UCLA license plate may be up for redesign

The UCLA Alumni Association is looking to redesign the UCLA
license plate in light of its low popularity. Sales have risen over
the last five years, but only 503 were sold in 2001.

Though one in 147 Californians has a UCLA degree and despite the
large amount of UCLA apparel sold, the Bruin license plates are not
a high commodity.

“Sooner or later we will deplete remaining plates and
hopefully we will be able to redesign it to make it more
visible,” said Keith Brandt, assistant vice chancellor and
executive director of alumni relations.

Brandt sees low sales as a reaction to the undesirability of the
logo design. There are currently 3,874 UCLA plates on the roads,
making the UCLA plate the least popular of all commemorative and
special interest plates, according to California Department of
Motor Vehicles press aide Armando Botello.

The current design of UCLA plates displays a yellow silhouette
of a Bruin with a UCLA written in blue below. The remaining area of
the plate is for a six or less figure license plate number

The proceeds from the sales go directly to the Alumni
Association Transfer Scholarship fund. Brant said transfer
scholarships are difficult to raise money for otherwise.

The California Vehicle Code states that any academic institution
accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges may
have a license plate created for their school if they have 5,000
applications.

Production of the UCLA plate began in 1993. Although the Alumni
Association did not meet the minimum number of applications
required by law, the DMV made an exception because they were the
first college to attempt to implement the program, according to
Brandt.

The Alumni Association has taken no action to begin production
of a new plate, and it plans to continue marketing the existing
plate.

The UCLA plate was temporarily unavailable earlier this year as
a result of a DMV error, Brandt said. While special interest
license plates such as the California Fire Fighters, Prisoner of
War, and Coastal Commission must meet a yearly quota of 7,500 total
licenses to remain in existence, UCLA’s status as a
collegiate plate makes it accountable to different legislation that
prescribes no yearly quota.

According to the DMV, other plates such as the Ronald Reagan
commemorative plate never made it past the drawing board due to
lack of demand. In other states such as Florida, collegiate license
plates are more popular, Brant said. University of Florida and
Florida State University are among the top selling plates in that
state.

For now the UCLA Bruin license plate, which is the only
collegiate plate available in California, will continue to be
available. A link for applications is available on the UCLA Alumni
Association Web site. Only time, and sales, will tell when the
current Bruin plate will go extinct.