Art to Heart: UCLA’s characteristic architecture looks to the past, illuminates value of learning

Art, the universal language, can transcend space and time to reach a diverse audience. We hear this all the time, but do we truly feel the weight of these words? A cloud of elitism envelops the “art world,” alienating the perspectives of some while glorifying those of others. In efforts to challenge ideas that reinforce the intrinsic validity of one individual’s take on art over another’s, columnist Lisa Aubry will explore different creative spaces and outlooks on art and reconcile the fields of arts and sciences through discussions.

Untamed shrubbery once peppered the rolling terrain that would later transform into the UCLA campus.

By 1929, the school’s first four structures had cropped up on the hilly region’s highest point. The buildings were originally called Royce Hall, the College Library (Powell Library), the Chemistry Building (Haines Hall) and the Physics-Biology Building (Kaplan Hall). While much more than their titles have changed in the following nine decades, these core buildings unequivocally remain the heart and pride of the campus’ architecture – their symbolic motifs and stylistic inspirations communicate the values of academia.

UCLA began as the southern branch of UC Berkeley but later broke away to become a self-contained university in its own right. The school’s desire to differentiate itself from UC Berkeley in its stylistic expression is strongly reflected in its architecture, said classics associate professor Robert Gurval. Rather than subscribing to a Gothic style like most American universities, UCLA actively aimed to embody Southern California’s distinctive luminosity and climate, Gurval said. Two architectural teams emulated styles from northern Italy and Spain, coastal regions that they found fit better into Southern California’s visual repertoire than did structures from colder northern European countries.

Although the campus’ first architects allotted priority to constructing functional, sturdy structures, practicality is not mutually exclusive with decorative or playful touches, Gurval said. Royce Hall, dedicated to classrooms and administrative offices, was positioned facing east to maximize sunlight. When the sunbeams strike the building’s asymmetrically designed towers, the bricks simmer in multicolor reds and oranges. Playing off the university’s motto, “Let there be light,” architectural firm Allison & Allison inlaid 50 different hues of red-colored bricks with the dazzling effects in mind.

During a tour of Royce Hall, graduate archaeology student Amr Shahat and second-year history student Catherine Colson pointed out the many art forms encrusted in its surface, as well as more subtly articulated within. Modeled after the Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, Royce Hall was meant to serve as a “cathedral to the humanities,” Shahat said. The cross-vaulted ceilings under the colonnade feature frescos representing 12 academic fields. A person holding an abacus signifies mathematics, while a person looking into a human skull indicates philosophy.

[RELATED: UCLA opens centennial celebration with Alumni Day festivities]

Powell Library’s red brickwork and triad of massive windows echo Royce’s bricks and triple portal entrances that open onto the plaza. Graham Smith, a second-year environmental science student who conducted a walk-through tour of Powell Library, said architect George W. Kelham modeled the stone entrance after that of the Basilica di San Zeno in Verona, Italy. Intended as a “temple to books and to the written word,” Powell pulled from an architectural vocabulary of religious structures, replacing Christian symbols with mythic and secular ones. For instance, San Zeno’s Christ figure is replaced with an owl, which represents Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and learning.

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The 1928 construction of Powell Library –originally known as the College Library – shows the octagonally domed ceiling in the works. (Courtesy of Thelner Barton Hoover and Louise Eleanor Brown Hoover/UCLA Library Special Collections)

Powell’s interior teems with colorful Moorish-inspired tile work and animal imagery. The geometrical wall niche at the center of the stairway is an element appropriated from mosque architecture known as a mihrab. In Muslim contexts, the mihrab points in the direction of the sacred site Mecca, but Smith said in Powell’s case, the niche points to the most sacred site in the library – the stacks.

Students taking a study break or procrastinating in Powell may have looked up to admire the library’s ceilings for a moment. The central octagonal region sports not only a golden eight-point star, but also 40 emblems of medieval Europe’s most prominent printers as an homage to early book culture, Smith said. As it turns out, even the “wooden” ceiling beams themselves – made of painted plaster – are purely decorative, since the library’s roof is actually held up by a hidden suspension system.

Tour guide and first-year Ayse Seker said Kerckhoff Hall instantiates a similar trick in its concrete columns painted to simulate wood, replicating medieval architecture. Kerckhoff, with its seven-story tower and four spiraling stone spires, is the only Gothic-inspired building on campus as an intentional nod to its sole use as a student clubhouse rather than a space for classroom learning.

