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Los Angeles: Departments and Programs

Aerospace Studies
On July 1, 1949, the Department of Air Science and Tactics was established at the Los Angeles campus to reflect the emergence of the Air Force as an independent department in the defense establishment. The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program was compulsory for freshmen and sophomores until 1962, when a voluntary program was introduced. In 1964, the title of the department was changed to reflect added curriculum emphasis on space operations. Simultaneously, a new two-year Air Force ROTC program was introduced to operate concurrently with the standard four-year course of study.

A new curriculum was introduced in the mid-1960s which emphasized student-centered activity to provide practice in recognizing, defining, and solving aerospace problems similar to those encountered by career officers in the Air Force. Beginning in the fall, 1965, the department planned to award a proportionate share of 5,500 financial assistance grants offered by the Department of the Air Force to deserving juniors each year. source

African Studies Program
The African Studies Center at UCLA was established in 1959 as an organized research unit to meet the growing national interest in the region and to develop outreach, academic, and research programs on Africa. Increased national demand for new language and area skills soon led to its designation as a National Resource Center for African Studies. In 1989, the Center was renamed to honor its founder, James S. Coleman, whose pioneering scholarship marks him as one of the architects of African Area Studies in the United States. The Center is a broadly based academic support and research program dedicated to the following activities: education of undergraduate and graduate students as well as the community at large in the areas of African languages, culture and society; preparing graduate students for careers in the public and private sectors and for academic positions with an Africa focus both in the United States and abroad; conducting scholarly research on Africa and disseminating that research to a wide audience, both nationally and internationally; promoting dialogue and cooperation among students, scholars, policy makers and the general public through lectures, symposia, publications and other activities. source

See also Near Eastern and African Languages.

African American Studies
UCLA’s Center for African American Studies (CAAS) was founded in 1969, the outgrowth of demands for relevant multi-disciplinary research into the social, cultural, and political experiences of Black Americans. At that moment in history, social forces were profoundly transforming the nation and its official relationship to race. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had wounded de jure discrimination just a few years earlier. Race-specific remedies like affirmative action were coming into vogue, accepted by the establishment as practical tools for attacking the de facto discrimination that remained. The Black Power movement popularized an entirely new domain of possibilities for Black Americans, possibilities vividly expressed in popular music and fashion.

Established as an Organized Research Unit (ORU), the Center's mission is to develop strong academic and research programs in African American Studies through its five primary organizational branches: research, academic programs, library, special projects and publications.

CAAS supports research that: (1) expands the knowledge of the history, lifestyles, and sociocultural systems of people of African descent and (2) investigates problems that have bearing on the psychological, social and economic well-being of persons of African descent. Research sponsored and conducted by CAAS is multidisciplinary in scope and spans the humanities, social sciences, fine arts, and several professional schools.

The Interdepartmental BA and MA Programs (IDP) oversee the granting of undergraduate and graduate degrees in Afro-American Studies. CAAS provides assistance to the IDP through administrative support and coordination of the curricula. The Center also administers two competitive undergraduate scholarship programs -- the Julian "Cannonball" Adderley Memorial Scholarship and the John Densmore Scholarship -- which provide funding to students majoring in Afro-American Studies or other disciplines.

Through the production of books and monographs, the CAAS publishing unit provides wide access to research on issues relevant to peoples of African descent throughout the world. The CAAS Publications imprint includes the Afro-American Culture and Society Series, the Special Publications Series, the Urban Policy Series, the Community Classics Series, and the Minority Economic Development Series. The unit also oversees the production of the CAAS Report, distributed without charge to interested individuals and organizations throughout the United States and abroad.

The CAAS Special Projects division is responsible for the development and presentation of cultural and scholarly programming designed to enrich the experiences of the local UCLA and off-campus communities. Among its notable activities are the annual Thurgood Marshall Lecture on Law and Human Rights. The Special Projects unit also interacts with businesses, cultural organizations, and other academic institutions to foster a better understanding of its mission, and the Special Projects staff plays a key role in CAAS fundraising efforts.

The Center for African American Studies is administered by a Director, with the guidance of an advisory committee appointed by the Executive Vice Chancellor and composed of faculty from across campus.

CAAS is affiliated with the Institute of American Cultures (IAC). Established in 1972, the IAC promotes the development of ethnic studies at UCLA by providing a structure for coordination of the four ethnic studies centers on campus. Through CAAS, the IAC awards annual predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships. source

Agricultural Sciences
See Colleges and Schools, College of Agriculture.

