Fall 2010 will be the first quarter that Delta Terrace will be used exclusively for housing transfer students.
These new transfers don’t know how good they have it.
It seems that the transfer students relate to each other more than they can relate to the rest of the population that lives on campus ““ that is, mostly first and second year students. When I transferred to UCLA I spent my first year living on campus and most of the friends I made in the dorms were also transfers. In fact, most of the friends I made at UCLA were transfers.
Placing all of the transfer students in Delta Terrace will make it easier for transfers to acclimate to university life. Most are at similar points in their lives: they know that they only have two years left of college, and they approach job-hunting with a greater sense of urgency. They are more responsible and tend to be more mature. Although this may be the first time these students live away from their parents, transfers tend to skip that “first time away” frenzy period (or at least experience it to a lesser degree).
Along with these benefits, transfer students also would be spared the possibility of living in Saxon or Hitch. I’m sure there are lots of people that like the woodsy feel that these areas have, but I don’t. I was lucky enough to live in Rieber Vista where people would be really impressed by the external beauty of my building when they pulled into Rieber Court. When I had friends come to visit me they all made remarks about how luxurious my dorm was. I would point out the “Camp Snoopy” dorms and laugh. I think if you do your time at junior college you should get to have a real dorm building instead of a tree fort if you choose to live on campus. Not only that, they’re basically the Hill’s Siberia. Walking there from campus feels like an urban hike and then a forest hike.
“I only hung out with transfers anyway. I think most transfer students feel most comfortable with other transfers,” said Nolwen Cifuentes, a fourth-year Design | Media Arts student who lived in Delta Terrace last school year.
Kristo Gobin, Delta Terrace’s resident director, said the resident assistants working under her will be trained in leadership courses that are more catered to transfer students’ interests. For example, Gobin is planning programs focused on effective job hunting and putting together a personal resume.
This program will give transfers the opportunity to live around like-minded individuals who share similar goals and to ultimately keep one another on track. Nearly all of the transfer students I know that lived in the dorms their first year at UCLA now live in Westwood Village with another transfer they met while living on the Hill.
Since transfer students are typically coming to UCLA around age 20 or 21, they’re not really trying to hang out with the 17- and 18-year-olds that live on campus.
Don’t get me wrong ““ last year I lived with a freshman roommate and shared a bathroom with three other freshmen, but we didn’t hang out outside of our shared space. We just had different interests and were at different places in our lives. Some of them were still in that, “I’m undeclared,” head space while I was thinking, “What are you doing?” I didn’t understand why they were complaining about all of these difficult GE courses with no goal in mind. First- and second-year students are probably pretty mad at that last sentence and transfer students are probably thinking about how easy GE courses were in junior college. See? Different mind-sets.
I support the Office of Residential Life’s decision to move all of the transfers into Delta Terrace because it will give this group of students new to UCLA a community with whom they can identify. I wish next year’s residents a painless assimilation into campus life. Transfer pride.
E-mail Jagerman at njagerman@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.