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In 1932, the Physics-Biology Building – recently renamed Kaplan Hall – faced construction for the northern wing. (Courtesy of Thelner Barton Hoover and Louise Eleanor Brown Hoover/UCLA Library Special Collections)

Although inspired by Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster, England, Kerckhoff breaks partially from Gothic style to cohere with UCLA’s color scheme by meshing stone with classic red brick material, Seker said. Intricate metalwork shines through light fixtures inside, showing off floral motifs and interlacing patterns. Further illumination streams in from oriel stained glass windows depicting activities like boxing and archery.

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Architectural history professor Dell Upton said the models of medieval religious spaces achieve two different ends: The architecture secularizes religious forms while also sacralizing the act of learning. The quadrangle formed by the original four buildings is in fact a blown-up version of a monastic cloister or courtyard, Upton said.

While such large-scale layouts subtly trace back to distant spacial-temporal traditions, small touches are often overlooked, Upton said, but understanding the imagery provides glimpses into the past. The architects practiced during an era in which training comprised drawing historic buildings and imbuing structures with symbolic decoration. Examining their decisions to include certain animals, seals or personifications of disciplines helps illuminate what early 20th-century scholars deemed representative of higher education – and worthy of admiration.

UCLA gets timing wrong with camera surveillance policy, putting onus on students

If you’ve ever felt like you’re being watched, you’re probably right – UCLA has eyes all over campus.

There are more than 2,500 security cameras on campus, but no regulations on how they can be used. UCLA Policy 133, introduced in September, sets up centralized guidelines for using these cameras to improve campus safety.

But the policy has drawn criticism. For starters, it allows UCPD access to the footage without having to ask for permission, institutionalizing campus monitoring.

The proposition was first drafted before students came to campus in fall 2018, and prompted backlash from the community soon afterward. The administration then waited more than two quarters to reopen the policy for public comment, with little in the way of public access to the process itself. Despite the extension of the public comment period, the policy’s text was barely updated.

UCLA alerted students via email last week that the policy is up for a 30-day review period.

Student feedback ought to be the administration’s topmost priority – not something rushed at the end of the quarter – for a policy already characterized as far-reaching. The issue isn’t just the policy itself: It’s that students weren’t taken into account, even though they’re subject to the proposed mass surveillance. The revisions may seem like an improvement, but the timing of the announcement hinders students’ ability to be fully involved in the discussion.

After all, finals season is just around the corner, and few students are bound to be on campus after the quarter ends.

At a town hall Tuesday, Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck said the policy contains much-needed regulations so UCPD can more efficiently use security camera footage in emergencies.

But students fear that immediate access to surveillance could open avenues for breaches of privacy and unfair treatment. Many at the town hall expressed concerns that easier access would enable racial profiling and infringement of students’ private lives.

These students were forced to organize the town hall themselves to actually make their concerns heard.

Although Policy 133 is just one example, its implementation creates a slippery slope for future campus policy changes. The university is currently reviewing two other policies pertaining directly to students: one requiring multioccupancy gender-inclusive restrooms on campus and another amending how UCLA reports student deaths to the community.

All three of these policies regulate issues students care greatly about, and yet they were introduced just before most of them left for summer last year. The comment periods for all three policies are 30 days long, ending after school lets out.

Rick Tuttle, a continuing lecturer of public policy, said UCLA as a community must consider the gravity of policies like Policy 133 before implementing them.

“This is a lot more than administrative vice chancellor turf,” Tuttle said. “This is about the nature of one of America’s great research universities, and if we go forward on this, others will follow.”

UCLA is setting a new precedent for discreetly updating security and privacy practices on public campuses. And while students are most directly affected by this policy, their voices are valued the least.

“It would be difficult to quantify student feedback independently, as all feedback is critical to the review process,” said Laurraine Pollard, Beck’s assistant.

Without the ability to consistently participate in policy changes, students aren’t properly informed about the place they call home. For such an invasive policy, communication to students has been conveniently muted.

Aalisha Dalal, a computer science graduate student, said she was completely in the dark about the policy and the subsequent changes to it.

