Alumni & UCLA History
Active and engaged alumni have been crucial to building the quality of UCLA and expanding the University's support and mission from the beginning. Even before the UCLA Alumni Association was founded, alumni have organized and played a key role in successfully advocating on behalf of the University. Alumni voices are vital today in garnering support in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
| 1925 | Alumni and student leaders organize for the first time in order to support the ballot measure that would lead to purchase of the land for the Westwood campus. |
| 1926 | Alumni establish a Bureau of Occupations, which eventually evolves into the UCLA Career Center. |
| 1932 | Alumni join forces with Southern Branch faculty, administrators and community leaders to lobby the UC Regents and California legislators to bring graduate studies to the campus against strong opposition from Berkeley. Alumni advocates are credited with winning key support from regents, resulting in funds for the new programs. |
| 1934 | UCLA Alumni Association officially gains independence from the Berkeley association. |
| 1936 | Alumni are key in efforts to bring doctoral studies to the Southern Branch. Alumni Scholarships are first awarded. |
| 1945 | UCLA College of Engineering opens. Alumni spearheaded the lobbying effort to win regental approval for engineering at UCLA and fought opposition from Berkeley. |
| 1946 | Alumni lobbying wins support and funding to bring medical studies to UCLA. |
| 1947 | Alumni create the UCLA Progress Fund, the first University-wide development effort. |
| 1959 | Alumni Association launches UCLA's first major fund-raising campaign, eventually collecting $2.2 million. |
| 1966 | The UCLA Progress Fund officially becomes The UCLA Foundation. |
| 1967 | Alumni Association launches Programs for Urban Progress, involving alumni as mentors in economically disadvantaged communities. |
| 1968 | Alumni Association sponsors town meetings to bring campus and community together. |
| 1983 | UCLA alumni get involved in UC Day, a program that puts alumni directly in contact with their legislators in Sacramento. |
| 1994 | UCLA alumni help found the Bruin Caucus. Members contact government officials to advance the mission of UC and UCLA. |
| 2004 | Alumni formally organize as online advocates. Using a viral e-mail strategy, more than 1,100 alumni contact the California Assembly in February to weigh in on UC budget negotiations. Later in the year, the same approach is used to lobby legislators and put a halt to new energy charges that would cost UC millions of dollars. E-mail advocacy is added to traditional alumni advocacy tools, which continue to benefit the University. More than 200 alumni participate in the annual UC Day in Sacramento. |
