As the University of California prepares to enroll 10,000 new students by 2019, it’s uncertain how these enrollment increases will affect course availability and flexibility at the system’s flagship campuses, UC Berkeley and UCLA.
UCLA is already overpopulated – and commuter students will be hit especially hard by enrollment increases. As both on-campus and off-campus housing continue to become more expensive due to greater demand for an already limited housing stock around campus, the commuter population is bound to grow. This increase in commuters means UCLA must find ways to accommodate all students equally.
Commuting is often not a student’s first choice: Students commute because they must work full time to fund their education and commuting can save them money that would otherwise pay for dorming or living in off-campus apartments. Given this, UCLA shouldn’t make commuting any more difficult for them.
UCLA can better help commuter students by making courses more accessible and flexible. While UCLA students are familiar with the large class sizes and compromises in class enrollment that come with attending the state’s most populated university, commuter students often face extra hassle because they must balance their academics with a tiring commute through Los Angeles’ infamous bumper-to-bumper traffic.
But as it stands, popular or required classes usually only feature one large lecture, dictated by the department and the master schedule of classes. These inflexible time offerings often force commuter students to take classes that don’t meet their major requirements but simply fulfill degree progress and financial aid unit requirements.
UCLA administration can address this problem by expanding distance education online courses for those who might need a class but are unable to be on campus on certain days. UCLA should offer more lectures for classes which student input suggests should be offered at multiple times. This is why the “Class Planner” feature could help UCLA become a more inclusive institution – if it is implemented and advertised correctly.
UCLA can also improve its transportation infrastructure to reflect the fact that there is no single type of commuter student. Commuters are a diverse population with various needs. For example, although many students commute in their own cars, others commute in vanpools. The UCLA Vanpool Program is managed by UCLA Transportation and provides UCLA vans for commuter groups that want to travel to and from UCLA from a common location. The vanpool program is one of UCLA’s hidden gems. It is a great and relatively stress-free way of commuting to and from campus.
However, it does not always provide the flexibility that is necessary for students because it is geared more towards UCLA staff. UCLA Transportation should look into providing options for vanpool riders who have to be on campus at non-traditional hours, like evenings.
The UCLA Transportation office can begin by advertising vanpools to a more diverse set of faculty, staff and students who may have different commuting times, to allow them to form more vanpools.
Even students who drive themselves to campus must face expensive parking fees and limited spaces. UCLA must fund and foster programs such as one of the Bruin Resource Center’s plans, which was initiated by Transfer Student Representative Divya Sharma. The program is a second chance for commuter transfer students who were denied parking permits to obtain one. However, the program is limited to commuter transfer students for now, and the program only distributes 12 extra parking permits per quarter. The administration should consider working with Sharma’s office to expand this program to serve more students.
The UCLA Registrar should also consider providing a priority or early enrollment appointment time to students who live far from campus or who use campus-based commuting options like the vanpool program, which often has limited scheduled times to its farther destinations. Adding a Community Programs Office Commuter Van Service route to Union Station would also be helpful because of the current lack of options to reach Union Station from UCLA.
The needs of commuter students at UCLA have fallen by the wayside for many years, but commuter students deserve to participate in the greater UCLA community. The university must make these changes to help commuters reach their full potential and find their niche as Bruins.
Ortiz is a third-year political science and international development studies student.
In addition to online classes, UCLA could also take the following steps: more Saturday classes to alleviate weekday traffic; UCLA buying and tearing down the rundown, earthquake-risk 50’s Westwood housing and building energy-efficient, taller and safer student housing like USC is doing; purchasing the few vacant lots left in Westwood and adding parking; improving the bus runs around Westwood and campus using small, more agile vans and allowing student to call them like Uber; working harder with the city to fix the terrible roads around campus and re-striping safer pedestrian crosswalks and adding left turn signals for smoother traffic and pedestrian safety.