A Warm Welcome — and Another Year as the Nation’s #1 Public University

Campus Update

Interim Chancellor Hunt shared this message with the Bruin community:

Dear Bruin Community:

Welcome to a new academic year at UCLA — just named the nation’s No. 1 public university for the 8th year in a row! This achievement is a testament to the hard work, dedication, resilience and ingenuity of our community, and I am proud to celebrate it alongside all of you.

Late September is one of the most exhilarating times of the year at UCLA, as our community is reinvigorated by the arrival of our newest students. This fall, we are proud to welcome an academically stellar incoming class of 10,400 undergraduates — ranging from our youngest first-year student at age 15 to our oldest transfer student at age 66 — as well as 4,400 graduate students studying every subject under the sun.

They join our community at a very exciting moment, as UCLA faculty, staff, students and alumni continue to make their mark here and across the globe.

This summer, 49 Bruins competed or coached at the Paris Olympics, bringing home 14 Olympic medals. It was a perfect run-up to our 2024–25 athletic season, our first in the Big Ten conference, which will provide our student-athletes with new opportunities and a prominent stage to showcase their abilities.

UCLA also recently joined the Getty as a major partner in this year’s PST ART initiative, the largest art event in the country. This year’s theme is “Art & Science Collide,” and projects address topics like Indigenous knowledge, artificial intelligence, the burgeoning field of eco-acoustic art and more. 

Additionally, we continue to deepen our connections to the greater Los Angeles region and its diverse communities. Our new UCLA South Bay campus promises to contribute to a healthier world with its focus on sustainability, climate action and environmental justice. At UCLA Downtown, an important link between our main campus and the city center, the first set of academic and administrative programs are now underway. And we are hard at work reshaping the former Westside Pavilion into our UCLA Research Park, aided by a generous and transformative new gift from Alya and Gary Michelson.

To top it off, this summer we announced the selection of UCLA’s next chancellor, Julio Frenk — a visionary academic and the first Latino to lead our campus — who will take up the role in January. 

While there is much to be excited about, I recognize that our community is also in need of healing. One of my central priorities as interim chancellor this fall is to help us rebuild from the challenges of last spring and improve how we address similar issues in the future. Earlier this month, I announced a Four-Point Plan for a Safer, Stronger UCLA that focuses on:

1. Enhancing community safety and well-being;
2. Fostering a culture of engagement, learning and dialogue across difference;
3. Promoting freedom of expression in line with UC and campus policies; and
4. Continuously improving how we support our diverse community

Each of these four elements ladders up to a central goal: Creating an academic environment where people of all backgrounds and identities feel safe, welcome, respected, able to express themselves and able to participate fully in campus life. Our work focuses on both learning from our difficult spring — as I noted in announcing the plan, I have asked our Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Safety Rick Braziel to submit a written report about UCLA’s safety protocols and the police response to last year’s encampment, which I will share with all of you — as well as building towards a better future, guided by a range of new policies and practices that will help us promote safety and well-being.

In closing, I would like to invite every member of our community to participate in a few activities that will bring us together as the year gets underway:

• The first is UCLA Spirit Day on Friday, Sept. 27. Celebrate UCLA and show off your school pride by wearing blue and gold, whether you’re on campus or on Zoom.
• Then on Saturday, Oct. 5, thousands of our newest Bruin students — along with faculty, staff, parents, alumni and community members — will come together for our annual UCLA Volunteer Day. One of our most cherished traditions, it offers service opportunities in Westwood and well beyond.
• Finally, First Thursdays, a themed, quarterly series of free nighttime events returns to Broxton Avenue on Oct. 3.

At the heart of UCLA lies a commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, personal growth and the cultivation of a community where every person can flourish. These were traits that led me to fall in love with the campus as a graduate student here over three decades ago, and that continue to animate our university today. My hope for this year is that each member of our community will embrace opportunities for intellectual and personal development, deepen their capacity for empathy and mutual understanding, and contribute a great deal to the vibrant, diverse tapestry of life at UCLA.

Whether you are returning to campus or joining us for the first time, the start of the academic year offers fresh opportunities for renewal, discovery and growth. Let’s embrace this new beginning with optimism, determination, and a shared commitment to creating an even stronger, more vibrant UCLA. 

Sincerely,