It was only two years ago when hundreds of UCLA students
gathered around Westwood Plaza while the Black Eyed Peas performed
live to celebrate the end of the academic year. It was outdoors. It
was nighttime. It was a programmed event aimed to unite students
and stir school spirit and pride.
Since then, other nighttime and outdoor programs have faced more
stringent provisions greatly due to complaints from neighboring
communities pressuring UCLA administrators, said Jason Gaulton, the
Campus Events commissioner of the Undergraduate Students
Association Council.
As a part of USAC’s major goals, the Free UCLA project is
aimed to give campus nighttime and outdoor programming autonomy
and, more specifically, clarify and create a consistent guideline
for UCLA’s ability to continue to hold programming events,
such as concerts. Gaulton has led the council initiative by writing
a proposal to establish a set of guidelines for such
programming.
Berky Nelson, the director of the Center for Student Programming
and administrative representative to the council, has worked with
Gaulton in offering advice for the proposal’s creation.
“I was trying to help to sharpen the analysis of what
(Gaulton) was trying to present,” Nelson said.
“It’s a tough issue; what I can say right now is that
the proposal is under advisement.”
Gaulton stressed the importance of outdoor and nighttime
programming to the UCLA community by stating that it is not only a
matter of being more accessible and cost effective, but holding an
outdoor event has a larger effect and much more “sass”
for the students.
“We are robbing ourselves of our best programming
potential,” Gaulton said regarding the frustration and
restrictions his office faces when trying to program outdoor and
nighttime activities.
Thus far, Robert Naples, the assistant vice chancellor of
student and campus life, who has helped Gaulton, will present the
UCLA administrators with the proposal.
USAC’s hopes are to resolve the matter with discussion,
compromise and the proposal’s approval by the
administrators.
Gaulton believes the proposal is a good compromise and feels
confident he has the support of most administrators because he
believes USAC “is not asking for a lot.”
Some of the requests and compromises of the proposal include a
promise to cut off amplified music by 9 p.m., being allowed to
program with a restricted number of events set every year, and
programming with the promise to notify the neighboring communities
of these events 10 days in advance.
While the proposal’s approval is in its early stages as it
passes through the respective administrators, Gaulton’s
office is planning a nighttime and outdoors event sometime in late
April or early May to test-drive their proposal’s promises
and see, with the attention of the administrators, if their request
is unfair or justified.