Smith is a second-year undeclared student.
By Sophia Smith
Among all the talk of crosswalks, protests and Burma, there
seems to be a key issue missing from the arena of student
commentary. The issue is that of space ““ and how we
don’t have it anymore. Ironically, the lack of space is
everywhere.
Let’s say you want to study. If you’re a dorm
student, can you go to the study lounges? Well, not unless you know
the people living in them. Since most students in the apartments
are in the chic Westwood neighborhoods, it means up to four people
have to live in each of them ““ and you thought you got away
from your family to have more privacy?
Trying to study on campus presents you with choices containing
limiting factors. You can go into the library, but you’d have
to adopt a monk-like way of studying: no eating, drinking, talking
or enjoying. You can go to Kerckhoff if you don’t mind the
bad music; or you can just study outside if you don’t have
attention deficit disorder.
The only real, student friendly, non-dorm, non-apartment study
space I find agreeable is only available a couple of weeks a year
““ it’s Ackerman Union on the food court level. When
Ackerman Union is open the whole night during finals week, it
provides the ideal study atmosphere: a large area with a multitude
of conversations going on in the background (they cancel each other
out, so its not like an annoying chatty couple at Powell). This
provides a semi-social atmosphere with just enough distraction to
keep you from thinking, “Oh my god, I’m studying, the
test is tomorrow,” but not enough to make you think,
“Oh my god, its too loud for me to concentrate in
here.”
It might behoove members of the student government to harass the
bigwigs in charge of Ackerman, so it’s available all quarter
instead of the end of the quarter only. Most college students are
not productive until late hours, so this would suit them well. And
if it is the electric bill you’re bothered by, then we can
bring candles.
A second type of space UCLA is lacking can be best described by
a color: green. No, really, where’s the grass? I’ve
seen students resort to throwing frisbees and footballs in front of
Janss steps. No longer does the Intramural Field play host to the
dozens of sports teams which garnished it daily last year.
Students have to either be relocated to other, hidden areas
previously untampered by IM sports, or play indoors. One of the
saddest things is to have to play football or soccer where there is
no sun. A possible solution to making up for the non-green aspect
of IM sports would be to stop charging students fees for playing IM
sports; or at least keep it to the bare minimum needed to maintain
the equipment and overhead.
I’m sure many more students would prefer their student
fees go toward making IM sports free, rather than going to pay for
student government or an overpriced ASUCLA textbook store.
A third and last type of space UCLA students don’t really
need but desperately crave is entertainment and social space.
Walking through Westwood and staring at all the expensive
restaurants I can’t afford to eat at is not really my idea of
entertainment. We need more night life, and our student
representatives should be writing our council members about these
issues rather than asking for crosswalks.
I’m sure many students enjoy the old movies shown at
Ackerman or the previews to the bad movies we get, but for students
who don’t like to be so bored, a different approach should be
taken. Why not reallocate resources? Can’t the money which
goes into setting up Ackerman Union entertainment fund a USAC
campaign to get more student-friendly, student-attended business in
Westwood?
All these may not be feasible given the politics and delays
associated with UCLA, and it’s understandable since
there’s not much area for UCLA to grow. But if UCLA could do
its best to assure the student body at least one or two of these
“spaces” it would certainly make life a lot more
tolerable.