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Bruins of all generations have contributed to the UCLA story,
making the university what it is today. To document this story,
the UCLA History Project is collecting anecdotes, factoids and
other tidbits to include in its upcoming book.
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Do you have
a story to tell?
We’d love to hear it. E-mail us at UCLAHistoryProject@UCLAlumni.net
with the details. Whenever possible, please include information for fact-checking
purposes, such as contact names and numbers, and publication citations.
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Here is a sample of anecdotes from UCLA’s
past:
‘Something in a Name’
The first students of the new University of California, Southern Branch took
great pride in their school. They laughed off the Trojans from USC, who taunted
them by calling the “Branch” the “twig.” However, confusion
recognizing the new institution as UCSB and not USC, was not such a laughing
matter. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times of Feb. 19, 1920 titled, “There’s
Something in a Name,” helped clear the confusion.
“The students out at the University of California are up in
arms because the public and information bureaus and street car conductors
don’t seem to be able to absorb the news that Los Angeles is
now actually in possession of a full-fledged branch of the great State
university. A branch which, except for number of students enrolled,
has all of the advantages of a parent school, and many that Berkeley
does not possess, not altogether unrelated to climate, campus, a particularly
able faculty and a school spirit which is 100 per cent.
“When [UC] President [David Prescott] Barrows was here the other
day he chartered a taxi and told the navigator to take him to the University
of California. He landed at Universal City….A repetition of instructions
sent him to the University of Southern California.
“The yellow cars now carry signs reading State University and
an effort is being made to have them placed on the red cars.
“The name is ‘University of California, Southern Branch,’ and
if we would keep in good standing with the student body and those who
are proud of being identified with the establishment and development
of this fine institution it would be well to cut it out and paste it
in our memory book.”
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