By Marion Wise
Daily Bruin Contributor
In an attempt to meet the demands of Tidal Wave II ““ the
influx of 60,000 students to the UC by 2010 ““ UCLA Housing
and Hospitality Services is planning to build additional on-campus
housing.
According to Director of UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services
Michael Foraker, UCLA believes the campus needs 1,500 to 2,000
additional bed spaces, including space for transfer students, to
accommodate increasing student enrollment levels.
“From an institutional perspective, we very much need to
have additional housing by fall 2005-’06,” Foraker
said. “We’ve initiated a preliminary campus process to
find if it’s possible to add bed spaces.”
Foraker has met with Sam Morabito, associate vice chancellor of
Business and Finance, and representatives from the Office of
Residential Life and Capital Programs the past several months.
“I’d say that where we are is internal discussions
and looking at sites that could accommodate the number of beds that
need to be constructed,” said Alan Hanson, director of
ORL.
The group has engaged in studies to determine where the new
housing could be constructed and what form it should take. Hanson
said sites are undetermined, but they will most likely be
“in-fill” style. “In-fill” is a term
developers use to describe new structures that are built adjacent
to or in between current housing complexes.
Specifics of the building will be determined as plans develop,
Foraker said.
“I don’t think there’s room for additional
buildings that would look like the existing high-rises,” he
said. “What we build will likely be five to seven stories in
height. I’m quite certain we won’t build any more
buildings that will have community-style bathrooms.”
According to Foraker, the organizations involved have surveyed
this year’s junior transfers to find the type of housing they
prefer. They have also researched college campuses across the
nation to determine what types of housing other campuses have built
over the past three years.
“We’re hoping, of course, to provide housing for
upper division students, and so the type of housing that
we’re most favorably considering is the kind of housing that
would be more desirable to those students,” Hanson said.
Hanson said plans include making housing more private than
traditional high-rise dorms ““ while giving students a better
opportunity to meet others than in apartment life.
“It’s a hybrid of the totally independent apartment
life and that which we know to be the highly developed interactive
kind of facility we have for lower division students,” Hanson
said.
The group hopes to move forward with plans this summer by hiring
an architect to begin designing possible building structures. By
the end of the summer, the university hopes to have a projected
cost of construction.
“Right now we’re trying to determine what the needs
are,” Foraker said. “We’re trying to get the
pre-planning pieces done well and then we’ll
advance.”