American Indian Studies Program The initial beginnings of the American Indian Studies Center date to 1969, when students and community members asked UCLA to create a curriculum and research center concentrating on Native American history and culture. Many Native students at UCLA and community members believed that UCLA was not conducting research or disseminating accurate information about Native American issues, history, and culture. In 1970, Chancellor Young secured a five-year Ford Foundation Grant for support of the Center and the three other ethnic studies centers, Asian American, African-American and Chicano. The Ford grant supported research, grant writing, a library, publications, and curriculum development. In the early 1970s, the student affairs position was secured from the university and was designed to focus on student retention and recruitment. In the fiscal year 1975-1976, UCLA agreed to assume financial support for the four ethnic studies centers, including the American Indian Studies Center. Also in 1975, and in association with the new UCLA commitments to the four ethnic studies centers, the Institute of American Cultures was created to distribute research grants and fellowships in ethnic studies. All four ethnic studies centers participate, and each year, by means of competitive review processes, each center awards one postdoctoral fellowship, one predoctoral fellowship, and a series of research grants to faculty, student, and postdoctoral fellow applicants. Over the past 25 years, the fellowships and grants have been major sources of research support in the Center. The Center, in 1975, was endowed with five faculty FTE (full-time equivalents) and is charged with faculty recruitment and development of Native scholars and scholars working in Native Studies. In 1982, the Center faculty created the Interdepartmental Program's (IDP) master's degree in American Indian Studies and developed a series of core courses. The IDP is endowed with few resources and no space, therefore the Center has provided administrative and resource support to the IDP. IDP students study and often work in the Center, and the student affairs officer has increasingly taken on many of the IDP's routine administrative duties. The faculty members are appointed in academic departments and agree to participate in the IDP and ORU. Faculty do not have appointments directly to the Center or IDP. In the mid-1990s, the Center and IDP faculty created a minor in American Indian Studies through IDP and just recently, in 2002, the major was approved. At present, the Center is divided into five operational units: administration, publications, the student affairs officer, the library, and the research department. The American Indian Studies Center is dedicated to culturally appropriate research, information distribution, and community service for and about American Indians. Over the past three decades, the Center has become nationally and internationally recognized as one of the foremost American Indian studies programs. source

Anatomy
Shortly after the mid-century founding of a medical school on the Los Angeles campus, a chair of anatomy was established on July 1, 1950, with Horace W. Magoun as its first occupant. Dr. Magoun set out to assemble a department representing modern trends in anatomy: electron microscopy and ultrastructure, histo- and cytochemistry, radiobiology, and functional neuroanatomy, as well as the more classical disciplines of gross, surgical, and microscopic anatomy. By the fall of 1951, he had recruited Daniel Pease, Charles Sawyer, and Earl Eldred to assist him in microscopic, gross, and neuroanatomy, respectively. During the summer of 1951, the former Religious Conference Building on the south edge of campus was renovated into teaching laboratories and offices, and the first class of 28 medical students was admitted in September. Between 1952 and 1954, the department recruited John Green, Carmine Clemente, Richard Greulich, Robert Livingston, Robert Tschirgi, and W. Ross Adey, the last three for the correlated course in basic neurology. In 1954, the new Medical Center laboratories were available and the class size gradually increased to 72. After the completion of Basic Sciences Unit 2A and the School of Dentistry Building, the enrollments reached 128 medical students and 100 dental students.

While teaching programs were being instituted, research laboratories were developed in Veterans Administration Hospitals, especially at Long Beach where Superintendent Edward Edwards and Neurosurgery Chief John French encouraged Dr. Magoun to expand research operations. The enterprise was so successful that within a few years some 17,000 square feet of space were serving most members of the department and the many postdoctoral fellows attracted to the Los Angeles campus by Dr. Magoun. These extensive research activities culminated in the establishment of the Los Angeles Brain Research Institute (BRI) in 1957. The BRI's building on campus was opened in 1961, with Dr. French, a professor of anatomy as well as neurosurgery, as its director. A Space Biology Laboratory was instituted in 1959, with Dr. Adey as its director.

Meanwhile, a graduate program had been approved in 1953, and the predoctoral enrollment increased from two students initially to 31, with 24 Ph.D. degrees awarded during the first 12 years.

Since 1953, the department included a Division of Medical History, long an interest of Dr. Magoun. In 1959, Dr. C. D. O'Malley accepted the chairmanship of this division, which numbered among its lecturers Magoun, L. R. C. Agnew, Elmer Belt, John Field, Louise M. Darling, Robert J. Moes, and Chancellor Franklin Murphy, who held a professorship in the division.

