ey. Students and staff participate in dinghy sailing, surfing, windsurfing, rowing, and kayaking.
UCLA has an active a cappella student population, with a variety of student organizations across campus. The university is often regarded as the pioneer in the West Coast collegiate contemporary a cappella tradition with its first group, Awaken A Cappella, founded in 1992. The all-male group on campus, Bruin Harmony, has enjoyed a successful career since its inception in 2006, portraying a collegiate a cappella group in The Social Network (2010), while the Scattertones have achieved a great deal of success in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, finishing in second-place in 2011. Other a cappella groups on campus include Signature, Random Voices, Medleys, Youthphonics, Deviant Voices, Awechords and Cadenza. YOUTHphonics is UCLA's only nonprofit service-oriented a cappella group focused on youth.
There are also a variety of cultural organizations on campus, such as Nikkei Student Union (NSU), Japanese Student Association (JSA),[120] Association of Chinese Americans (ACA), Chinese Students Association (CSA), Taiwanese American Union (TAU), Vietnamese Student Union (VSU), Thai Smakom, and Chinese Cultural Dance Club (CCDC), each with its focuses on sharing culture and history. Many of these organizations have an annual "culture night" that usually constitutes drama, traditional dance, modern dance, etc., which raises awareness of culture and history to the campus and community.
Crowd at JazzReggae Festival 2010.
Traditions[edit]
The university has many traditions and annual events involving students, community, or the city. The school hosts events that usually require participation from more than just the student body, and competitions can occasionally involve celebrity judges and performers.
Unicamp, founded in 1934, is UCLA's official charity. It is a week-long summer camp for under-served children from the greater Los Angeles area, with UCLA volunteer counselors. Because Unicamp is a non-profit organization, student volunteers from UCLA also fundraise money throughout the year to allow these children to attend summer camp.[121]
To introduce new students to clubs and activities, UCLA begins the fall quarter with True Bruin Welcome. The week includes the Day of Service for all freshmen, the Enormous Activities Fair, the Sports Fair, and other events. At the end of move-in and the beginning of True Bruin Welcome, UCLA holds Bruin Bash. Hosted by the USAC Campus Events Commission and USAC Cultural Affairs Commission, Bruin Bash includes a concert, dance, and movie. Past performers include Thrice and Common in 2005, Xzibit and Rooney in 2006, T.I. in 2007, The Cool Kids, Estelle, Hellogoodbye in 2008, LMFAO and Clipse in 2009, Ying Yang Twins, Travis McCoy and The Cataracs in 2010. Bruin Bash was created as a replacement for Black Sunday, a large-scale day of partying including all fraternities, in North Westwood Village, where the majority of off-campus students reside adjacent to campus.
Dance Marathon is an annual event organized by the student group, the Pediatric AIDS Coalition, held in Ackerman Grand Ballroom, where thousands of students raise money and dance to support the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Project Kindle, One Heartland, and the UCLA AIDS Institute. Dancers are required to fundraise a minimum amount of $250 before the event, which is a 26-hour dance marathon. Dancers are not allowed to sit (except to use the restroom) during the marathon, literally taking a stand against pediatric AIDS, and symbolizing the suffering of children around the world infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS. In 2012, Dance Marathon at UCLA raised a record-breaking $451,000. Since 2002, the Marathon has raised over $3 million.[122]
UCLA students also participate in "Midnight Yell" during finals week, a tradition where every night at midnight (starting on that week's Sunday), students yell as loudly as possible for a few minutes, giving a chance to take a short break from studying and to release some stress.
The quarterly Undie Run takes place during the Wednesday evening of Finals Week, when students run through the campus in their underwear or in skimpy costumes. The run first began in Fall of 2001 when a student, Eric Whitehead, wearing what he described as "really short shorts" walked around singing a song and playing a guitar to protest the Police restrictions on the Midnight Yell.[123] With the increasing sa
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UCLA has an active a cappella student population, with a variety of student organizations across campus. The university is often regarded as the pioneer in the West Coast collegiate contemporary a cappella tradition with its first group, Awaken A Cappella, founded in 1992. The all-male group on campus, Bruin Harmony, has enjoyed a successful career since its inception in 2006, portraying a collegiate a cappella group in The Social Network (2010), while the Scattertones have achieved a great deal of success in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, finishing in second-place in 2011. Other a cappella groups on campus include Signature, Random Voices, Medleys, Youthphonics, Deviant Voices, Awechords and Cadenza. YOUTHphonics is UCLA's only nonprofit service-oriented a cappella group focused on youth.
There are also a variety of cultural organizations on campus, such as Nikkei Student Union (NSU), Japanese Student Association (JSA),[120] Association of Chinese Americans (ACA), Chinese Students Association (CSA), Taiwanese American Union (TAU), Vietnamese Student Union (VSU), Thai Smakom, and Chinese Cultural Dance Club (CCDC), each with its focuses on sharing culture and history. Many of these organizations have an annual "culture night" that usually constitutes drama, traditional dance, modern dance, etc., which raises awareness of culture and history to the campus and community.
Crowd at JazzReggae Festival 2010.
Traditions[edit]
The university has many traditions and annual events involving students, community, or the city. The school hosts events that usually require participation from more than just the student body, and competitions can occasionally involve celebrity judges and performers.
Unicamp, founded in 1934, is UCLA's official charity. It is a week-long summer camp for under-served children from the greater Los Angeles area, with UCLA volunteer counselors. Because Unicamp is a non-profit organization, student volunteers from UCLA also fundraise money throughout the year to allow these children to attend summer camp.[121]
To introduce new students to clubs and activities, UCLA begins the fall quarter with True Bruin Welcome. The week includes the Day of Service for all freshmen, the Enormous Activities Fair, the Sports Fair, and other events. At the end of move-in and the beginning of True Bruin Welcome, UCLA holds Bruin Bash. Hosted by the USAC Campus Events Commission and USAC Cultural Affairs Commission, Bruin Bash includes a concert, dance, and movie. Past performers include Thrice and Common in 2005, Xzibit and Rooney in 2006, T.I. in 2007, The Cool Kids, Estelle, Hellogoodbye in 2008, LMFAO and Clipse in 2009, Ying Yang Twins, Travis McCoy and The Cataracs in 2010. Bruin Bash was created as a replacement for Black Sunday, a large-scale day of partying including all fraternities, in North Westwood Village, where the majority of off-campus students reside adjacent to campus.
Dance Marathon is an annual event organized by the student group, the Pediatric AIDS Coalition, held in Ackerman Grand Ballroom, where thousands of students raise money and dance to support the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Project Kindle, One Heartland, and the UCLA AIDS Institute. Dancers are required to fundraise a minimum amount of $250 before the event, which is a 26-hour dance marathon. Dancers are not allowed to sit (except to use the restroom) during the marathon, literally taking a stand against pediatric AIDS, and symbolizing the suffering of children around the world infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS. In 2012, Dance Marathon at UCLA raised a record-breaking $451,000. Since 2002, the Marathon has raised over $3 million.[122]
UCLA students also participate in "Midnight Yell" during finals week, a tradition where every night at midnight (starting on that week's Sunday), students yell as loudly as possible for a few minutes, giving a chance to take a short break from studying and to release some stress.
The quarterly Undie Run takes place during the Wednesday evening of Finals Week, when students run through the campus in their underwear or in skimpy costumes. The run first began in Fall of 2001 when a student, Eric Whitehead, wearing what he described as "really short shorts" walked around singing a song and playing a guitar to protest the Police restrictions on the Midnight Yell.[123] With the increasing sa
