Sofia Gevorgian’s life as a student revolves around her nearly hour-long commute from the UCLA campus in Westwood to her family home in the San Fernando Valley.
During her freshman year, she would run home from the last class of the day around noon, foregoing clubs and social events typically held in the evening so she could avoid traffic and get home in 30 minutes instead of a hour or more. This year, she’s trying a different strategy: staying at school until 7:30 p.m. to attend office hours and club meetings, and sometimes even later to participate in intramural soccer games.
But the 10-hour-plus school day is taking its toll on her, she said.
“I sacrifice so much energy,” she said. “Driving home in the evening when you’re tired is exhausting in itself, coupled with being on campus all day attending classes and clubs. It’s a lot.
To ease the stress of students who, unlike on-campus resident students, do not have a place to call home and may feel isolated, UCLA is creating “BruinHubs” where they can rest and study before and after lessons. The hubs are equipped with nap pods, study tables, charging stations, snacks, a microwave, and a refrigerator to store meals for their long day on campus.
A former squash court at UCLA’s John Wooden Center has been transformed into a BruinHub dedicated to commuting students who need places on campus to rest and study.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“Naturally disadvantaged academically by their commute, they don’t have enough time in their days to sleep, study or meet with their study groups,” said Dana Cuff, professor of architecture and urban design. at UCLA, during a recent UC Regents conference. meeting.
The need is great. Nearly half of UCLA’s undergraduates and the majority of its graduate students live off campus — and 43 percent of those students commute more than an hour each way, Cuff said.
The push to expand commuter hubs comes as UCLA students, staff and faculty face a lack of affordable housing near campus, said Monroe Gorden, vice chancellor for student affairs.
Fourth-year student Darlene Luna Barahona lives in Santa Clarita. She hits the highway around 7 a.m. to brave her hour-and-a-half commute to campus. The 21-year-old transferred from College of the Canyons, a community college in Santa Clarita, last year with financial aid that she would rather spend on her tuition than on college-affiliated housing. college – which can cost more than $1,800 per month. .
Before starting his part-time job at UCLA’s Transfer Student Center this year, the John Wooden Center’s BruinHub, which also houses UCLA’s main gymnasium, was Barahona’s go-to place after class to wait for the traffic.
“That’s my capsule,” she laughs, pointing to the pink capsule resting in the corner. “I would come here a lot and sit and work on my homework and prepare for midterms and finals.”
The rest modules are carved wooden capsules with a small curtain for more privacy. Inside the module, a reading lamp and an outlet allow students to work lying down or seated. Colorful furniture and painted polka dots on tall white walls under fluorescent lighting give a playful atmosphere to the center.
Sofia Gevorgian, a sophomore, commutes from the San Fernando Valley to UCLA five times a week and spends 10 hours a day on campus to avoid rush-hour traffic.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
This BruinHub opened in fall 2021, converted into an underutilized racquetball court. It is open from 5:15 a.m. for early commuters until 1 a.m. A second BruinHub was repurposed into a conference room and opened this winter quarter in the Strathmore Building, which also houses UCLA’s Basic Needs Center which provides emergency housing and food to students . in need.
The lack of study spaces on campus, especially during exams, and the lack of places where students could prepare meals made it difficult for commuting students to work, eat, lie down and charge their phones and laptops.
“There was a time when I didn’t bring food at all, because I didn’t want to spend money on campus, so I just brought snacks because I knew I needed to eat and I didn’t want to take my lunch with me. all day,” Barahona said of his time before discovering BruinHubs.
Dominique Peñate, Commuter Support and Programs Coordinator, knows the struggles of commuter students all too well, having commuted from South Gate before graduating from UCLA in 2022.
“Some students stack their classes and try to only come twice a week to save on gas and parking, and I used to do the same thing,” she said.
Gevorgian said BruinHubs are a good start to meeting students’ commuter needs. But she called on the university to offer more online classes to commuter students and more lenient in-person attendance policies, especially when bad weather makes driving dangerous. She also advocates that commuter students be given priority to enroll in UCLA’s limited online course offerings.
“We had atmospheric rain, very heavy flooding last month and professors were still requiring students to come in person, which is a danger to the students themselves,” Gervorgian said. “And if they choose to stay home, they will miss classes, which will have a negative educational impact on students.” »
“I feel like UCLA is underestimating how essential it is to have online classes as an option,” Barahona said. “For commuters, it’s just easier to have that option for Zoom.”
UCLA is in talks to build more BruinHubs in its libraries, in its new 11-story Trust Building in downtown Los Angeles and on its satellite campus on the site of the former Marymount California University in Rancho Palos Verdes, Penate said.
The BruinHubs are not intended to replace students in need of housing, but to allow the university to leverage underutilized spaces and recreate them into a space that can help students get around, said Gordon.
“The BruinHub allows us to think about these niches where students sometimes make conscious decisions about where they live,” he said. “But we need to think about the long-term housing needs of our students.”
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