A 1978 Ford LTD parked in Bruin Plaza was the victim of a car smashing Monday, as students conjured up Bruin spirit and dismantled an automobile scribbled with “Stanford sucks.”
Rear headlights, bumper, license plate and antenna dropped like candy from a pinata as students took home souvenirs from the popular event of Blue and Gold Week.
“Where else can you smash things and not get arrested?” said Sarah Sullivan, a first-year business economics student who said her first act of vandalism was “exciting.”
Gripping a sledgehammer and donning goggles, Sullivan swiftly worked through the 30-second time limit as a crowd of onlookers cheered her on.
Due to a university policy against amplified sound during 10th week, the annual Blue and Gold Week is being held earlier this year and sans USC.
A different type of Cardinal red is being targeted however, as organizers have rallied around the UCLA-versus-Stanford homecoming game to celebrate Bruin pride.
The week-long festivities include 8-clap rallies every three hours, a concert by Tokyo Police Club and a rally and bonfire at the Intramural Field.
“I wish it was a USC car, but you take what you can get,” said Marc Miller, a fourth-year physics student who took a car antenna as his souvenir.
The car was a donation from Westside Auto Recycling, a junk tow that regularly donates vehicles to UCLA, and arrived on campus in the UCLA shade of blue. Organizers said they quickly tried to scatter red paint on the car as to not defeat the purpose of the event: destroying red.
The result was a predominately blue car with flourishes of red anti-Stanford slogans.
“(They) tried to bring us the biggest car so there’s more space to hit,” said Carissa Requejo, adviser for the Greek organizations that sponsored the event. “We tried to put as much red on it as we could.”
The choice of the color, however, did not dampen the spirit of those who simply wanted to deface the car.
“I wanna smash the car up,” Miller said as he waited in line.
“College is a time for new experiences,” said third-year English student Ben Stevens.
Adjacent to the beat-up car, Steve Patel, a first-year sociology student, exchanged his red T-shirt for an “I heart UCLA” one as a part of an exchange program going on all week.
“I love the color blue and I dislike red,” he said.
He went on to say that of his red colored shirts, the one he exchanged was the “most red.”
Standing in front of a stack of red T-shirts, third-year volunteer Nancy Wang explained her rationale for being a member of the Blue and Gold Week committee.
“I wanted to get rid of red out of our system,” she said. “It’s good to get red out when you’re at UCLA … or when you’re at the rest of the world.”
She added that very few of the shirts were actually from USC or Stanford.
Miguel Bautista, a 9th-grade student, was on a campus tour with his high school when he ran into the festivities. As he soaked in the campus to get an idea what the university offered, the potential applicant made his judgment of the campus.
“(UCLA) looks like a fun place to be at,” he said.