“It should be more public,” Dalal said. “If there are cameras recording us, we should know that we are being recorded and where we are being recorded,” she said.

Policy 133 involves all students’ daily lives and can be especially sensitive for students of color. The university should be actively seeking their feedback, instead of scheduling opportunities for input at a time when students are at their busiest.

“In many of (the cultural student groups) there is a very deep history of the push-and-pull between government surveillance of their activities, their grandparents’ activities, their parents’ activities – and they should be included,” Tuttle said.

Sure, the increase and centralization of UCLA’s security camera systems could improve campus safety. The university’s recent past provides compelling reasons: There was an active shooter on campus in 2016, a gun incident on the Hill last year and vandalism of student government offices in Kerckhoff Hall in 2018. Beck said cameras’ footage was insufficient in all these events due to the security systems’ lack of regulation and coherence.

The administration’s push for cameras’ improved use is not unreasonable. What is, though, is shutting students out of the conversation and allowing a flawed policy to slip through the cracks – or stay unopened in students’ email inboxes.

Students are about to be watched by eyes they hardly know are there. Their opinions matter – and they shouldn’t have to shout into the town hall mic to get their voices heard.

Partnership with micromobility companies will not fix failed Bruin Bike Share program

Students who use UCLA transportation know it’s about as effective as driving with a flat tire.

You only use it when there is absolutely no other option.

UCLA didn’t get the memo back in 2017. The university created Bruin Bike Share, a program that allows students to use bikes getting to and from campus after they pay either membership or one-time use fees.

The decline in ridership seems to come as a shock to the university. But anyone with half a brain could tell the program was doomed to fail.

Just try to remember the last time you saw someone biking down Bruin Walk.

But UCLA Transportation is chalking up the ridership decrease to the emergence of electric scooters. The department is now looking for an electric bike or scooter company to partner with. This announcement comes after UCLA already tried, and failed, to stop students from using these micromobility options in many on-campus spaces.

The university doesn’t seem to understand the real problems with its transportation system, and the bike-share program isn’t the only project UCLA Transportation has flubbed. BruinBus and the UCLA Safe Ride service are also inconvenient and difficult to use.

Everything UCLA Transportation touches seems to turn to rubber. And that’s because it doesn’t understand its primary client base: students.

Bruin Bike Share failed to take students’ needs into account and was more concerned with public impression. Membership for the program was around 300 in April 2018, out of a campus population of over 45,000. And this was just five months after the launch of the project. With less than 1% of the student population holding memberships, the program has cost $80,000 per year to serve students and community members who aren’t the least bit interested in using it.

The main reason behind the lack of interest is inconvenience. Biking isn’t easy on this campus and hills are aplenty. Students don’t think it’s worth the energy, and the program has failed because of it. The lack of promotion for the program also doesn’t help matters.

Eric Wong, a second-year mechanical engineering student, said he only had a vague idea of the program.

“I’m aware of its existence, but other than that I know nothing about it,” Wong said. “I’m not sure how much it costs, how to use it or even where it is really.”

The only successful forms of transportation on campus seem to exist outside the university’s control. Ride-hail companies like Uber and Lyft are extremely popular around campus – so popular they’ve congested campus throughways, a problem UCLA hasn’t provided a solution for.

And e-scooters have become one of the most common ways to get to campus. There are hundreds of scooters provided by many companies. Passengers nationwide took almost 40 million rides on e-scooters in 2018 alone, and UCLA hasn’t been insulated from the craze.

The freedom to park anywhere is a main selling point for the e-scooters over the university’s bike-share program, said Shawn Hsu, a third-year economics student.

“When you’re done with your ride, you can just leave it wherever,” Hsu said. “But with the bike-share program, you have to put it into a bike rack. The racks aren’t always in convenient places.”

The fact is UCLA Transportation hasn’t been able to provide convenience in any of its programs. UCLA Safe Ride, for example, is only available Monday to Thursday, and stops service after midnight despite students often being out late and on weekends. On top of that, the night van mobile application gives inaccurate estimated times of arrival – something any ride-hailing service should be able to do accurately.

And the Bruin buses have faced their share of challenges as well, changing and merging bus lines frequently while experiencing long wait times and hours.

