Plans for new graduate student center under way

After the university police vacated the Kinross Building and relocated to its new headquarters last month, the Graduate Students Association staked its claim for the space to transform it into a new focal point for graduate students.

GSA, partnered with UCLA Recreation, plans to create the Bruin Graduate Student Center, which will serve as a space for the almost 12,000 graduate students living on and off campus to exercise, meet, socialize and study on the first floor of the Kinross Building.

“I think most grad students feel disconnected from UCLA; most graduates are very isolated in their department, or their lab or their cohort and there’s not that kind of intermingling undergraduates have,” said Ryan Roberts, GSA internal vice president. “This was a large way we thought could work towards trying to build more cohesion and boost morale among grad students.”

The university library will share the first floor of Kinross, where it will move its preservation and conservation activities, said Michael Olsson, UCLA space management and analysis director. On the second floor, the office suite formerly belonging to the chief of police will be occupied by the Office of Research Administration and the Office for Intellectual Property.

Before police took over the building in 2008, the Kinross Building was the staging area for the World Arts and Cultures department from 2001 to 2004, which left behind showers, lockers, hardwood floors and large, open-air rooms on the first floor. These existing facilities will be converted into a fitness center available only to graduate students, said Mick Deluca, UCLA Recreation director of cultural and recreational affairs.

“It’s got good bones,” Deluca said. “So now it’s designing (the space) both functionally and aesthetically … for this little project.”

Even though the Wooden Center is open to all UCLA students, it can’t fit everyone, Roberts said. With the Kinross location, graduate students could have their own area, without some of the discomfort of possibly exercising next to their undergraduate students.

“A lot of grad students don’t really want to be exercising alongside someone who they might have just graded a paper or given a bad grade to. In some ways, that is not the environment they wanted … from an instructor point of view.”

The center will also feature a large community center for students to hold special meetings and events, as well as a technology center with high-end Adobe software that students may otherwise not have access to.

GSA has also asked Associated Students UCLA to consider adding a small coffee and snack facility.

The location will serve both graduate students living in Weyburn Terrace and University Apartments South, as well as commuting students, due to its proximity to the housing sites and Wilshire Boulevard.

Both Roberts and Jamal Madni, GSA president, said most West Coast universities don’t have this kind of center for graduate students.

“UCLA is going to be the first school west of the Mississippi to have something like this,” Madni said. “There’s only eight to 10 schools (with graduate student centers), and they’re all on the East Coast. I can foresee many campuses wanting to emulate this, but we’re really on the forefront of this, and that’s thanks to our chancellor.”

When GSA proposed the idea for the Bruin Graduate Student Center over a year and a half ago, Chancellor Gene Block gave his full support.

“That, in turn, sped this process up entirely,” Madni said. “Administrators have told us that this is light speed for a (university project).”

With a Jan. 1, 2011, completion date goal, Deluca agreed the project will be on a fast track.

Since the graduate student center will be housed in a pre-existing building, both the monetary and time expense will be reduced, as most of the work will be “re-purposing” the existing facility, he said.

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