In keeping with the University policy of rotating chairmanships, Dr. Magoun resigned in 1955 and Dr. Sawyer served as chairman for eight years, with Dr. Eldred as acting chairman in 1958-59. In 1963, on Dr. Sawyer's resignation, Dr. Clemente accepted the chairmanship as the unanimous choice of his colleagues. Dr. Magoun became dean of the Graduate Division in 1962, but he retained his professorship in anatomy. source

The Department of Anatomy no longer exists as such.

Anesthesiology
There is no history currently available for this department.

Anthropology
Anthropology instruction began on the Los Angeles campus under the auspices of the Department of Psychology in February, 1936. A joint Department of Anthropology and Sociology was established on July 1, 1940, with three full-time and one half-time staff members. An undergraduate major in anthropology, initially leaning heavily on supplementary courses in psychology and sociology, was approved in 1941. An independent Department of Anthropology was established on July 1, 1964.

Initially, two lower division and nine upper division courses in anthropology were offered, some in alternate years. The following year two graduate seminars were offered in alternate years. The 1964-65 catalog carried 42 undergraduate courses and 21 graduate courses (including research courses). In 1955 total anthropology enrollments were 1,159, including 34 graduate students. By the spring of 1965 total class enrollments exceeded 3,000.

By the mid-1960s, the department awarded between 40 and 50 A.B. degrees a year (including summer session degrees). The first M.A. degree was awarded in 1946. By 1961 a total of 47 M.A. degrees had been awarded and by spring, 1965, the total reached 89. The first Ph.D. was awarded in 1952. Up to 1961 a total of 16 Ph.D. degrees were awarded; by spring, 1965, the total was 44.

The regular staff, static during the war years, grew from two in 1940 to 22 in 1965, including six who taught partly in other departments, plus five persons on temporary or visiting appointments. By the mid-1960s, the staff was able to offer instruction and graduate student guidance in major fields of anthropology, although some geographical areas were not covered.

The initial curricular emphasis was on basic courses in cultural anthropology. The major trends in the first 25 years of the department were toward increasing specialization and depth in the core fields as the graduate program developed, and the addition and subsequent development of such special fields as anthropological linguistics, archaeology and physical anthropology.

Part of this growth was aided by the establishment of the Archaeological Research Facility in 1958. The department participated in and benefited from the establishment of special area centers, especially those for Latin America and Africa, and the Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology. In 1964 the Laboratory of Ethnic Arts and Technology was established as an independent organization and was of great value to the department. source

Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language
There is no history currently available for this department.

Archaeology Program
There is no history currently available for this program.

Architecture and Urban Design
There is no history currently available for this department. See School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Art
Instruction in art began in 1907, under Nellie Huntington Gere, in the Los Angeles State Normal School. Drawing, painting, design, crafts, and a general appreciation of art and the history of art were offered. This general grouping persisted. In the earlier years, however, the intention was to train teachers of art. By 1912, the faculty had increased to six. When the normal school moved to the new campus on Vermont Avenue, the department occupied well-equipped studios for the creation and display of student work.

By 1920, the staff had been doubled and by 1927, 66 courses were offered. More choice for concentration in art training was provided and more academic work was required for teaching credentials. The facilities, however, had their limitations. When the Los Angeles campus moved to Westwood in 1929, the department was part of the Teachers College and was housed in the Education Building, later called Moore Hall. A small gallery on the third floor of a building without elevators was the only exhibition space for the next 23 years.

In July, 1939, the College of Applied Arts was established. As a part of this college the department experienced a major change that made it possible for art students to secure degrees without necessarily working for teaching credentials. By 1948, there were 84 courses and eight specializations still clustered in four specific groups: art history, fine arts, applied arts, and art education. A more professional trend began in the training of painters and the faculty was again enlarged to meet these needs. Five M.A. and 85 A.B. degrees were conferred in 1948. Two years later, the number of courses stood at 113.

Another move for the department came in 1951-52, with the opening of a new building, later named the Dickson Art Center. Exhibition space was greatly increased and the Willitts J. Hole Collection, that had formerly hung in the library, was housed in the galleries. Gibson Danes was appointed chairman. The specializations offered were history; painting, sculpture, and graphic arts; advertising art; interior design; costume design; applied design; industrial design; and art education--the last devoted to the training of teachers, the concern with which the department began.

The Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation came into being during Danes' chairmanship and the important print collection of Fred and Sadie Grunwald was gradually transferred to the University. The foundation became a monumental collection of prints and a major teaching resource.

The College of Applied Arts was replaced by the College of Fine Arts in July, 1960 and this change heralded a review of the department's specializations, resulting in a shift of emphasis toward a theoretical approach and away from technology, particularly in the area of design. Lester Longman, chairman from 1958 to 1962, was instrumental in introducing the M.F.A. degree for the performing arts and the Ph.D. degree in art history. The first doctorate was conferred in 1963. Frederick Wight, who had become director of the art galleries in 1953, succeeded Longman as chairman. source

Art History
There is no history currently available for this department. See Department of Art.

