Complex Will House 1,260 UCLA Students

A “village-like” complex to house 1,260 students is to be built on the northwestern portion of the UCLA campus as part of an effort to have half of the student body live on or near campus eventually.

About one-third of UCLA’s 33,000 students now live in university-owned housing or in private residences within a mile of the campus. The UC Board of Regents wants that increased.

Unanimously approved by a regents’ committee Thursday was a $67-million plan for land now occupied mainly by the Sunset Canyon tennis courts across from Drake Stadium. The courts will be rebuilt on a nearby parking lot. On their original location will be three clusters of townhouse-style dormitories, a student commons, an auditorium, outdoor plazas and underground parking for 873 cars.

“The notion is to create a student village,” said Sam Morabito, UCLA’s assistant vice chancellor for business enterprises.

UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young said that some Westwood-area residents are concerned about the project’s impact on congestion. However, he said, it will ease traffic. “Instead of driving back and forth across the community, the students will be staying on campus more,” he said.

Construction, to be paid for by UC bonds, is to begin this summer, with completion expected in 1991, officials said.

Dormitory space at UCLA is so tight now that even freshmen must compete in a lottery for rooms. At the same time, the cost of rental housing in nearby Westside neighborhoods is rising.

Second Project

UCLA is in the early stages of planning a second dormitory project on Gayley Avenue on the western side of the campus to provide rooms for 1,400 students. Together with the project approved Thursday, that would provide rooms to all freshmen who want to live on campus by 1996, officials predicted.

In a more controversial matter, the annual student union fee at UCLA will increase from the current $12 a year to $39 in 1991 and $51 in 1992 to help pay for earthquake safety renovations to Ackerman Union and the Kerckhoff Hall student activities building.

Michael Saucedo, a representative of the statewide UC Student Assn., said the fee hike will be a “ghastly financial burden” and “sets a shameful precedent,” because UCLA students did not have a chance to vote on it. Young and UC President David P. Gardner conceded that a student vote normally would be needed but must be waived because of the pressing safety issues; a regents’ committee agreed.

Similar earthquake fears are causing housing fees at UCLA to increase to pay for repairs on four high-rise dormitories. Space in a double-occupancy room, plus board, now costs $3,345 a year at UCLA and will rise by about $300 in increments over four years starting in 1990.

UC Berkeley Project

Also controversial were plans to build dormitories for 750 students on a hill at the northeastern edge of the UC Berkeley campus, adjacent to two seismic faults. Opponents said the housing would be dangerous in case of an earthquake, and would block views and aggravate congestion. However, UC officials insisted that the site near the Greek Theater is safe, and the regents’ panel unanimously voted for the $34.5-million dormitories.

All actions are expected to gain easy approval today by the full Board of Regents, which is meeting at UC Davis in conjunction with the inauguration of Theodore L. Hullar as chancellor of that campus. Hullar had been chancellor of UC Riverside for two years.

In other business, a regents’ committee gave formal approval to the autumn opening of a fifth undergraduate college at UC San Diego. Devoted to international affairs and comparative cultures, the Fifth College--as it will be called until a new name is chosen--is expected to enroll a freshman class of 400 this fall and grow to a student body of more then 3,000 by 1995. Programs will be held in existing buildings until new dormitories and classrooms are built.

The regents also voted for projects at the UC Irvine campus, including a $12-million research facility to be built by and used jointly with the Hitachi Chemical Co. and the $13.7-million construction of apartments for 300 graduate students.