Navigating UCLA gets easier for students with new Bruin Resource Center

UCLA students who grew up in foster homes, served in the military or are trying to balance studies with parenting may not seem to have much in common, but their personal challenges to completing their degrees may be similar.

 

For example, veterans and parenting students often experience challenges in finding appropriate housing. Many students, regardless of their academic acumen, may have trepidation about navigating campus life. The same could be said of transfer students, of whom there are thousands on campus. All of these students are being welcomed at the new Bruin Resource Center.

 

The center, located in suite B44 in the Student Activities Center, brings together the staff and leverages the services previously provided in the Center for Women and Men (CWM) and the Student Development Health Education (SDHE) Office.  Tina Oakland, former director of CWM, directs the Bruin Resource Center.  

 

The resource center was designed to help students make the most of their educational experience at UCLA. “We understand that even the most capable student, can, at times, feel confused and intimidated by the size and complexity of the campus. The staff of the Bruin Resource Center can help by providing information, referrals and support to navigate the university, and to connect with the right campus resource or person,” Oakland said.

 

Open to all students, the center also provides specialized services and programs to address the concerns and needs of Bruins who are transfer students, parenting students, veterans, former foster students and students who qualify under California’s Assembly Bill 540 law for exemption from paying nonresident tuition.

 

Janina Montero, vice chancellor for student affairs, said the ultimate objective is to help all students stay in school and succeed. She added that the resource center enables this to be done efficiently by “taking what we have now and using those resources better in order to address the issues of student retention, health and success.”

 

Montero added that the resource center’s strength will be in creating an infrastructure for students to get the help and support they need. “Our goal is to have an understanding of the barriers students face as members of a particular population, and then actively mitigate those,” she said.

 

Among other things, the resource center will assist students in connecting with each other and in developing life skills and ways to overcome barriers to having a full and successful educational experience.

 

“We are there to help them with whatever they need, whether it is to help them study better, navigate veterans’ benefits or find other parents to talk with about balancing their studies with child-rearing,” Oakland said. “Whatever their situation, we have ways to assist them.”

The Bruin Resource Center was created as a merger of the former Center for Women and Men and the Student Development Health Education office towards the goal of expanding services to students whose challenges in navigating the university were not adequately being met. The Bruin Resource Center will continue to offer programs previously housed in both the CWM and SDHE.

 

Such programs include Life Skills for College Women & Men (CHS 179), an academic four-unit course that helps students with issues of stress, identity development and interpersonal relationships; health education programs that address challenges students face regarding alcohol use, nutrition, body image and sexual health; and the Intergroup Relations Program, which aims to improve understanding and communication between students from diverse social identity groups. Services addressing sexual violence prevention, education and response that were formerly housed in the CWM are now incorporated into the UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services.

 

The resource center will collaborate with partners throughout the campus and in the community, including the Community Programs Office, which organizes student-initiated community service, retention and outreach projects; and the Graduate Student Resource Center, a resource, referral and information center for graduate students.

 

Besides Oakland and a staff of nine student affairs professionals, the center is assisted by a team of some dozen student interns. Outside funding is being sought to support the growth of the internship program.

 

More information about the Bruin Resource Center can be found at www.brc.ucla.edu.