Sound Bites: What's your favorite place on campus, and why?

Tami Langevin, administrative support, Department of Pathology & Lab Medicine

My favorite place is the botanical garden because it's beautiful, quiet and shaded in most areas. My office isn't far. I'm near the Biomedical Library and Mattel Children's Hospital. It only takes me a couple minutes to walk to the garden. I usually go at lunch unless I need a change of scenery or an errand to run. I go alone and relax or catch up on personal paperwork.

Magdalena Barragan, M.B.A. student services manager, Anderson School of Management

My favorite place on campus is the rear balcony on the third floor of Royce Hall. It is architecturally beautiful (as is the rest of Royce Hall), and it has a spectacular view of the Bel Air hills. I find myself alone there most of time so I'm worried about sharing this location but it's too beautiful to be kept a secret.

Nancy Wayne, professor, Department of Physiology

My favorite place on campus is the Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden. It is one of the most peaceful places at UCLA. I have come here regularly with my children on weekends, to picnic and take nature walks. It's a wonderful place to help recruit researchers to UCLA. I bring prospective postdoctoral fellows to the garden, and we talk about mutual research interests and possible projects. It's a far nicer place for discussing science than my windowless office in CHS — and a great reminder of the wonders and beauty of nature.

Tova Lelah, assistant director, Campus and Environmental Planning

My most favorite place at UCLA is our Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden. For me, first as a student and then throughout my 25-year career here, it has been the only place where I actually feel a spiritual respite from the sometimes overwhelming complexity of my professional responsibilities. I continue to be drawn there and the feeling never changes — to be able to connect with the earth and the vast diversity of the plant kingdom right here in the center of our urbanity makes it a very special place and a true UCLA treasure.

Carolyn Lew-Karon, fund manager, Department of Physiological Science

In the late fall, I love walking across Royce Quad at twilight. The lights from the dorms are glowing from the hill and if you're really lucky, you can see a bright full moon rising in the deep blue evening sky. It's an incredibly beautiful sight.

Nancy Richardson, principal administrative analyst, Financial Systems Operating Room Information Technology, UCLA Health System

In 1987 when I was completing my M.B.A., the Graduate School of Management was in what is now the Public Policy building. While the move to the new Anderson School provided the much improved, state-of-art facilities, they left behind my favorite place on campus which is the Murphy Sculpture Garden. This is especially true at this time of the year when the jacarandas are in bloom. World-class sculptures sit on a carpet of lavender blossoms at this time each year as spring quarter comes to a close. I now work in the Center for Health Sciences on south campus but I walk back to north campus for lunch during May just to enjoy this beautiful place.

Betsy Metzgar, assistant director, UCLA Events Office

My favorite hide-away on campus is the Davis Courtyard at the Fowler Museum. If I'm having a very hectic day at the office, I take a noontime break and retreat to this lovely sanctuary and enjoy the warm sunlight and the soothing sounds of the fountain. I then stroll over to the galleries and view one of the fascinating exhibitions. After my visit, I feel renewed and energized and ready to tackle the rest of the workday.

Jose Marroquin, administrative assistant, Dean’s Office, School of the Arts & Architecture

The Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden. Lunchtime at the Garden is an experience by itself. This inviting place, located in the northeast area of campus, not only provides an opportunity to relax and admire great work of famous artists but to witness the interaction between people and sculptures. It is interesting to see reactions such as the wide-open eyes and nervous laughs of schoolchildren who perhaps can't fully appreciate what the work is all about, the closer observation and vivid discussion of grown-ups about the piece, the meticulous photographer exploring the best angle to capture the image, or just the casual look of the passersby. The Sculpture Garden is a unique place, indeed!

Mary K. Purifoy, administrative assistant, David Geffen School of Medicine

My favorite place on campus is the Botanical Garden, because it's Mother Nature at her finest. I especially like the area with the cactus — I have never seen such a wide variety of succulents. Who would have thought that cactus and succulents would have such beautiful flowers bloom from them? Going there reminds me of Hawaii — it's very peaceful and tranquil, an instant stress reliever. I have been going there at least once a week for nine years, and more often during the summer. My co-workers like to hear my botanical garden stories, but they have never joined me. Once a squirrel tried to take my lunch, and I finally had to give him the bench. I also walked past a lady sun bathing with nothing on her top half.

Janet Bartholomew, programmer, Registrar's Office

My favorite place on campus is a beautiful area between Franz Hall and Geology. It's a glen. There is a path and a bench or two, and it is very green and peaceful.

Bridget Le Loup, Summit Resident Director

The dining halls on the Residential Hill on Sunday mornings are my favorite place to be on campus. This is the quintessential student experience that I am fortunate to still have nestled a role in as a Resident Director: most students sleepily come dressed in their pj's and Ugg boots, and retell stories of their weekends when they absorb the collegiate life in LA and UCLA: at parties, football games, or locked in their rooms studying. Some days I sit for hours and talk to students about their worlds, from roommates and relationships to what they are learning in their classes and their extracurricular activities. On those Sunday mornings, UCLA students experiences are synthesized and made sense of as we debate postmodernism over Juan's famous Rieber omelettes or negotiate roommate swaps in exchange for the last chocolate donut.

Answer our next Sound Bites question: Summer is around the corner! What books are on your vacation reading list — and why these books in particular? Please respond by June 13 to today@support.ucla.edu.