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Photos by Cynthia Lee UCLA Today New roommates Melissa Strasbourg (left), an atmospheric science graduate student, and Shawna Rasul, a first-year law student, lay out their plans for furnishing their new apartment.

Grad students settle into new Weyburn Terrace

by cynthia lee
ucla today staff

It was finally home, sweet home for the first residents of UCLA’s new graduate student community at Weyburn Terrace. Last month, Palm Court became the first of seven Mediterranean-style courtyard complexes to open. Approximately 175 graduate students are expected to move in for the start of fall quarter. Boasting study lounges, laundry facilities, two levels of underground parking and rents ranging from $850 to $875 a month per tenant, Weyburn Terrace is being built in two phases, the first with 840 units housing 1,380 single graduate students. Nicole French of San Diego was one of the first of the early arrivals to move into a studio apartment. “Look — a dishwasher!” the first-year medical student said to her mother, Susan.

Workers move furniture into Palm Court.

“I cannot over-emphasize the importance of the new Weyburn Terrace for graduate student recruitment and retention,” said Dean Tony Chan of the Physical Sciences Division in the UCLA College. “Many studies have shown that housing is one of the most critical factors in recruiting graduate students, who typically are supported by very modest stipends, if at all. L.A., especially the areas around UCLA, has a national reputation for being expensive. My own experience is that we end up losing many potential top recruits due to this factor.”

Living close to campus and to lively Westwood Village, Chan said, “will surely make us much more competitive and will also make the lives of our graduate students better.”