Management of campus locations to be evaluated through Student Space Initiative
By Gordon Murray
March 30, 2011 12:58 a.m.
As the UCLA student body increases, the amount of space student groups have remains the same.
To address this concern, the university will conduct a $40,000 campus-wide study this quarter on the management of campus locations, called the Student Space Initiative, said Mick Deluca, UCLA Recreation director of cultural and recreational affairs. The money will be used to hire an outside consulting firm.
As the student body increases, space needs become more strained and UCLA needs to figure out how to manage this space between different groups, while keeping in mind that students are the core of UCLA, Deluca said.
The goal is to address students’ space needs in the long term as opposed to just immediate problems, said ASUCLA Executive Director Bob Williams.
The university needs to identify the spaces in high demand and create a system that will allow them to be used judiciously, Williams said.
“For example, who should get the stage on Bruin Walk? When all needs are good needs, set objectives … have to address the needs of the future,” Deluca said.
The Student Space Initiative includes a number of organizations on campus with space issues, such as the John Wooden Center.
These groups will contribute to costs and be examined as well, said ASUCLA Student Union Director Roy Champawat.
There are many student groups, and they all have individual space issues, Deluca said. Thus far, there is no body that has examined space issues on a campus level.
In parallel to this study, Williams said ASUCLA has an internal Student Master Plan Initiative Group, which looked at the space available in ASUCLA facilities and categorized them into how they were being used, such as retail, lounging and studying.
Williams plans to examine the way ASUCLA spaces can be used more efficiently on a smaller scale than the Student Space Initiative, he said.
