When I Was at UCLA - May 2023
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n a recent issue of Alumni Connect, we put out a call for alumni to finish the sentence, “When I was at UCLA…” with anecdotes from their time on campus. The submissions varied, telling interesting occurrences of personal significance, campus history and UCLA’s impact on generations of Bruins. Below are some highlights:
- When I was at UCLA, I was a mother of five and married.
It was during Coronavirus. I had one class on campus the entire time. I was a transfer student and I was still the best student I have ever been. I made the best of a hard situation and I succeeded. I had GRIT and I graduated with a 3.93 GPA. It was a dream come true and it was home to me. Go Class of 2022! I am proud to be in your graduating class. – Ayanna Robinson ʼ22 - When I was at UCLA, I was part of the first freshman class to select classes via telephone enrollment (yes, telephone!). – Jenny Grossgold ʼ93
- When I was at UCLA, I realized a dream come true: amazing research/library facilities; incredible, famed speakers; basketball giants (literally!); and a doctoral advisor/chair second to none (John McNeil). – Bill Younglove, Ed.D. ʼ83
- When I was at UCLA, I was walking to the student center - Kerckhoff hall in 1958 or 1959 and was stopped by Rafer Johnson ʼ59.
He wanted to tell me why I should vote for him for student body president. He was very pleasant, and we spoke for quite a while. – Jo Ann Lesser ʼ59 - When I was at UCLA, I got my start with teaching. As an incoming freshman, I found the UCLA Computer Club located in 3514 Boelter Hall (the club no longer exists). I volunteered to teach one of the free computer classes the club offered in the evenings. I found that I loved to teach. I taught classes through the club nearly every quarter I was a student. After graduating, I started to teach for UCLA Extension where I still teach to this day. And I still love teaching! – Daniel Gutierrez ʼ78
- When I was at UCLA, I learned so much in the Army ROTC program. I thought that I knew so much because I was already a Vietnam Veteran when I enrolled in the program. I learned about accepting responsibility for my actions and not blaming others. My UCLA experience helped me a lot in my career as an educator. Thank you UCLA for all you have done for me and in the community as well as the world to make a difference. – Dr. Jonpatrick Anderson '79
- When I was at UCLA, I used to like the energy on Bruin Walk in the morning.
So many people were headed to class with their backpacks filled with books so they could study in one of the many libraries between and after classes. Swami X was a familiar face on Bruin Walk in my day – what a character he was! – Michael Slater ʼ80 - When I was at UCLA, I would stop and listen to Swami for a few minutes as a bit of an escape. I remember thinking he was pretty cool for an old guy. – Roberta Stambaugh ʼ76
- When I was at UCLA, I would stop by the courtyard in front of Royce Hall and Powell to decompress. The grandeur of these buildings made the stress of college life feel temporary. – Arianna Rivera Lee ʼ17
- When I was at UCLA, You could always count on herb baked chicken and fire station casserole in the dining halls. – Lesley Lee ʼ93, M.Ed. ʼ94
- When I was at UCLA, my favorite place on campus was in the stacks below Powell Library. It took my breath away the day I discovered it as a first-year graduate student from a tiny college of 700 souls. There, in an enormous deep basement, were hundreds of thousands of books on shelves placed about 18 inches apart and ranging for what felt like a half mile. You could sit down on the floor and literally immerse yourself in your chosen discipline, with books on that topic surrounding you. Was I supposed to be down there? I'm not sure, but there were no signs forbidding it and the unmarked doors were not locked. During my time at UCLA, books in the stacks were moved to warehouses all over Los Angeles, for earthquake safety. But what sheer heaven it was to disappear at midday down into the silent dungeon of knowledge and read the afternoon away. – Janet Jones, Ph.D. ʼ89
- When I was at UCLA for college and law school, the basketball team won seven consecutive national championships. I feel guilty for leaving…. – Joe Hilberman ʼ70, J.D. ʼ73
SPOTLIGHT
David H. Walter ’65, MBA ’66, Ph.D. ’73, entered UCLA in 1961 and spent the next 12 years as an enrolled student. He drew his recollections from a span of time that is hard to match in terms of historically important events, both at UCLA and in the culture at large. Here are some of the memories he shared with us:
- When I was at UCLA in 1961, the last year of semesters before transitioning to quarters, I vaguely remember my registration and tuition fees were in the vicinity of $100, give or take a few dollars! What an amazing deal!