By pairing with an e-scooter or e-bike company, UCLA hopes to provide cheaper rides to students in order to distract them from the huge financial loss caused by Bruin Bike Share. But adding another scooter option to an already crowded field feels like a race to the bottom against companies that already dominate the industry.

E-scooters are definitely in high demand around campus, but UCLA Transportation is getting to the party late. The department has botched so many projects it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for the rollout of yet another questionable program.

It’s not easy to know what students want in their transportation, but UCLA has spent a lot of money on modes of travel Bruins have no interest in. And it’s held on stubbornly to the old ways, despite its duty to improve transportation around campus.

Bruin Bike Share is a failure. Like with an old flat tire, it’s time to stop trying to pump it up.

UCLA Dining to renovate Covel, De Neve Grab ‘n’ Go dining halls over the summer

UCLA Dining will renovate two dining halls this summer.

Covel Commons Residential Restaurant and De Neve Grab ‘n’ Go will undergo renovations this summer and reopen fall quarter of 2019. UCLA Dining will update the guest and kitchen area in Covel, and add new items to the menu at De Neve Grab ‘n’ Go.

De Neve Grab ‘n’ Go remained closed this year due to low popularity among students during the 2017-2018 academic year, UCLA spokesperson Katherine Alvarado said.

De Neve Grab ‘n’ Go is scheduled to reopen during fall quarter. In an effort to increase student interest next year, De Neve Grab ’n’ Go will add new menu items, such as Mediterranean and Asian inspired “interchangeable bowl concepts,” Alvarado said.

She added Covel’s renovations will be broken into two phases – phase one will occur this summer, and phase two will occur spring 2020.

Students said they think the changes will have a mostly positive effect, but they do not think the renovations are necessary.

Mariah Miller, a third-year English student, said she thinks Covel does not compare favorably to other dining halls on the Hill, and that renovation could improve its quality.

“Compared to a lot of the other dining halls, it’s kind of lackluster because the interior isn’t as attractive as (Bruin Plate’s), and the food isn’t as good as the dishes at De Neve or Feast,” Miller said.

However, she said she does not think the renovations are necessary because she thinks they are focused more on improving aesthetics rather than infrastructure. She added that the university should focus its attention on improving areas of campus that actually need renovations.

“One question I’m asking is why similar improvements aren’t made to the libraries, and I’m reminded of the water stains on the ceilings of (Charles E. Young Research Library),” Miller said.

Celine Tsoi, a first-year psychology and political science student, said she thinks UCLA Dining should devote its resources to addressing the impacts of growing enrollment instead of carrying out what she thinks are unnecessary renovations of the dining halls.

“I don’t feel like they need to renovate Covel. I like the place and food there just fine,” Tsoi said. “I think it is important to meet the demands for enrollment growth.”

Alvarado said increases in student population and demand for housing prompted the renovations, and all costs for the renovations come from student housing fees.

The cost of the renovations has yet to be determined.

Previous USAC election board chair re-appointed for next year

This post was updated May 30 at 3:28 p.m.

Student government leaders appointed their main election coordinator Tuesday.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council voted unanimously to re-appoint Kyana Shajari, a third-year psychology student, as election board chair. Shajari managed the 2019 spring election and will manage the USAC 2019 fall special election and the 2020 spring election.

Kyana Shajari was previously appointed to the position March 12 by Claire Fieldman, former council president, and served as the USAC election board chair for seven weeks. She was appointed by the council two weeks after Richard White, the former election chair, was ousted from the position.

The election board under Shajari faced several violations during the 2019 USAC elections. She previously said the violations were due, in part, to issues from the previous election chair and her late appointment.

Shajari said she plans on rebranding USAC to make it more open and accessible to more students and plans to personally focus on increasing professionalism.

Since three positions on the council are still open – two general representative positions and the financial supports commissioner seat – the election board will hold a special election in the fall to complete the 2019-2020 USAC council.

Contributing reports by David Gray, City and Crime editor.

Former Bruin nominated to be UC student regent-designate

A UCLA alumnus was nominated to be the student regent on the University of California Board of Regents for the 2020-2021 academic year, a UC press release announced Wednesday.

Jamaal Muwwakkil, a doctoral student in linguistics at UC Santa Barbara, will be the 46th student regent if his nomination is approved at the July regents meeting. Muwwakkil will serve as the student regent-designate for the 2019-2020 year and will take over the student regent position in July 2020.

