Fires across Los Angeles County have disrupted UCLA operations, eliciting feelings of worry and confusion for some parents and gratitude for effective communication from the university for others.

The Palisades and Altadena fires, which both began Jan. 7, burned over 40,000 acres and destroyed over 15,000 structures. While the Academic Senate initially only approved remote learning for Jan. 13 in response to the fires, it later extended it through Jan. 17.

[Related: LIVE: JANUARY 2025 FIRES]

UCLA’s communication and response to the fires has spurred discourse on platforms such as the UCLA Parents Facebook page and the UCLA subreddit. Parents expressed concern about the prospect of holding on-campus classes during Week 2 while the Palisades continued to burn, leading to unsafe air quality and a now-lifted evacuation warning adjacent to UCLA.

[Related: Evacuation warning adjacent to UCLA campus from Palisades fire has lifted]

Jennifer Schmidt, whose son is a third-year transfer student at UCLA, said she was disappointed with the quality and timeliness of UCLA’s messaging regarding the fires. Schmidt added that she was particularly disappointed with the minimal communication to parents in the early days of the fire.

“I believe there was an abject failure on the part of UCLA to communicate to students and families,” she said.

Other parents – who did not give their names – echoed this sentiment in a letter posted to Reddit and addressed to UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk and the Academic Senate on Jan. 11, when classes had only been moved online Monday. The letter requested an extension for undergraduate online classes through the “near future.”

“We, as parents and supporters of UCLA students, are writing to express our collective frustration and concern over the university’s decision to hold only Monday’s classes remotely,” the letter said. “The lack of timely communication and foresight has left students and families scrambling to make decisions in an already stressful and precarious situation.”

[Related: UCLA cancels in-person classes amid Los Angeles fires]

Between Jan. 13 and Jan. 16, Frenk and other administrators held four town halls for the UCLA community, including one hosted by Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Monroe Gorden Jr. for parents Jan. 14.

Ahead of the event, parents sent in over 600 questions to be answered, and organizers said they consolidated similar questions and planned to follow up after the webinar for any that went unanswered. During the town hall, administrators provided updates regarding resources for on and off-campus students and information regarding the air and water quality on campus.

Some parents communicated unease during the town hall about students having disruptions to their classwork and UCLA experience again, after last spring’s pro-Palestine protests also led to classes being moved to a remote model.

[Related: Students express support for UCLA’s shift to remote classes after campus violence]

Schmidt said she would have liked to see greater transparency on when updates would be provided – similar to how the LA Fire Department had been communicating. Instead, she said she felt kept in the dark for when she might hear from the school next.

“I found it really stressful because we as a family had to rely on strangers and other locals to the LA area for real-time information,” she said. “And then on top of that, the financial stress of wondering, ‘How do I get our child back home and then return to school when there’s so much uncertainty?’”

Rita McMillan, the mother of a second-year student, said she had to be proactive in looking for information herself and received most of her updates about the fires indirectly through social media, the Daily Bruin and the UCLA Facebook group.

McMillan said that she – along with other Southern California parents – opened her home to students who live farther from campus during the remote learning period.

“They (out-of-state and international students) are kind of in limbo,” she said. “What are they going to do?”

[Related: Students host other Bruins in hometowns during Southern California fires]

However, Schmidt also said as time went on, she felt UCLA improved its communication, and she was grateful for the town halls.

Other parents felt the school effectively communicated with its community from the start of the fires.

Cassandra Halm, whose son is a fourth-year transfer student, said she felt that the alerts on social media, coupled with individual outreach to students and the town hall hosted for parents were sufficient.

“There have been plenty of alerts on social media and all of the platforms they use,” she added. “I do think they’ve communicated as well as is possible in such difficult circumstances.”

Halm said the remote learning model implemented during last year’s protests seemed to have helped the school figure out what to do about learning during the fires.

“Some really difficult situations happened, and I think that UCLA did respond effectively,” she said. “They learned and were able to respond even more effectively from the past crises.”

Frenk also announced Jan. 16 that undergraduate, in-person instruction would return beginning Jan. 21.

[Related: UCLA classes will return to in-person instruction Tuesday]

Schmidt said she is concerned about the decision to return to in-person instruction and that it should be reconsidered.

“Those who feel safe should be able to return to school, but I do believe the air quality issue has not been adequately addressed,” she said.

Schmidt added that she would prefer a hybrid-like learning model where students would have the choice to be in-person or online. She is especially concerned for students with preexisting health issues, she said.

However, despite having differing opinions on the administration’s response, Schmidt, McMillan and Halm all said they believe their children’s academic performance will not be impacted by remote learning. Halm added that her son’s professors aided with the transition to remote instruction.

“His professors have done everything they can,” Halm said. “They’ve done everything they can to keep that transition as smooth as possible.”