Asian American Studies Program
There is no history currently available for this program.

Astronomy
Instruction in astronomy at Los Angeles began in 1922 with the appointment of Frederick C. Leonard as instructor of astronomy in the Department of Mathematics. On Leonard's initiative, a separate Department of Astronomy was created in 1931. Leonard's research interest was primarily in meteoritics, and he built a valuable collection of meteorites which became the property of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics on his death in 1960.

The first addition to the department was Samuel Herrick in 1938. Specializing in celestial mechanics, Herrick established courses in interplanetary navigation in 1942, the first in the country. With the advent of space flight in the mid-1950s, the contributions of Herrick and his students became more and more in demand. In 1961, activities in celestial mechanics and space navigation were transferred to the College of Engineering.

After World War II, emphasis in the department gradually broadened to include instruction and research in stellar astronomy and astrophysics with the appointments of Daniel M. Popper (1947), George O. Abell (1956), and Lawrence H. Aller (1962). Prior to 1947, Joseph Kaplan of the Department of Physics had also participated. In 1965, the department had the three tenure staff members just referred to, Herrick, and five non-tenure members. Two staff members held joint appointments in the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

The M.A. degree in astronomy was first offered in 1953; the Ph.D., in 1963.

During the four-year period 1948-52, total enrollment in astronomy courses averaged 270, undergraduate majors averaged seven, and there were no graduate students. During the period 1960-64, there was an average of 344 students enrolled in astronomy courses, 43 undergraduate majors, and 21 graduate students.

Over the years the department built up a good complement of instructional observing equipment; the roof of the Mathematical Sciences Building, occupied in 1957, was specially designed to support and house it. Because of the unfavorable location in a large city, major research telescopes have not been contemplated at Los Angeles. Staff members requiring such equipment have made use of the University's Lick Observatory or of the telescopes on Mount Wilson and Palomar Mountain. A new aspect of the instructional and research program of the department commenced with the establishment of a 24-inch reflecting telescope, with the cooperation of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, on the grounds of the Thacher School in Ojai in 1965. source

Astronomy is now part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. See also Department of Physics.

Atmospheric Sciences
Since its inception in 1940 under the leadership of the late Professor Jacob
Bjerknes, originator of the polar-front theory of cyclones, the Department of
Atmospheric Sciences (formerly the Department of Meteorology) at UCLA has been at the forefront of atmospheric
research and education. A broad curriculum is offered in Dynamic and
Synoptic Meterology, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, and Upper
Atmosphere and Space Physics.

The Department of Meteorology was born in 1940 under the protective shelter of the physics department and the energetic leadership of Joseph Kaplan. Jacob Bjerknes, the Norwegian-born originator of the polar front and air mass theories which form the basis for modern weather analysis and forecasting, then became the first chairman of the Department of Meteorology and guided it through its early years. The small meteorology faculty was immediately drafted into the war effort. Answering the need of the armed forces, the department trained well over 1,000 weather officers; it again performed this function during the Korean conflict.

A campaign to obtain suitable campus quarters reached a low point immediately after World War II, when the faculty was housed in temporary barracks. The campaign produced results, however, and the department moved into quarters in the Mathematical Sciences Building in 1957.

Degrees in meteorology as a separate specialty were first offered in 1940. By 1941, the first two bachelor of arts and the first two master of arts degrees in meteorology had been granted; in 1946, the first doctoral degree was granted. As of the mid-1960s, the department had a faculty of 13. It had awarded 353 bachelor's, 146 master's, and 30 doctoral degrees.

During 1965, there were 76 students majoring in meteorology and 160 more taking Descriptive Meteorology, the elementary survey course. In the mid-1960s, of the 76 meteorology majors, 38 were graduate students and 38, undergraduate students.

Besides notable teaching and research contributions, the department played a leading role in the establishment of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research at Boulder, Colorado, and also served as host to the national meeting of the American Meteorological Society in 1964.

Major fields of study and research have included dynamics of the atmosphere; synoptic meteorology; numerical weather prediction and numerical general circulation experiments; instrument development in conjunction with research in the laboratory and in the field; cloud physics; electrical and magnetic phenomena of the atmosphere; optical phenomena of the atmosphere and radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres; phenomena of the upper atmosphere; and interaction of the atmosphere and the oceans and the dynamical and physical theory of ocean behavior. source

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Last updated 06/18/04.