It looks like a regular dorm room. Clothes scattered on the floor of the triple room and beds unmade, but to one side of the corridor stands a closet free of clothing.
Instead, one road bike is balanced diagonally in the space.
“My bike is more important, so I just keep the clothes in drawers,” said Kenny Lipton, a third-year psychology student.
Lipton is a member of the club cycling team on campus and owns a carbon fiber bike worth about $3,000. Instead of leaving it chained outside where it might get stolen, he said he likes to have it in the room with him where he knows it is safe.
Although bike thefts have been decreasing around campus because of increased vigilance by university police, there still remain some cases of theft, said UCPD spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein.
Students like Lipton and his fellow team members have turned to alternate places to store their bikes.
Cyclist Victor Ebken, one of Lipton’s teammates, has taken to bringing his bike into classrooms with him and leaning it up against a wall whenever he rides to campus.
The second-year electrical engineering student said he keeps his bike clean so it does not make a mess.
“I do it a few times a week, basically whenever I oversleep, but nobody has ever said anything to me about it,” Ebken said.
Mathematics professor James Ralston, who teaches one of Ebken’s classes, said students who bring their bicycles into the classroom do not disturb him or the class.
A bicyclist himself, he has been riding to campus since 1971, and has had multiple bikes stolen since that time.
As chair of the mathematics department, Ralston said he now uses a spare storeroom for his bicycle.
However, bicycles are not allowed in buildings if they block a means of exit, said UCLA fire marshal Dana Johnson. These areas include any walkway or stairs that lead to an exit.
Most of the time, bicycles propped up in buildings on campus will be in violation of this code, unless the bicycle is stored in an office or a separate room outside of the classroom, Johnson said.
Although some students break the rules, the fire marshal rarely confiscates bicycles, and instead prefers to educate students about safety hazards, Johnson said.
He conceded, though, that he understands students’ concerns, because “bikes can be very, very expensive.”
With reports by Sonali Kohli, Bruin senior staff.