- When I was at UCLA, my first freshman semester, September 1961, parking on campus was free. Soon thereafter a fee of 25 cents was instituted—as memory serves. I don’t remember any parking structures, only large paved and unpaved lots (e.g., the entire northeast corner of campus at Sunset and Hilgard was a dirt parking lot).
- When I was at UCLA on Nov. 22, 1963, while walking past Murphy Hall toward the old Business School north of Dodd Hall at approximately noon, having been at UCLA for 2+ years, I first became aware that campus had a loudspeaker system. As I recall, “May I please have your attention, we regret to report that President John Kennedy has been shot. Classes are cancelled for the rest of the day; please leave campus at this time, thank you.”
- When I was at UCLA, my undergraduate graduation ceremony on June 11, 1965, was the inaugural event in Pauley Pavilion, even before any basketball games had
been played there - a fitting christening for the Wooden era that was about to develop. - When I was at UCLA on Jan. 17, 1969, I was on my way to the old (original) Business School. Walking past the east side of Campbell Hall, I noticed a commotion outside a classroom on the first floor; it appeared that the window was shattered. I soon heard that two men, Black Panthers (students?) had been shot (through the windows?) and killed. I continued on to class. Accounts of this event are readily available on the internet; I did not read them, I was there.
- When I was at UCLA as student at the Graduate School of Management, I was on campus one afternoon in the early 1970s, when I noticed a group of dignitaries in the Franklin Murphy Sculpture Garden. They were there to dedicate the donation of a Rodin sculpture by Norton Simon. Among them were (former) Chancellor Franklin Murphy, Norton Simon and Governor Ronald Reagan. A couple of years before I attended a wedding of my friend Paul Simon (no, not that Paul Simon) whose father was Norton’s first cousin. At the wedding I met Norton’s mother. So, wanting to meet this giant of industry, I nervously approached and said something like, “Hello Mr. Simon, I recently met your mother at Paul Simon’s wedding. I’m a student at the Business School and wanted to meet you." He responded, “Oh yes, I heard about the wedding,” and asked a few questions about my studies at GSM (before it was Anderson). Governor Reagan and Chancellor Murphy were standing by. Paul loved the story of my encounter. The Rodin sculpture is at the top of the steps in the Northwest corner of the Sculpture Garden.
- When I was at UCLA in the mid-1990s I used to go running at Drake Stadium. On one occasion, I noticed John Wooden there also running laps. Wanting to meet and shake his hand, when he had stopped jogging I nervously walked over and muttered, “Hi Coach Wooden, I was a student here during all of our National Championships and just wanted to meet you.” He shook my hand, asked me a few questions about my studies, and wished me well...or something like that; I had met Coach Wooden, the greatest collegiate basketball coach of all time.
Walter’s reminiscences of his time at UCLA do not end with receiving his Ph.D.
“I'm a psychologist now because of taking extension classes with Carl Faber,” he said. “I graduated in ʼ73 and about two years later, I started taking extension classes just for fun. I met a teacher that changed my life totally. I had been working in aerospace since 1966 and I realized within about a year of taking his classes in extension, I was in the wrong field.”
Walter went on to take over 50 Extension courses in the next 20 years and continues to attend events and lectures, both on campus and virtually, the most recent being the Psychiatry Grand Rounds lecture in April, the month he turned 80. He said, “I literally have been eminently affiliated and on campus in some way, shape or form from 1961 till today.”
If you have a story to share, finish the sentence “When I was at UCLA…” and submit it to connectfeedback@alumni.ucla.edu.
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