As student regent-designate, Muwwakkil will be able to participate in all deliberations with the regents, but will not have voting privileges until he takes over the student regent position in 2020.

Muwwakkil, a first-generation college student, transferred from Los Angeles City College to UCLA in 2014. He graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in applied linguistics in 2016 and is currently researching African American language and culture, sociocultural linguistics and political discourse at UC Santa Barbara.

Devon Graves, the current student regent and a graduate student at UCLA, will leave the position of student regent June 30. Hayley Weddle, the current student regent-designate and a UC San Diego doctoral student, will fill the position during the 2019-2020 year before Muwwakkil is appointed in July.

UCLA proposes lower enrollment rates to reduce overcrowding, promote graduation rates

UCLA plans to flatten enrollment rates over the next four years to address overcrowding and increase graduation rates.

UCLA’s undergraduate population has grown by 20% in the last nine years, an increase of over 5,000 students, UCLA spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez said. The university presented a proposal in March to slow down enrollment and increase the undergraduate population by only 1% over the next four years.

The 2018 incoming undergraduate class of 9,674 was the second largest in the school’s history, only behind the fall 2016 incoming class of 9,905. Slowing enrollment increases will allow academic and housing resources to catch up with the increase in students, Vazquez added.

UCLA must ultimately collaborate with the University of California Office of the President to develop and approve the enrollment proposal, Vazquez said.

UCLA also proposed improving three- and four-year graduation rates to increase the number of degrees granted by the university. The plan noted there is a 13% difference between graduation rates of underrepresented minority students and those of non-minority students.

The enrollment proposal would target the graduation disparity through the launch of “Summer Intensive” Programs, an increase in the number of online classes, and greater support for academic advising and tutoring initiatives.

The “Summer Intensive” Programs would be high demand, sequential courses that enable students to finish an entire year of a requirement in 10 weeks, according to the proposal. However, the proposal acknowledged that the plan may not receive sufficient funding from the California state legislature.

Student government officials said while the proposal may help with overcrowding, it will not necessarily solve the issues current students face.

Robert Watson, Undergraduate Students Association Council president and a third-year political science and economics student, said he thinks UCLA could increase access and retention of underrepresented minority students by investing in already existing resources.

“We have so few (Campus Assault Resources and Education) and (Counseling and Psychological Services) counselors, resources are limited, when it comes to counselors or (UCLA Residential Life),” he said. “I think prioritizing those investments and financial aid than simply advertising more online and summer classes.”

Watson said he agrees that the administration should focus on supporting students who are already enrolled.

“I think we should be as accessible as possible but I agree there is an inadequacy of helping students already here,” he said. “For example, we don’t have a four-year housing guarantee which I think is an issue for students who want the safety and comfort of living on the Hill.”

Johana Guerra Martinez, USAC external vice president and a third-year political science student, said she thinks solely slowing enrollment increases may not help underrepresented students.

Martinez said she thinks additional mental health and academic resources would have a greater impact on minority students than slowing enrollment increases.

“Students of color especially deal with imposter syndrome,” she said. “They will always have to deal with that, but when it comes to counselors, I don’t know if UCLA is taking more steps to hire more advisors or counselors.”

Martinez added she thinks UCLA could be more transparent about what actions it is taking to fight overcrowding on campus.

“We understand action and tangible resources can take a long time to set up, but when you have an institution that isn’t forthcoming about steps they’re going to take to help, that makes people feel isolated and they just accept the circumstances,” she said.

Martinez, whose office is responsible for representing students in the California legislature, said she thinks flattening enrollment could send the wrong message to state legislators.

“The California legislature continues to want more students to attend UCs, especially residents,” she said. “As the EVP office, we always ask them for more money, but if the University says ‘We don’t want more students,’ well, that’s not a great bargaining point for students.”

Martinez said she worries that slowing enrollment increases may actually negatively impact underrepresented minorities applying to UCLA and she is concerned minority students will be left out of the conversation.

“I think it’s interesting that after the Centennial, we’re going to want less students here even though it’s taken a lot of students to make an impact and shape the legacy,” Martinez said. “I worry that when it comes to students UCLA decides aren’t worth the cut, that could impact marginalized students who wouldn’t normally come to UCLA.”