University of California, Los Angeles

, 1881 was instrumental in the creation of the Los Angeles California State Normal School, predecessor to UCLA. In March 1881, at the request of state senator Reginaldo Francisco del Valle, the California State Legislature authorized the creation of a southern branch of the California State Normal School (now San José State University) in downtown Los Angeles to train teachers for the growing population of Southern California. The "Los Angeles branch of the California State Normal School" opened on August 29, 1882, on what is now the site of the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library system. The facility included a demonstration school where teachers-in-training could practice their techniques with children. That elementary school would become the present day UCLA Lab School. In 1887, the branch campus became independent and changed its name to Los Angeles State Normal School. In 1914, the school moved to a new campus on Vermont Avenue (now the site of Los Angeles City College) in East Hollywood. In 1917, UC Regent Edward Augustus Dickson, the only regent representing the Southland at the time, and Ernest Carroll Moore, President of the Los Angeles State Normal School, began to lobby the State Legislature to enable the school to become the second University of California campus, after UC Berkeley. They met resistance from UC Berkeley alumni, Northern California members of the state legislature and then-UC President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, who were all vigorously opposed to the idea of a southern campus. The state constitution expressly protected the autonomy of the University of California from political interference, which meant the Legislature could not directly command the Board of Regents to create a southern campus. However, the state constitution did not prohibit the state legislature from passing legislation to create additional state universities. On May 23, 1919, the Southern Californians' efforts were rewarded when Governor William D. Stephens signed Assembly Bill 626 into law, which acquired the land and buildings and transformed the Los Angeles Normal School into the "Southern Branch of the University of California". The same legislation added its general undergraduate program, the Junior College. The Southern Branch campus opened on September 15 of that year, offering two-year undergraduate programs to 250 Junior College students and 1,250 students in the Teachers College. While University of Southern California students criticized the "branch" as a mere "twig", Southern Californians continued to fight Northern Californians for the right to three and then four years of instruction. In December 1923, the Board of Regents authorized a fourth year of instruction and transformed the Junior College into the College of Letters and Science, which awarded its first bachelor's degrees in June 1925. Under UC President William Wallace Campbell, enrollment at the Southern Branch expanded so rapidly that by the mid-1920s the institution was outgrowing the 25 acre Vermont Avenue location. The Regents announced the new "Beverly Site" — just west of Beverly Hills — in 1925. After the athletic teams entered the Pacific Coast conference in 1926, the Southern Branch student council adopted the nickname "Bruins", a name offered by the student council at UC Berkeley. On February 1, 1927, the Regents renamed the Southern Branch the "University of California at Los Angeles". Maturity as a university During its first 32 years, UCLA was treated as an off-site department of the main campus in Berkeley. As such, its presiding officer was called a "provost". This remained the case even when it grew into a major institution in its own right. In 1951, UCLA was formally elevated to coequal status with UC Berkeley, with both institutions headed by chancellors who reported on an equal basis to the president of the UC system. Raymond B. Allen was the first UCLA chief executive to be granted the title of chancellor. In November 1958, the "at" in UCLA's name was replaced with a comma, a symbol of its independence from Berkeley. In February 2022, Matthew Harris, a former lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, was arrested after allegedly making numerous threats of violence against students and faculty members of UCLA's Philosophy Department. In 2018, a student-led community coalition known as "Westwood Forward" successfully led an effort to break UCLA and Westwood Village away from the existing Westwood Neighborhood Council and form a new North Westwood Neighborhood Council, with over 2,000 out of 3,521 stakeholders voting in favor of the split. Westwood Forward's campaign focused on making housing more affordable and encouraging nightlife in Westwood by opposing many of the restrictions on housing developments and restaurants the Westwood Neighborhood Council had promoted. In 2022, UCLA signed an agreement to partner with the Tongva for the caretaking and landscaping of various areas of the campus. This included land use for ceremonial events and educational workshops and outreach events. Spring 2024 pro-Palestine encampment On April 25, 2024, an occupation protest began at UCLA to protest the administration's investments in Israel amid the Gaza war. On April 28, clashes occurred between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protesters as Stand With Us rallied on the campus, in a protest organized by the Israeli American Council. As part of the pro-Palestinian protests, students set up encampments on UCLA grounds. As a safety measure, several days after the establishment of the encampment, students put into place a voucher system for entry whereby one could only enter the encampment if they knew someone already inside who could vouch that they would not incite violence or undermine the encampment's safety. This measure, which produced periods in which no one was let in, was cited as justification for referring to the encampment as a "Jew Exclusion Zone" by some students on campus. However, many Jewish students, including those affiliated with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), were active within the encampment. From the establishment of the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on April 25 to the night of April 30, many individuals, including non-students, mobilized counter-protests in support of Israel, which aimed to dismantle the encampment via intimidation and physical aggression. Over $50,000 was raised via GoFundMe to assist these efforts, enabling counter-protestors to purchase speakers and a Jumbotron, on which they played videos showcasing the events of October 7 on a loop in Royce Quad. During the nights, counter-protestors played an Israeli children's song known to be used to torture Palestinian prisoners, overlaid with recordings of a baby's cry, on repeat. Counter-protestors also placed or attempted to place biohazards in and around the encampment, including a backpack filled with mice. In the days immediately preceding April 30, counter-protestors made multiple attempts to break into the encampment. On April 30, violent clashes were reported on the UCLA campus between pro-Palestinian protesters and groups of counter-demonstrators supporting Israel. After engaging in sound/music torture for several hours, counter-protestors began physically assaulting the students inside the encampment by throwing fireworks and wooden planks at them, pepper- and bear-spraying them, and beating them with planks and pipes. Police were called shortly after the attack began, but refused to intervene until hours after the first firework went off, telling multiple 911 callers: "You can't continue calling unless you have an emergency." This attack continued for four more hours before California state highway patrol officers arrived to disperse the crowd of counter-protestors at around 3:00 AM, making no arrests. Over 20 students had to be hospitalized due to injuries inflicted by counter-protesters. Some of these injuries were severe, with a doctor from the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center stating, "One patient had a heart injury from the severity of the hits they sustained to the chest, while another would require surgery because of the damage done to part of a bone in their hand." Another student "was left with stitches on his forehead and 14 staples in the back of his head." The next day, UC administration sent campus administrator Darnell Hunt into the encampment to attempt negotiations, but refused to concede to any of the protestors' demands—including a demand for amnesty for students involved in the encampment—and no settlement was reached between campus administration and the encampment's leadership. On the night of May 1, police swept the Palestine Solidarity Encampment and arrested more than 200 pro-Palestinian student protestors. The UCLA chapter of Students For Justice in Palestine claimed five students were shot in the head with rubber bullets during the sweep, but the LAPD denied that rubber bullets were used. Contemporaneous media reports indicate that rubber bullets were used by the LAPD, but the precise number of individuals impacted by these munitions was not clear, though some claims of injury arising from rubber bullets were based on older photographs or were otherwise misleading. Several months later, two counter-protestors were arrested for their role in the April 30 attack. LA County District Attorney George Gascón declined to charge other individuals identified as attackers against the encampment and individuals inside the encampment. In June 2024, three Jewish students filed a lawsuit against UCLA, alleging "that the university played a role in preventing them from accessing the campus freely during protests, when they were blocked from entering the pro-Palestinian encampment erected by protesters." The students were represented by Becket Law. In July 2024, United States District Judge Mark C. Scarsi ordered that UCLA must "create a plan to ensure Jewish students have equal access to campus" ==Campus==