{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/justinnorth&southcampus","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"slug":"justin.north&southcampus","excerpt":"“Are you North or South?” is an all-too-common question heard around campus, but what does it truly mean?","headline":"A campus divided","author":"Justin Jung","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/justin.north&southcampus/1bunche_north-4457d03502f2b1c60059bb990d20d0d9.jpg","covercred":"Nitya Tak and Justin Jung","coveralt":"Photo illustration by Nitya Tak and Justin Jung.","articleType":"article","updated":null,"content":[{"type":"text","value":"Not thinking twice about it, David Murillo asked his friend who goes to another college if he’s North or South Campus."},{"type":"text","value":"“(My friend) was like, ‘What is that?’” said Murillo, a second-year psychobiology student. “I kind of assumed that all schools had that subtle distinction. I thought South Campus inherently meant you’re STEM. I didn’t know it’s just UCLA.”"},{"type":"text","value":"North and South Campus are characterized by the geographic split of social sciences and humanities in the northern part of UCLA, and physical and life sciences in UCLA’s south. As students tend to take more classes within their respective sides, they often find themselves aligning with half the campus."},{"type":"text","value":"While North Campus feels like a giant park, with landmark buildings and a close-knit community, South Campus feels like a city, with more streets running through it, said Matt Flynn, a fourth-year history student."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo illustration by Nitya Tak and Noah Danesh.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/justin.north&southcampus/1Picture1-063623e0bfa3cc94b3fb11c9510ac015.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Nitya Tak and Noah Danesh\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"As a North Campus student myself, I’ve not spent much time south of Powell Library, but I have noticed stark differences on my forays south. Nearly every time I’ve been lost on campus, I was trying to navigate the labyrinth called Boelter Hall. Additionally, the midday crowds of students walking to class around Young Hall are always larger than any I’ve seen north of Royce Hall."},{"type":"text","value":"In contrast to the bustle of South Campus, I usually see students in North Campus sitting on the lawns of the Sunken Gardens, Dickson Plaza or the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden. Usually reading a book, having a picnic or tossing a ball, students there seem more relaxed."},{"type":"text","value":"Thinking about these differences led me to question why UCLA has a North and South Campus to begin with. It’s not as though there’s a physical barrier separating the two, but when you step across the invisible demarcation, it’s immediately apparent that the atmosphere has changed."},{"type":"text","value":"Is geography the ultimate answer to these differences, or is there something more? Do all students experience these cultures the same way, or is it individual?"},{"type":"text","value":"The flow of students through these geographic spaces seems to be central to the distinction between North and South Campus. Although some spaces are already shared, like the dorms and Ackerman Union, academic spaces on campus don’t appear to be optimized for interdisciplinary collaboration."},{"type":"text","value":"The North-South geographic split is felt even more dramatically by graduate students, who rarely ever spend time outside of their own departments, said Eric Newberry, a computer science graduate student. As a result, graduate students find more difficulty forging cross-campus connections, Newberry added."},{"type":"text","value":"Students are more likely to frequent their respective areas of campus’s libraries and eateries, limiting the social spaces where cross-campus dialogue can flourish."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo illustration by Nitya Tak and Justin Jung.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/justin.north&southcampus/1bomb shelter_south-52514fa3cc36af7caa78beb72bdfdbad.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Nitya Tak and Justin Jung\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"I asked Newberry what he thought about the geographic spaces where students eat lunch and spend time on campus, such as Lu Valle Commons, Broad Art Center and the South Campus Student Center, usually called the Bombshelter."},{"type":"text","value":"“The only place of the ones you mentioned (that) I know is actually the Bombshelter,” Newberry replied."},{"type":"text","value":"In line with the geographic disparities across campus, polarizing stereotypes seem to be everywhere, especially about South Campus’ allegedly more difficult coursework."},{"type":"text","value":"In my experience, South Campus professors assign more regular coursework and weight problem sets and midterms more heavily than their North Campus counterparts do. North Campus professors also seem to love grading essays, as I’ve seldom taken a humanities class with fewer than 20 pages of writing expected."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"It’s not as though there’s a physical barrier separating the two, but when you step across the invisible demarcation, it’s immediately apparent that the atmosphere has changed.\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Many students said they think South Campus students hold an elitist attitude over North Campus students."},{"type":"text","value":"Antwan Adams said he felt most hurt by a prevailing stereotype that North Campus students are unintelligent."},{"type":"text","value":"At the Jan. 30 UCLA men’s basketball game, the school held a “Campus Wars” student giveaway, distributing T-shirts emblazoned with “North Campus” or “South Campus” to promote its home game against Colorado."},{"type":"text","value":"When one of the announcers at the game called for North Campus students to make some noise, Adams overheard South Campus students seated behind him say, “At least we’re not ... dumb.”"},{"type":"text","value":"“I was shocked, and I was a little upset, because ... we’re all going to the same school, we’re all here, we all made it on our own merit based on who we are as students,” said Adams, a second-year communication and political science student."},{"type":"text","value":"Anonymous social media posts can also widen the split by spreading divisive jokes and hurtful opinions, and it is often unclear whether a post was written in jest or with complete seriousness."},{"type":"text","value":"One post on the UCLA Secrets Facebook page last year said that only STEM students had valid struggles over final exams, and that North Campus students just “scribble a few worthless paragraphs onto a blue book.”"},{"type":"text","value":"“So the bottom line is this: during finals week, if you’re north campus, SHUT YOUR MOUTHS,” the post read. “You have NO RIGHT to complain. Especially don’t complain around your south campus friends or roommates who have REAL work to do.”"},{"type":"text","value":"As of Nov. 16, the post had received 194 reactions, 164 of which were “Like,” “Haha,” or “Love.”"