With more than 33,000 undergraduates at UCLA, many Bruins look for their home away from home in clubs and organizations.
UCLA’s hundreds of organizations, however, can make the university seem even more intimidating. But several organizations, often known to students as UCLA’s “campus cults” – such as the Student Alumni Association – are a place to find the community Bruins may be looking for, members said.
Charley Nunley, an economics and political science alumnus and former SAA director of member experience, said she appreciates how SAA – which hosts campus traditions like the Beat ‘SC rally and Dinners for 12 Strangers – brings people together from different parts of campus, rather than focusing on one field of study or professional aspiration.
“We want to see your personality,” she said. “We want to see how you work.”
Overlapping membership is common among the organizations, Sarah Borton said.
Sarah Borton, an alumnus and former member of Campus Tours and the UCLA Club Ski and Snowboard Team, said five clubs, including SAA and the ski team, often hosted parties and other events together.
These events offered a pathway to becoming a member of more than one of the organizations, said Borton, the 2022-23 Club Ski and Snowboard president. Some of the other organizations included SAA and the Pediatric AIDS Coalition, she added.
Kathryn Maffeo, the 2025-26 president of SAA and a UCLA alumnus, said these organizations often carried a significant time commitment. Members are dedicated to their work for the club and the relationships they make within it, she added.
“It’s not just a random club that you join, and you do it on the side,” Nunley said. “A lot of people who join SAA – that becomes their tight-knit group.”
Borton said she recently attended a wedding between two members from the Ski and Snowboard Team. She added that she travels to Lake Tahoe annually for a Ski and Snowboard Team reunion.
“I was in Joshua Tree with my ski team friends that still live in LA, and every New Year’s, we do a ski trip,” she said. “Every time my friends are in town, I say ‘hi.’ A bunch of UCLA alumni up here as well, so it’s awesome having these connections after the fact.”
As a transfer student, Abigail Porter said joining Campus Tours helped her acclimate to campus – something she believes would have been more difficult had she not been in the organization.
“You bond with everyone just because learning an 80-page script of information about UCLA, practicing and going out and doing it so many times – it’s a very steep learning curve, and it’s really hard,” Porter said.
Much of that community comes from the intensity and the goal-oriented missions of the organizations themselves, Maffeo said. The time commitment required to organize events often brings members closer together, she added.
“The exhaustion of working on a large event,and staying up super late or making time throughout the week to spend time with your group members, so that way you’re able to put on this event,” Maffeo said. “That’s really special.”
Comments are closed.