UCLA administrators announced plans for everyday residential programming, an expanded housing capacity and the addition of lobster rolls to campus menus at a Feb. 11 town hall.

The On-Campus Housing Council – which represents students living on the Hill – hosted a town hall in the Northwest Campus Auditorium for students to learn about new programs, buildings and changes around campus. Administrators from UCLA Dining, Housing, Recreation and Information Technology shared updates about new dining hall foods, as well as the move to make all dorms into triple occupancy rooms.

Ava Hata, OCHC president and a second-year psychobiology student, said the town hall meetings ensure the administration is transparent about the changes they are making. Hata added that the meetings also allow for students to hear directly about where their money is going.

Erinn McMahan, UCLA Recreation’s executive director, said a new 11,000-square-foot venue in the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center will cost around $25 million and feature a teaching kitchen, a rooftop deck and solar panels. Funds for the construction were pooled from a seismic fee students pay as part of their BruinBill, and the construction will be completed in early 2027, he added. McMahan also said the center’s new roof will provide a place for student groups to gather.

“I don’t think there’s a space like it on campus,” McMahan said. “It’ll be a resource for student groups to do banquets or events or meetings, gatherings, as well as departments and other campus groups.”

Melissa Faybik, an assistant director of housing services, updated students on UCLA Housing’s Jan. 21 announcement stating that it will convert most on-campus rooms to triple occupancy rooms.

[Related: UCLA Housing to transition most on-campus dorms to triple occupancy]

Faybik said the change is temporary and will add 1,000 beds to on-campus dorms and off-campus apartments combined. Faybik said the university’s guaranteed housing agreement and increasing return rates for those in the dorms sparked the change of doubles into triples.

[Related: UCLA announces new expanded undergraduate housing guarantee]

In response to a student’s question about added responsibilities for resident assistants who will have more students on their floors after the change, Monica Hanna, interim associate director of Residential Life, said programming changes – which will allow for more shared responsibilities among RAs – will actually decrease the workload for RAs, even if they have slightly more students to watch over.

“Physically speaking, that’s only really a few more beds that are being added to each floor,” she said. “The idea behind it is, that will actually centralize a lot of the services and prioritize a more central idea of where the programs happen, when they happen and who’s assigned to them.”

Hanna said she hopes to have daily programming every night on the Hill, a model that administrators will pilot in De Neve Plaza during the spring and hope to fully launch during the fall.

Housing is also evaluating laundry options and looking into adding more machines, Faybik said. Housing will also move the mailroom to a larger space to accommodate the increase in students, she added.

A new dorm, currently named “Gayley Towers,” although Faybik said she does not know if the name will be kept, will be completed in 2026 and will feature dorm and apartment-style living, she added.

Staff also shared updates about UCLA Dining at the meeting.

Joey Martin, UCLA Dining’s senior executive chef, said Dining will begin serving lobster rolls for a limited time at The Study at Hedrick and pretzels at Café 1919, originally aiming to start last Saturday. Pretzels are still not offered as of Tuesday. Lobster rolls will be served at The Study for one day only Wednesday, according to an Instagram post from Martin.

Staff increases within UCLA Dining will hopefully lead to longer hours for campus eateries, said Calvin Farr, an assistant director of operations for Dining. Dining is evaluating the status of meal swipe values on a quarterly basis, which remain at a $9 value, said Charles Wilcots, associate director of dining administration.

[Related: UCLA Dining plans to reduce meal swipe monetary value by more than half]

Wilcots also said a recent increase in staff has allowed the eateries to accommodate students on the Hill for breakfast and dinner, something that motivated a recent change to only allowing swipes to be used at ASUCLA restaurants during lunchtime.

[Related: UCLA announces ASUCLA meal swipes will only be accepted at lunch hours weekdays]

One student asked if the Creamy Boys food truck will be returning to campus, as they noticed the food truck has not appeared on campus recently. Farr alleged that the food truck committed “violations” and will be back on campus once it resolves those.

Farr did not elaborate on what rules Creamy Boys violated, and the food truck did not respond in time to a request for comment.

A student also asked about increases to safety on campus after recent crimes committed against students on campus.

David Wang, the assistant director for Housing Information Technology, said the university plans to add more emergency telephones inside of dorms. Suzanne Seplow, associate vice chancellor for student development, added that with the appointment of Steve Lurie, the recently appointed associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, the university hopes to be more responsive to concerns on campus.

Hata said she thought the meeting was important to ensure accountability for UCLA Housing leadership.

“What I want to see perpetuated in future years is encouragement for directors to be clear on what these initiatives mean, what it looks like for student costs, what it looks like for student life,” she said. “I think it’s important that you have good student leaders and reps that push them to give straight answers.”