This post was updated Jan. 12 at 11:49 p.m.

Students raised over $15,000 to support a chemistry senior lecturer who lost his home to the Los Angeles County wildfires. 

Laurence Lavelle announced in a Thursday classwide email that he lost his home, adding that the only clothes he owns are the ones he wore to work the previous day. Thousands across LA County have been displaced by fires, with people ordered to evacuate in areas including Pacific Palisades, Altadena and Pasadena.

[Related: Over 29K acres, 10K structures devastated as ‘unprecedented’ LA fires near 4th day]

As of 2:45 p.m. Saturday, there are no evacuation warnings or orders in place for the UCLA campus. However, adjacent areas to UCLA are under evacuation warning.

Imogene Gaede, a first-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, said she created a GoFundMe to support Lavelle – who is teaching a class she is in this quarter – on Thursday, and had raised $15,399 as of 2:55 p.m. Saturday. 

“Dr. Lavelle has dedicated his career and life to teaching us, and this is the least we can do to help in these trying times,” Gaede wrote in the GoFundMe description. 

However, the senior lecturer said in an email to the class that he declined the monetary donations, adding that he already appreciates the overwhelming student support he has received. Gaede wrote an update on the GoFundMe page, adding that she has requested that the donations be refunded. 

After posting the GoFundMe on her Instagram story and the class GroupMe, Gaede said the donation portal garnered rapid support online. Gaede added that she could not have pursued this effort on her own, as everyone who shared the link had their own personal connections with Lavelle. 

“It’s so important that we all support each other now, especially people like him who are always supporting us, … who are always there for us and don’t expect anything in return,” she said. 

The nearest fire, which started in Pacific Palisades, has burned over 22,000 acres as of 2:55 p.m. Saturday, according to the Cal Fire website. There are three other active fires in LA County, including one measuring over 14,000 acres in Altadena, according to the Cal Fire website. 

[Related: LIVE: JANUARY 2025 FIRES]

Around 7:20 p.m. Friday, LA County issued a new evacuation warning reaching the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Veteran Avenue – an intersection that directly borders the UCLA campus.

Chancellor Julio Frenk also announced in a Friday afternoon campuswide email that the UCLA Academic Senate has approved remote classes on Monday and added that the senate has extended remote instruction until Jan. 17 in a Saturday afternoon email. Student housing and dining halls remain open, and UCLA hotels, including the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center, are available to people who have been displaced, he said in the Friday email.

Lavelle held an in-person lecture Wednesday despite being unsure of the status of his house, said Sahasra Kalluri, a first-year pre-public health student in Lavelle’s Chemistry and Biochemistry 14B: “General Chemistry for Life Scientists II” lecture. He also delivered a speech after class, encouraging students to stay positive and stick together amid the devastating fires, she added. 

“He was talking about how we can’t always control things in life,” Kalluri said. “He knew that we were all probably stressed, just like he was.”

Lavelle joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry after one year working as a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA’s Molecular Biology Institute. He teaches more than 2,000 enrolled students and supervises more than 30 teaching assistants per year, according to the UCLA Physical Sciences website. 

Gaede, who lives in Boulder, Colorado, also said she created the GoFundMe because she is familiar with the mental toll that destructive fires take on people.

“I’ve seen the way that fires affect the community before,” she said. “I can’t imagine what it would feel like to lose my house, everything, and still be able to go and do things for other people.”

After losing his home, Lavelle compiled resources in an email for students, including recorded lectures and worksheets on BruinLearn, specialized class websites and Chemistry Community – a collaborative learning website – said Shelomith Mariane Hoy, a second-year computational and systems biology student in Lavelle’s Chemistry and Biochemistry 14B lecture. He sent the resources to accommodate students who need academic flexibility given the fires, she added.

The chemistry senior lecturer has always been exceedingly generous in providing resources that supplement their learning, Hoy said.

“(He is) even more so going above and beyond to great lengths in accommodating the students and putting their needs first throughout this disaster, which is so inspiring,” she added.

Kavya Desai, a first-year statistics and data science student who has Lavelle for Chemistry and Biochemistry 14B, said Lavelle assists hybrid-learning students by outlining time stamps and labels in all of the videos he provides. Before every class, he also performs a fun, YouTuber-style introduction by wearing a baseball cap and playing upbeat music, she added. 

“You can tell that he wants to be there and he’s super excited to be sharing his love of chemistry with everyone,” Desai said. 

Hoy also said the creation of the GoFundMe for the professor was a perfect way for students to come together and support him in this time of struggle. 

“It goes to show the power in numbers and our collective ability to spread resources, … how quickly things go around on social media,” she said.