the current arrangement of the...
('34) who was awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
, and Elinor Ostrom
Elinor Ostrom
Elinor Ostrom is an American political economist. She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which she shared with Oliver E. Williamson, for "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons." She was the first, and to date, the only woman to win the prize in...
('54 Political Science), who was awarded the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Alumnus Richard Heck won the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Fifty-two have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships, and eleven are MacArthur Foundation Fellows
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
. In 2006, 54 faculty members were listed as "Highly Cited" by the Institute for Scientific Information
Institute for Scientific Information
The Institute for Scientific Information was founded by Eugene Garfield in 1960. It was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992, became known as Thomson ISI and now is part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation.ISI offered...
. Terence Tao
Terence Tao
Terence Chi-Shen Tao FRS is an Australian mathematician working primarily on harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatorics, analytic number theory and representation theory...
, professor of Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, was awarded the 2006 Fields Medal
Fields Medal
The Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
.
- 108 professors are members of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
- 88 professors are members of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
- 16 professors are members of the American Philosophical SocietyAmerican Philosophical SocietyThe American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
- 34 professors are members of the Institute of MedicineInstitute of MedicineThe Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
- 21 professors are members of the National Academy of EngineeringNational Academy of EngineeringThe National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
- 43 professors are members of the National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
- 7 professors are members of the National Academy of Education
Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond
Jared Mason Diamond is an American scientist and author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is currently Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA...
, a professor of Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for his book Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is a 1997 book by Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles . In 1998 it won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book...
. Two UCLA professors of history have each won 2008 Pulitzer Prizes for general nonfiction and history. Saul Friedländer
Saul Friedländer
Saul Friedländer is an award-winning Israeli historian and currently a professor of history at UCLA.-Biography:...
, professor of history and noted scholar of the Nazi Holocaust, won the prize for general nonfiction for his 2006 book, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and the Jews, 1939–1945, and Professor Emeritus Daniel Walker Howe won for his 2007 book, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848.
A number of UCLA alumni are notable politicians. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Henry Waxman
Henry Waxman
Henry Arnold Waxman is the U.S. Representative for , serving in Congress since 1975. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress...
('61, '64) represents California's 30th congressional district
California's 30th congressional district
California's 30th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California based in Los Angeles County. The district includes many of the upper-class suburbs of Los Angeles, most notably Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Calabasas, Agoura Hills,...
and is Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. U.S. Representative Judy Chu
Judy Chu
Judy May Chu, Ph.D. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2009. She is a member of the Democratic Party....
('74) represents California's 32nd congressional district
California's 32nd congressional district
California's 32nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California based in Los Angeles County. The district covers East Los Angeles and includes El Monte, Monterey Park and West Covina in Greater Los Angeles....
and became the first Chinese American
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 2009. Kirsten Gillibrand
Kirsten Gillibrand
Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik Gillibrand is an attorney and the junior United States Senator from the state of New York and a member of the Democratic Party...
('91) is U.S. Senator from the State of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and former U.S. Representative for New York's 20th congressional district
New York's 20th congressional district
The 20th Congressional District of New York is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in eastern New York. It includes all or parts of Columbia, Dutchess, Delaware, Essex, Greene, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties. It includes the...
. Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa , born Antonio Ramón Villar, Jr., is the 41st and current Mayor of Los Angeles, California, the third Mexican American to have ever held office in the city of Los Angeles and the first in over 130 years. He is also the current president of the United States Conference of...
('77) is Mayor of Los Angeles, California
Mayor of Los Angeles, California
The mayor of Los Angeles is the chief executive officer of the city. He is elected for a four-year term and limited to serving no more than two terms. Under the California Constitution, all judicial, school, county, and city offices, including those of chartered cities, are nonpartisan...
and the third Mexican American
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
ever to hold the office of mayor in the City of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with American computer scientist Bob Kahn...
('70, '72) is Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and the person most widely considered the "father of the Internet." Henry Samueli
Henry Samueli
Henry Samueli is co-founder, senior vice president, and chief technology officer of the Broadcom Corporation, owner of the Anaheim Ducks, and a prominent philanthropist in the Orange County, California community. In 2007 Forbes placed Samueli's net worth at $2.3 billion. He currently resides in...
('75) is co-founder of Broadcom Corporation and owner of the Anaheim Ducks
Anaheim Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks are a professional ice hockey team based in Anaheim, California, USA. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
.
UCLA alumni have also achieved prominence in the Arts
The arts
The arts are a vast subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. It is a broader term than "art", which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts. The arts encompass visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts – music, theatre, dance and...
and Entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
. American composer John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
is laureate conductor at the Boston Pops Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
and Academy Award-winning composer of the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
. Martin Sherwin (’71) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Actors Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
, James Franco
James Franco
James Edward Franco is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, painter, performance artist and instructor at New York University. He left college in order to pursue acting and started off his career by making guest appearances on television series in the 1990s...
, George Takei
George Takei
George Hosato Takei Altman is an American actor, author, social activist and former civil politician. He is best known for his role in the television series Star Trek and its film spinoffs, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the...
, Sean Astin
Sean Astin
Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, voice artist, and producer better known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24...
and Milo Ventimiglia
Milo Ventimiglia
Milo Anthony Ventimiglia is an American television actor best known for his role of Peter Petrelli on the TV series Heroes...
are also UCLA alumni. Popular music artists Sara Bareilles
Sara Bareilles
Sara Beth Bareilles is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She achieved mainstream success in 2007 with the hit single "Love Song", which brought her into the number one spot on the Billboard Pop 100 chart. She has sold over 1 million records in the United States alone and has been...
, The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
, Linkin Park
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries...
, and Maroon 5
Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album...
all attended UCLA. Giada De Laurentiis
Giada De Laurentiis
Giada Pamela De Laurentiis is an Italian American chef, writer, television personality, and the host of the current Food Network program Giada at Home. She also appears regularly as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC's Today...
is a program host at Food Network
Food Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
and former chef at Spago. Carlos Bocanegra
Carlos Bocanegra
Carlos Manuel Bocanegra is an American soccer player who plays for Scottish Premier League club Rangers and is the captain of the United States national team.-Chicago Fire:...
, the USA soccer team captain is also a UCLA alumnus.
- 10 National Medal of ScienceNational Medal of ScienceThe National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
winners - 3 Presidential Medal of FreedomPresidential Medal of FreedomThe Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
winners - 14 NobelNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
laureates - 2 Rhodes Scholars (since 2009)
- 3 Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winners - 1 Pritzker PrizePritzker PrizeThe Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
in Architecture winner - 1 Fields MedalFields MedalThe Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
in Mathematics winner - 78 Guggenheim Fellows
- 11 MacArthur Fellows winners
- 11 Fulbright ScholarsFulbright ProgramThe Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
(since 2000) - 5 California Scientist of the Year winners
See also
- University of CaliforniaUniversity of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
- Regents of the University of CaliforniaRegents of the University of CaliforniaThe Regents of the University of California make up the governing board of the University of California. The Board has 26 full members:* The majority are appointed by the Governor of California for 12-year terms....