Although the new residential plazas – Rieber Vista and Hedrick Summit – were designed for upper division students, UCLA Housing has had to adjust to an unexpected number of first-year students living in the plazas.
In an effort to help build community in the plazas, all first-years have been clustered into groups on several floors in Hedrick Summit, said Bridget Le Loup, the Resident Director for Hedrick Summit.
Associate Director of Housing Services Geri Sena said there are currently 155 vacancies.
She called the numbers a “snapshot in time” and said they would continue to change as additional housing contracts are sold.
According to UCLA Housing statistics, the total number of first-years in the two buildings is 336.
She said the rest of the residents were grouped according to preferences indicated in the housing questionnaire.
Le Loup said programming would be geared towards the high rate of first-year and transfer students living in the building.
“We are well aware that (first-year students) are here,” Le Loup said.
Le Loup said residents of Hedrick Summit are quite social, despite initial concerns by students that the design of Hedrick Summit and Rieber Vista would negate such an atmosphere because of the single rooms and lack of communal bathrooms.
“I’ve been doing rounds and there’s been nothing but positive feedback,” Le Loup said. “So far so good.”
Resident Director of Rieber Vista Kallen Marquez said there have been floor programs specifically planned for first-year residents and more programs would continue to be planned since first-year students make up approximately half of the residents in the new buildings.
“My RAs were actually really excited to get a lot of freshmen,” Marquez said.
Hedrick Summit’s first-year residents also had the opportunity to assist with Welcome Week preparations and to be involved before they started school.
Associate Director of Housing Angela Marciano said the layouts of Rieber Vista and Hedrick Summit are based on students’ preferences for privacy as indicated in a survey conducted by UCLA Housing.
Marquez said although Rieber Vista and Hedrick Summit are both new residential plazas, the two buildings have different resident distributions and floor plans.
The numbers of first-year students in Rieber Vista is similar to the distribution of students in De Neve Plaza, she added.
Marquez said the majority of the rooms in Rieber Vista are double-shared rooms, with only a handful of ten-person suites.
Le Loup said Hedrick Summit has a similar distribution of rooms.
Marciano said the last residential plaza being built – Rieber Terrace – is expected to be completed winter quarter.
Rieber Terrace will offer hundreds of additional spaces for students in the long run, which will help compensate for the closure of Sproul Hall next year due to renovations, Marciano said.
Marciano said even though there will be four years of renovations to the high-rise dormitories, Housing plans will guarantee four years of on-campus housing to students after all construction on the Hill is complete.