Think of UCLA as a good book. As you enter its world, you must
decide how you will read it. You can follow the plot for a few
years on the most cursory level. Or you can observe the subtle
details that build it into an encompassing experience.
Orientation is the introduction to this book. It provides a
transition into life at UCLA and gives you the background
information. It is very important in that respect; at the same
time, don’t read the beginning only to skim the middle and
pick it back up in the final pages.
If you gloss over most of the text, you might think UCLA is just
another generic storyline about students in a daily grind.
You might miss that subplot about Nora, an undocumented student
referred to only by first name for her protection, who came to UCLA
in the hopes of becoming a math teacher. She is a specific example
of the diversity at UCLA, and the struggles students face to get
here.
Each student here has a subplot like Nora’s. Many of them
include complications beyond the predictable, though you’d
never know it by reading the UCLA synopsis of “student gets
degree.”
Even this is only scratching the surface. Books are all about
structure ““ and the UCLA structure is so well integrated that
sometimes it’s easy to miss what’s going on between the
lines.
Consider the dining hall experience. It isn’t until
there’s a protest, like the one that happened in March of
this year, that many remember dining hall workers have families and
names, like Maria Vicente or Alex Salvador.
It isn’t until they stop working that we realize how
important they are. Without them, and others like them, the smooth
flow of campus services that we expect would be impossible.
Details in the setting make up another easily forgotten side of
UCLA. The Fox Theater in the Village is more than just scenery
making up a picturesque skyline. It’s a 170-foot reminder of
a tradition dating back to 1931.
The tower highlights the minor characters of Westwood. It serves
as a contrast to the empty storefronts that are part of the
too-constant turnover of Westwood merchants. It pictures a
community that both boasts of tradition and struggles with
inconsistency.
Yet these details can become so enthralling that you forget the
bigger theme.
It therefore might not occur to you to connect the Anderson
Forecast, the leading authority for economic predictions in the
nation, or its founder, former business Professor Robert Williams,
to UCLA.
Within the confines of the dust jacket, it’s easy to
understand UCLA only in reference to yourself. In reality, for 50
years it has functioned not only for the UCLA readership, but those
worldwide.
This is symbolic of UCLA’s many other research projects
led by UCLA professors that put us at the forefront of the
nation.
These are the individual chapters of UCLA that bind its past,
present and the possibilities of its future. As a new student, you
can relax and leaf through the pages. Or you could benefit from the
massive project, and perhaps even participate in crafting its
narrative. Either way, take note of the details. And happy
reading.