By My Yen La
Daily Bruin Contributor
Opening bids to construct the only on-campus housing facility
for single UCLA graduate students is scheduled for May 1.
Though construction is on schedule, Director of Office of
Residential Life Alan Hanson said the timeline for completion of
the project is preliminary, and that groundbreaking won’t
begin until summer at the earliest.
“Until a bid is awarded and a contractor is accepted, we
don’t know what the schedule is,” he said. “Time
is our biggest hurdle.”
Despite the unclear time frame, UCLA Housing hopes to complete
the first phase of construction by fall 2003 and begin the second
phase in 2005 or 2006.
The 15-acre housing project on Veteran Avenue is expected to
provide 2,000 bed spaces, of which 1,360 spaces will be available
for use upon completion of the first phase of construction.
“We expect it to fill immediately,” Hanson said.
“It’ll be a significant recruiting tool for our
graduate students.”
The housing units will feature a mixture of studios and shared
two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments. Every graduate student will
have a private bedroom.
Utilities, cable television and Internet connections will be
provided, as well as shuttle services to campus.
The project will also feature a common facility, with
recreational and exercise rooms, computer labs, multipurpose rooms
and a convenience store “to serve the practical day-to-day
need,” according to Hanson.
Parking structures including two subterranean lots, will be
built. Each student will receive one parking space, but guest
parking will be available.
According to Kathy Fitzgerald, director of project management
for Campus Capital Programs, construction is made difficult because
the ground where the housing units will be built slopes, with a
70-foot altitude difference. Additionally, some buildings located
on Veteran will have to be demolished.
“It’s a very large-scale project,” Fitzgerald
said.
UCLA Housing would not comment on the price of such a project
until a contractor is selected.
Though housing rent cannot be determined until a contractor is
selected, UCLA Housing hopes the average price per graduate student
per month will be $750 in 2003, a price lower than the market
rate.
The rent may be below market rate, but some may not be able to
live on campus, said Graduate Students Association President Martin
Griffin.
“Graduate student support is not great,” he said.
“If the rents are not reasonable for the housing project, the
sense of the whole project will be lost.”
According to Assistant Vice-Chancellor Jim Turner, there has
always been a need to build graduate student housing.
“The bottom line is there simply isn’t enough
housing for graduate students,” Turner said.
Griffin holds the same opinion.
“Speaking personally and for a lot of graduate and
professional students, we think it’s a great project which
will change the demographics of the UCLA campus and the atmosphere
for graduate students of the UCLA campus,” Griffin said.
But Griffin said he is concerned that students with similar
fields of study may be assigned to live in the same area, taking
away from the overall experience of the residents.
Surveys completed three years ago show graduate students live an
average 12 to 15 miles from campus, according to Turner, despite
available off-campus university apartments.
“As far as graduate students are concerned, UCLA is a
commuter campus,” Turner said.
According to Fitzgerald, although housing accommodations for
married graduate students already exist, UCLA has not provided
on-campus housing for single graduate students since Mira Hershey
Hall, which no longer serves as a dormitory.
Graduate students may be happy with the new housing option, but
some Westwood residents are against it.
“It’s the noise, the construction, the dirt, all the
construction going up and down for months,” said Shelley
Taylor, managing director of the North Village Improvement
Committee. “They seem to think that when it’s
completed, it’s not going to add traffic.”
“When a session ends, there’s going to be mass
moving in and out,” Taylor said. “It’s going to
impede people moving around.”
Taylor said Westwood residents are concerned about potential
pedestrian accidents as a result of increased population and with
the loss of aesthetic landscape due to construction.
But Fitzgerald said traffic won’t be a problem.
“By putting graduate students on campus, there will be
less traffic,” she said.
Griffin said he believes graduate housing will bring benefits to
Westwood.
“The presence of this housing project, everyone agree,
will contribute to the local Westwood economy,” Griffin said.
“The project will make it financially feasible to live in the
immediate area.”