Observing the crowded conditions on the Hill ““ the
three-person dorm rooms, or the long, late-night lines at
Puzzle’s eatery ““ students might assume university
officials would look for ways to take on fewer tenants.
But not so.
They’re in fact doing just the opposite, striving to house
a higher percentage of the UCLA student population in the next
eight years. They aim to ensure that incoming freshman are offered
four years, and transfer students two years, of guaranteed
on-campus living. Currently incoming freshmen are guaranteed two
years of housing, and transfers one.
As these policies begin to be put in place, UCLA ““ once a
commuter school ““ is going through an at-times painful
transition, becoming primarily a residential campus where
approximately 60 percent of students will live on or within a mile
of campus by 2010, according to housing projections.
The change in mission is happening when the university is
growing at rates unseen in a generation. If housing was not to
expand their guarantees, it would still have over-crowding issues,
as UCLA expects an increase of 4,000 full-time equivalent students
by 2010.
But Chancellor Albert Carnesale and housing officials alike said
providing more housing close to campus is a goal well worth
pursuing.
UCLA has come a long way since its early, humbler days as the
Southern Branch of the University of California, when students
often lived at home, drove in for classes and drove back after
them. The home of the Bruins is now much more than an extension of
the Berkeley campus.
A world-class university in its own right, UCLA today draws
students who need housing from all over the state, nation and
world. On top of that, even students who are from Los Angeles or
nearby often opt to spend at least part of their Bruin experiences
living in the dorms.
And well they should, said Carnesale, adding that living on or
near campus can contribute greatly to the non-academic aspects of
college life.
“It’s becoming more and more attractive to live on
campus or near campus and be part of the broader UCLA community, as
opposed to having to plan your student life around the traffic on
the 405 Freeway,” Carnesale said in a press conference with
the Daily Bruin last Friday.
“There’s a lot that goes on at the campus … that
is outside the classroom,” he said. “There are
activities, there are clubs, there are all kinds of things … that
turn out to be a lot more difficult if you have to worry about when
you have to go home” to an off-campus residence, he said.
In Carnesale’s view, living near campus can be fundamental
to the quality of student life. But that doesn’t mean the
transition to housing more students is going to be easy.
The numbers make an impression: 2,000 additional bed spaces for
undergraduates in two high rise dorms are to be added in the next
eight years.
With campus dorms approaching 125 percent capacity, the
university hopes to reduce the number of students living in
triples, making even more units necessary.
The university is also looking to provide 2,000 single graduate
students with housing by 2010, whereas now housing for single
graduate students is almost nonexistent. Providing housing, they
hope, will work as a recruitment tool for top graduate
students.
The process of taking more students in involves not just more
rooms and beds, but also building and renovating dining commons,
computer labs and administrative spaces.
The changes will not be easy or quick ““Â and will be
expensive.
The university needs to prepare for “Tidal Wave II,”
the expected influx of about 50,000 students to the UC by 2010, on
all fronts ““ it needs to build more classrooms, renovate old
ones and hire more teachers.
But housing more students presents a unique problem: all housing
costs are auxiliary ““ they cannot be provided through
California taxpayer dollars.
Looking to expand its operation, housing still must meet the
bottom line. Utilities, wages of housing employees and basic
student services need to be paid without the help of state
money.
And so do the costs of construction.
Housing officials admit that some of the burden will be passed
on to students who pay room and board fees.
“There is not only natural inflation increases in cost,
there will be additional increases in cost because of the
buildings,” said Alan Hanson, the director of the Office of
Residential Life.
Housing room and board at UCLA is already rather high given
UCLA’s West-Los Angeles location near Bel Air, Westwood and
Brentwood. Though students can expect higher-than-usual room and
board increases over the next few years, Michael Foraker, the
director of housing said such increases to pay for expansion are
not unprecedented at UCLA.
“That’s been true in different periods in our own
history,” he said.
Despite various challenges, Foraker and Hanson said housing
should be able to meet demand.