Monday, June 29, 1998
Dorm, sweet dorm
HOUSING: Crowded dining areas, renovated housing and construction add flavor to living on campus
By Mason Stockstill
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The dorms are home to the majority of UCLA's freshmen - as well as many unresolved complaints.
Last year, dorm residents dealt with several inconveniences in the way of construction, overcrowding and facilities. These problems have affected thousands of students in all residence halls.
Mira Hershey Hall
Hershey Hall used to be a residence hall. Go even further back, and it was an all-female dorm, built with monies willed to the university by Mira Hershey, heir to the Hershey chocolate empire.
Upon her death in 1930, Hershey's will revealed that she had left $300,000 to UCLA for the construction of an all-female residence hall.
The hall, which has in recent years been home to graduate students, transfer students, international students and students with disabilities, became co-ed in 1969.
But in June, all of the student residents had to move out, and preparations began to transform Hershey Hall into an administrative office building.
"It will be a valuable asset for a campus pressed for space," said Charles "Duke" Oakley, campus architect and assistant vice chancellor of capital programs.
Students who were displaced by Hershey's closure were given the option of living in off-campus university apartments or other residence halls.
Former Graduate Students Association President Andrew Westall spoke at length with campus administrators over Hershey's impending closure and alternative housing situations for graduate students, but was left with a discouraged feeling.
"How would other donors feel if they thought that UCLA wouldn't respect their wishes for their donations," he asked, "since Mira Hershey's wishes are clearly not being fulfilled by this?"
De Neve Plaza
De Neve Plaza includes housing for 850 students, a small cafe in which students can eat and socialize, parking and a large outdoor courtyard with trees, benches and basketball courts.
It also hasn't been built yet.
The plaza has been under construction since October of last year and isn't slated to open until September 1999.
All the construction bothered some of the students who lived in Dykstra Hall, which is mere inches away from De Neve Plaza's future site.
"I don't think that we were fairly warned of exactly how much construction was going to happen, and I don't think we're getting fair compensation for what we're going through," said Tammy Low, publicity chair for last year's Dykstra Hall Residents' Association.
Two town hall style meetings were held last year for Dykstra residents to express their concerns to administrators, and students took advantage of these meetings to complain about Dykstra's lack of a cafeteria, hot water, basketball courts, parking spaces, music practice rooms, study lounge, computer lab and mailboxes.
The construction also caused a portion of Circle Drive West to be closed for a few months, but it reopened in April, and officials say that no more roads will be closed for construction.
Dining Halls
For many students, the convenience of having your food handed to you every day is a big factor in deciding whether or not to live in the residence halls.
In fact, renovations were performed on the cafeterias of two of the high-rise buildings - Hedrick and Rieber halls - during the past two years. The new cafeterias sport a flashy decentralized layout and, many students believe, better food.
However, the other two high-rise dorms - Dykstra and Sproul halls - don't currently have cafeterias. Dykstra's went out with the start of construction on De Neve Plaza, and Sproul's was so unpopular that it was shut down completely.
"The loss of our own dining facility is inconvenient because now we have no choice but to go to other dorms to eat," said Chris Yamada, a first-year business economics student who lived in Sproul last year.
Aside from Rieber and Hedrick, the only dining facilities remaining are the cafe in the Tom Bradley International Students Center and Sunset dining.
Sunset is set to be renovated over the summer, and should be completed in time for fall, housing administrators said.
When De Neve Plaza opens in September 1999, it will have new facilities for student dining. However, until then, students will have to make due with the facilities that are now open.