},{"type":"text","value":"On the other hand, many of the 238 comments came to North Campus students’ defense. Some commented that South Campus course rigor was exaggerated, while others dismissed North Campus coursework as easy. Many drew attention to the daunting essays – often dozens of pages per quarter – commonplace around North Campus."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo illustration by Nitya Tak and Justin Jung.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/justin.north&southcampus/1royce_north-8758e6f41a3e75dd8be844f5a52a7d43.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Nitya Tak and Justin Jung\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Some majors, though, have raised questions about what it even means to belong to North or South. Majors like economics and psychology, straddling the line between STEM and humanities, have found themselves in the midst of a cross-campus crossfire."},{"type":"text","value":"In November 2019, UCLA updated its academic classification of economics majors to STEM, in accordance with changes by the U.S. Department of Education. The economics and business economics majors were listed under programs that use mathematics and statistics to study economics."},{"type":"text","value":"Despite economics’ new status as STEM, the department remains housed in Bunche Hall, at the far reaches of North Campus. The change primarily served to recognize that the field of economics had changed over time to involve more quantitative study, said Dora Costa, economics professor and department chair, in an emailed statement."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"You can’t have a world without North. You can’t have a world without South.”\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"The Daily Bruin reported, “Economics has arrived to South Campus,” but some students disagreed."},{"type":"text","value":"Nima Ashrafi said as a second-year economics student, he chooses to view himself as a North Campus student, because if he called himself South Campus, his friends would be indignant."},{"type":"text","value":"“My friends who are South Campus majors would get upset about it, almost as if it were an attack on them,” Ashrafi said."},{"type":"text","value":"The stereotype that South Campus is harder than North Campus has led to more than just bias between the groups. It’s a poorly kept secret that South Campus lacks diversity, with many seats occupied by Asian and white male students."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo illustration by Nitya Tak and Justin Jung.\",\"url\":\"https://assets3.dailybruin.com/images/justin.north&southcampus/1young_south-b4246f0532dbb760dd68c10b363d2d69.jpg\",\"credit\":\"Nitya Tak and Justin Jung\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Coming to UCLA from a majority-Hispanic neighborhood, Murillo felt intimidated by the rarity of seeing a familiar face on South Campus. The lack of diversity in STEM pressured Murillo to feel that he had to represent his culture well, he added."},{"type":"text","value":"“I felt out of place at first,” Murillo said. “My first STEM class was (Math 31A: “Differential and Integral Calculus”), and I was the only Hispanic student. ... And I’m not used to that because when I was in high school, everybody, 99% of my class was Hispanic.”"},{"type":"text","value":"Anthony Friscia, an associate adjunct professor, said he thinks some students from underrepresented groups may avoid science majors because they lack opportunities to participate in the sciences. Many such students may not have had robust science programs or enthusiastic science teachers before entering college, and thus never been strongly encouraged to pursue a higher science education."},{"type":"text","value":"One second-year student, Kalena Oorlog, said that she entered UCLA unsure of what to major in, but eventually decided on neuroscience after finding a supportive community of friends in South Campus."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"Majors like economics and psychology, straddling the line between STEM and humanities, have found themselves in the midst of a cross-campus crossfire.\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Some of the most popular clusters – yearlong general education classes – are bridge clusters, meaning that they bridge North and South Campus topics, said Friscia, the director of the UCLA Cluster Program."},{"type":"text","value":"One such class, Cluster M71: “Biotechnology and Society,” draws faculty from biology, sociology, English and women’s studies to talk about biotechnology from various perspectives, Friscia said."},{"type":"text","value":"Genetically modified food, a topic discussed in Cluster M71, frequently elicits multidisciplinary debate, Friscia said. While sociologists weigh the ethical implications of gene editing, biologists examine the actual methods used, Friscia added."},{"type":"text","value":"“All of these things are interconnected,” said Maya El Jawhari, a fourth-year political science student. “You can’t have a world without North. You can’t have a world without South.”"},{"type":"text","value":"However, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced Bruins into a virtual world, without North or South."},{"type":"text","value":"Amid multiple reported outbreaks at UCLA, there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight for mandated remote learning. With all of campus closed, Bruins aren’t on North or South Campus as much as they are all just on Zoom."},{"type":"text","value":"Since students are now less likely to meet people outside of their own Zoom classes, the gap between the two sides of campus may grow even wider, said Rohan Battula, a second-year computer science student."},{"type":"text","value":"“I think it’s definitely going to polarize students super heavily, because they’re just going to be surrounded by the same people from their same South Campus or North Campus clubs and Zoom classes,” Battula said."},{"type":"text","value":"While the COVID-19 pandemic has made life harder for all students, first-year students may be especially missing out on a common UCLA experience, said Alvin Vo, a second-year political science student."},{"type":"text","value":"“I feel kind of bad for first years especially, because they might hear the term ‘North and South Campus’ but they might not know what it actually means,” Vo said. “The overall context, the underlying stereotypes, the jokes, walking to and from class.”"},{"type":"text","value":"Nevertheless, Vo said that the North and South Campus culture has been ingrained in the students and won’t permanently disappear because of the pandemic. Freshmen will see the terms online and internalize them, even if they aren’t able to be on campus physically, Vo added."},{"type":"text","value":"Regardless of one’s major or background, the North and South Campus cultures are quintessential parts of the Bruin experience."},{"type":"text","value":"When Ashrafi recently met a UCLA alumnus from the ’90s, the first thing the alumnus asked was if Ashrafi is a North or South Campus student."},{"type":"text","value":"“Thirty years ago, same deal,” Ashrafi said. “That remains today – so I think it definitely adds a good layer of tradition that is important to UCLA.”"}]}},"pageContext":{"term":"winter21","slug":"justin.north&southcampus"}},"staticQueryHashes":[]}