With the two new residential plazas ““ Rieber Vista and
Hedrick Summit ““ completed and ready for residents to move in
for the fall quarter, more students will be living on campus.
Still, UCLA Dining Services expects to be able to meet the
increased demand from housing residents.
The opening of the two new dormitories provided UCLA Housing
with its first opportunity to guarantee current third-year students
a spot in on-campus housing, said Frank Montana, an assistant
director of housing services.
“All third-years who wanted housing were able to get
it,” Montana said.
Associate Director of Housing Angela Marciano said Housing looks
forward to guaranteeing four years of on-campus housing to
everyone.
“This is the first year that (Rieber Vista and Hedrick
Summit) will be open so we’ll see how students like
it,” Marciano said.
Marciano said the two new residential plazas have some
“private” rooms which helps to attract some
students.
“According to our surveys, students like privacy,”
she said.
Marciano said the demand from second-year students in the spring
who wanted to return to on-campus housing was close to what Housing
was expecting.
“We ended up with over 20 percent of those students
returning and we were expecting about 30 percent,” Marciano
said.
Marciano also said the other residential plaza still under
construction ““ Rieber Terrace ““ is expected to be
completed during winter quarter 2006.
In order to better meet the increased demands of students living
on the Hill, an additional dining hall is scheduled to be opened
during spring quarter 2006.
The restaurant, Rendez-Vous, is being built in Rieber Terrace,
said Connie Foster, associate director of Dining Services.
Rendez-Vous will have the same setup as Bruin Cafe, a restaurant
next to Sproul Hall, where students will have the option to eat in
the restaurant or take the food to go, Foster said.
Rendez-Vous will serve two types of cuisine: one part of the
restaurant will have an Asian Pacific theme that will offer
“grab ‘n go” sushi, salad and other wok-prepared
foods, while the second will have a Latin American theme and serve
Cuban and South American food.
Even though more students will be living on the Hill in fall and
winter, and no additional dining hall will be opening until the
spring, Dining Services expects to be able to meet students’
needs in the coming months.
“We’re not anticipating not being able to meet the
demands,” said Charles Wilcots, assistant director of Dining
Services.
Wilcots said Dining Services does analysis on a week-by-week
basis, and works with various student policy review groups to
identify demands students may have and makes changes to better suit
the students.
Wilcots said Bruin Cafe’s hours have been extended in an
effort to meet student demand, but there are no other plans to
extend hours for the other dining halls.
Bruin Cafe will now be open continuously from 7 a.m. to midnight
on a daily basis, Wilcots said.