The All-Hill Transfer Social put on by the Hilgard Residents
Association tried to create unity between transfer students of the
Hilgard Houses and those transfers living on the Hill in residence
halls.
“Our main goal is to unite these students to create a
larger transfer-student community,” said Phong Nguyen,
president of HRA.
The HRA did just that as they hosted a full house of transfer
students on Wednesday from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at 824 Hilgard
Avenue.
All the transfer students from the Hill and the four houses
operated by HRA were invited to the event and took advantage of the
opportunity to meet others and just talk about life as transfer
students.
This was the second year for this event, and HRA strived for a
larger turnout by delivering the invitations door-to-door and
adding music to the program. They also used board games like
“Battle of the Sexes,” foosball and dancing as
ice-breakers and gave everyone a chance to find something they were
interested in.
The informal event was organized so that no one felt obligated
to stay for the full two hours, but students were encouraged to
experience all the different activities.
Six people organized the social, buying food, finding music and
planning activities to keep their guests busy. Ten or so additional
members passed out flyers to each of the 200 transfer students
living on the Hill.
“I went (to the social) last year, and that’s where
I found PTSP (Pilipino Transfer Student Partnership). We all talked
about what we were going through, and we all connected,” said
Stephanie Salinas, a fourth-year transfer student who is now the
Administrative Coordinator of PTSP.
Salinas lived in Hedrick Hall during her first year at UCLA and
thinks the experience would have been much easier if Housing would
put all the transfer students together.
Not everyone agrees with her.
“It’s a great idea to have transfer housing, but it
should not be mandatory or restricted to transfers only,”
said Tim Stuebbe, a third-year transfer student who currently lives
in Hedrick Hall.
Hilgard Houses are the only all-transfer housing offered to UCLA
students. The houses, located on Sorority Row, are not side-by-side
but hold most of their events together.
“I think that we shouldn’t all be housed together,
but I don’t think that we should be put among first- years
either,” said William Nelson, a third-year student living in
Rieber Hall.
Students living in Hilgard get to enjoy more privacy and a
closer community. Each house holds about 120 students, a slightly
larger number of people than can be found on a floor in one of the
high-rise residence halls.Â
“Hilgard is pretty social, and its also a perfect sized
community. You get to know everyone. Each house is small enough on
their own to create its own community but we all know each other as
a whole too,” said Sasika Corder, a third-year transfer
student from England, who got to experience dorm-life before she
transferred here.
Even though the houses don’t provide luxuries like the
high-speed internet access the dorms have, living in Hilgard
still has a lot of advantages ““ such as having a living room,
study room, game-room and TV room.
The facilities are shared by all residents and provide great
relief by allowing the students to separate their social, academic
and personal lives, and not forcing them to be confined to their
small bedrooms.
Most of the students living in Hilgard don’t feel like
they are missing out on an experience since Hilgard is an
experience of its own.
And it can sometimes be hard for transfers to relate to the
first-years in the dorms.
“Hilgard is actually better,” said Hector Lopez.
Lopez has been living in the house for the past two years and is
also the controller of HRA.
The HRA also provides it’s residents with workshops to
help make their transition to UCLA as smooth as possible.
“We provide services like apartment-finding workshops and
have events to keep everyone in touch,” said Nguyen.
This may not always be the case, unfortunately.
The Hilgard Houses are not owned by UCLA and are actually rented
out by a third party. This causes instability of their existence
for each upcoming year.
“The thought that these houses might no longer be here
saddens a lot of the residents because the transfers would no
longer have a place to call their own,” added Nguyen.
Wednesday night, students chose to forget about all that and
focus on meeting new people or reuniting with old
acquaintances.
The friendly atmosphere of the living room filled with people
talking in groups and playing games was very welcoming to new
members and all together created a successful night, Nguyen
said.