University Communications

Despite the competitive pressures from other institutions, UCLA continues to attract the best and the brightest.

Photography by Jonah Light, Seth Joel, Amanda Friedman,
Ann Johansson, Jilly Wendell and Dominique Vorillon.

WITH ITS REPUTATION AS A GLOBAL CENTER for learning and cutting-edge scholarship, UCLA is by any measure a stellar university. But even with such eminence, it’s not always easy being a Bruin. As detailed throughout this issue of UCLA Magazine, UCLA faces difficult challenges as it strives in an environment of dwindling resources and intense competition among universities to vie for the top researchers, the top scholars, the top students.

Nevertheless, in spite of these challenges outstanding faculty and gifted students — not to mention vigorous advocates and generous donors, both large and small — continue to make the commitment to UCLA, and by so doing they are vital players in the university’s continuing evolution to greater heights.

Why do they make the choice to affiliate with UCLA? And once they have made that choice, what keeps them here?

For some it is the chance to work among the world’s leading scholars in their particular discipline. For others, the broad diversity of the campus community is what first attracted them. Others view UCLA as essential to the societal and economic well-being of the state itself.

“Few schools can match all that UCLA has to offer,” says one alumnus and longtime supporter. For a faculty member, it is about the students: “Their promise, all the potential they hold, the excellence they represent — that’s what keeps me going.” And from a student: “I feel very fortunate and very privileged to be able to study here. It’s a great place to test out my own ideas and have them challenged and fortified.”

Following is a small sampling of some of those people who choose to call UCLA their home. >>>

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