Nearly 4,000 visitors came to campus last Friday morning and stayed for the weekend — Bruin Family Weekend, that is. The annual event invites UCLA families to spend three days with their students, getting a taste of campus life and just plain having fun.
Parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and others were welcomed by Chancellor Gene Block at Royce Hall Friday morning, and the welcomes continued all weekend from deans, directors, faculty and staff from all corners of campus.
Bruin families ate breakfast at Dickson Plaza, lunched at campus eateries and dining halls, brunched at sororities, barbecued at fraternities and topped it all off with ice-cream-cookie runs to Diddy Riese. They attended presentations about academics, residential life and career services; sat in on faculty lectures about climate change, 21st-century theater and life-saving robots; and got entertained at campus cultural events and a free concert by country superstar Brad Paisley.
“We had a great time,” said Marta Kosinski, who with her husband, James Ruppert, drove down from San Francisco to spend the weekend with their son, second-year student Alex Ruppert.
While this wasn’t their first visit to UCLA, “it’s a beautiful campus and always a pleasure to be here,” Kosinski said. The family tried to take advantage of everything the weekend offered, so they went to the Rose Bowl on Saturday for the UCLA-Utah football game and, on Sunday, they jogged 3.9 miles in the Family Fun Run around the perimeter of campus.
“This was a great excuse to visit my son,” said Charles Hui, who flew in from Honolulu to spend the weekend with Chester, a first-year student. “I wanted to experience the school and learn about the opportunities he has here. Best of all, I’ve enjoyed spending time with my son, eating meals together and catching up.”