Welcome Week 2014

The Chancellor updates the campus community about the recommendations made by UC President Janet Napolitano’s task force to prevent sexual assault and sexual misconduct.

“I look forward to an exhilarating and productive,” Block writes in his message to the UCLA campus community.

Chancellor Gene Block formally welcomed new freshmen and transfer students to UCLA Sunday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center stadium as the campus prepares to kick off the 2014-15 academic year.

Volunteers worked at more than 40 schools, veterans centers, public parks, senior centers, community centers and homeless service providers.

Campus returned to life as thousands of students began moving into the residence halls. Those living in the newly renovated Hitch Residential Suites were greeted with a host of new amenities.

For UCLA's sixth annual Volunteer Day on Sept. 29, 7,300 Bruins will blanket Los Angeles County helping out at schools, veterans' sites, senior centers, shelters, parks and more, before classes even begin.

This year Jackie Robinson’s autobiography, “I Never Had It Made,” is being read by thousands of incoming freshman and transfer students, faculty, staff and alumni as part of the six-year-old UCLA Common Book program.

Twins Youstina and Marina Salama immigrated from Egypt at the age of 9 without knowing a word of English. They are now freshmen at UCLA who have their sights set on pursuing careers in medicine.

This week marks the return of approximately 28,700 undergraduates and 13, 500 graduate students to UCLA. The quarter officially begins on Sept. 29. Instruction begins on Oct. 2.

Campus officials estimate that approximately 2,500 UCLA students will qualify for $3 million in new assistance from California’s Middle Class Scholarship, approved by the legislature earlier this year.

For the past quarter century, UCLA’s New Student and Transition Programs in the UCLA College’s Division of Undergraduate Education has been addressing issues related to sexual violence, sexual health, and alcohol and substance abuse during orientation as a way to help students better navigate their first year as Bruins.

A non-credit UCLA class for international students and foreign faculty teaches idioms, pop culture and campus life, with a new emphasis on slang, L.A. neighborhoods and foodie havens.

Hundreds of new new Bruins caught the beat of the Taiko Kyodo drummers from the Nikkei Student Union, one of numerous cultural groups that performed outside Ackerman Union on Tuesday, Aug. 12, as part of new student orientation for incoming freshmen.

The complex task of introducing 9,000 incoming freshmen and transfer students to UCLA's campus and culture is a yearlong job for Roxanne Neal and her staff.

Veterans who are entering UCLA in the fall went to the first orientation customized for them to learn specific information about benefits and resources and to connect with fellow student vets.