University of California Los Angeles - Bruin Life / Southern Campus Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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a product due to a comhination of forces, setting steadily from the first toward one great issue. And the same steady growth which huilt from the pri- vate College of California located at Oakland in the eighteen-fifties the mag- nificent Berkeley of today, and which changed the Los Angeles State Normal School into a Southern Branch and then into a sister-university, made the selection of a new site in the southland a necessity. And the selection of West- wood to be that site was the result of months of examination of proposed lo- cations and hours of discussion as to the relative merits of possible situations. Appointment of a committee of seventeen citi2,ens who were closely as- sociated with progressive and educa- tional movements in the southland was the first step taken by President William Wallace Campbell of the University up- on the unanimous decision of the Re- gents that the Vermont site was inade- quate to meet the needs of the great institution of higher education into which the University of California at Los Angeles will develop in the near fu- ture. Seventeen locations were submitted for the consideration of the committee immediately after its organisation had been effected. A careful study of every site offered and a personal inspection of the majority of them resulted in the recommendation of the Committee of Seventeen that the so-called ' Beverly Site ' was best suited for the permanent home of the University of California at Los Angeles. The final decision was rendered by the Board of Regents on March 21, 1925. After an extensive surx ' ey of all the preferred sites and of the opportunities and advantages which each included in its proposal, the Board selected the recommended Westwood location by a practical unanimity, be- cause they believed it to be the trend of the population growth of Los Angeles, Activity on the campus prior to construction Steam shovel at work on bridge site Teams grading University Drive

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Student headquarters in the campus campaign eur a Westwood site President Campbell, speaking at the new site dedication ceremony Students participating in a labor day to open the Amendment 10 campaign WESTWOOD Hundreds of acres of rolling table ' land, ranging in hue from a golden brown to a verdant green, interspersed with the low knolls and the winding ravines of a California landscape, over ' shadowed by a purple-black mountain range which seemed like an etching against a vivid sky, itself overlooking a hlue ' green ocean of the Pacific whose vivacity and life belied its appellation — that is the Westwood of yesterday. Huge machines leveling down the low knolls and filling in the winding ravines, superintendents issuing orders, laborers obeying them, photographers shooting scenes of Westwood in the Making , of dedications, of ceremonies, and of similar rites, colorful placards an ' nouncing to a passing world that this is the new site of the University of Cali ' fornia at Los Angeles, a ha2;e of activity shutting off the mountains and the sea — that is the Westwood of today. Rolling lawns, arching eucalyptus and redwood trees, brilliant beds of purple and golden pansies, scarlet tulips, orange poppies, and green foliage, surrounded by buildings which so fit their environ ' ment that one feels they might have been created there at the beginning of time and yet so modern in detail that one realizes they are the result of man ' s ingenuity, vivified by the color and movement of the college campus which has as its background a magnificent pan ' orama of an azure sky, sombre purple black mountains, green foothills, nest- ling tan and white homes — that is the Westwood of tomorrow. Westwood itself is not the result of the chance formulation of an acceptable plan; it is not the only possible conse- quence of a casual act or a careless state- ment. To use the words which Martin Kellog, seventh president of the Univer ' sity of California, applied to the devel- opment of our state university, It is not a windfall nor an accident. It was [12

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Close up of sectional construction on Royce Hall McCOLLISTER LEADS IN THE ALMA MaTER SONG AT THE DEDICATION EXERCISES FOR THE WeSTWOOD BRIDGE ifi lipi t . SypHh... . : ' }£L , J- ' 8 ' P ' Ski Li liiN siKi cture of the Bridge before it was faced WITH brick because its juxtaposition to Los Angeles simplified housing and employment problems, and because its splendid topo- graphy and climate were compelling arguments in its favor. Since the Regents had expressly stat ' ed that any sites offered were to be de- void of financial entanglements, the pre ponents of the Westwood territory were confronted with the task of rais- ing approximately $1,319,000 in order that the 383 acre site might be present ' ed gratuitously to the State of Califor ' nia. Plans were formulated by James R. Martin, secretary of the Committee of Seventeen, with the result that Los An- geles raised $700,000, Santa Monica $120,000, Beverly Hills $100,000, and Venice $50,000. Students of the Uni- versity participated in all four cam- paigns, addressing department store em- ployees and improvement associations, distributing windshield stickers, litera- ture, and posters, and holding a gigantic pajamerino on the Westwood site on the eve of the Los Angeles election. The results in the four elections were over- whelmingly in favor of the University bonds, for the people of the southland, responding to the student appeal, had fulfilled their promise to the Regents to finance their share of the gift of West- wood. The acquisition of the new home of the University brought additonal prob- lems, for funds were needed to finance the building program, and unless the state legislature passed the necessary ap- propriations, none would be available. Activity was centered, therefore, on the Proposition 10 campaign, which would grant to the Los Angeles division of the University $3,000,000 for structural purposes. That the students of the Uni- versity were not above doing manual labor to obtain Westwood was evi- denced when the A. S. U. C. staged a Labor Day on October 9, 1926, to clean the new grounds and open the Proposi- [14