What UCLA did (at night) on its summer vacation

There's that golden moment every evening in August when the campus looks as though it might be calling it a day. The sun drops toward the Pacific horizon. Downtown glimmers to the east. Shadows stretch across the red-brick buildings and broad lawns, and a university accustomed to nearly 50,000 students suddenly has room to breathe.

But don't be completely fooled. Around "The Bruin" statue, people still come and go. On the grass near Dickson Plaza, students have found a place to read and debate. A gaggle of young summer-campers carrying multicolored glow sticks skips happily along. Someone, list in hand, searches for the last item of their scavenger hunt. And the night is just getting started.

Summer is often thought of as UCLA's quiet season, which is true in the same way that LA traffic is light at 2 a.m. - everything is relative. The regular academic-year crowds have gone, but across campus, scores of people have spent the summer studying and researching, making art and movies, competing in sports, enjoying music performances, exploring gardens, investigating the stars and - in the case of thousands of children and teenagers - discovering what it's like to spend part of their break at one of the world's great universities.

Now, as another summer winds down and UCLA prepares for the mass return of Bruins, we take a last look at the campus they'll soon reclaim - and at what UCLA has been getting up to while they've been away.

Turns out, quite a lot.

Follow the lights

One of the pleasures of UCLA on summer nights is simply seeing the place differently.

Without the rivers of students rushing from class to class, familiar buildings emerge in a new light. Royce Hall and Powell Library, glowing against the evening sky, preside over a tranquil quad. Paths that are usually like clogged thoroughfares become places to wander. Yet quiet isn't the same thing as empty.

At Wallis Annenberg Stadium, the lights have been blazing, with the UCLA men's soccer team playing nighttime exhibition matches throughout August in preparation for their season opener. And they aren't alone - for UCLA football and many other UCLA Athletics teams, summer is when the coming Big Ten year begins taking shape, with "vacation" really being more of a theoretical concept.

The same is true of UCLA's scientists and scholars. Behind many of those illuminated windows on campus, the university's vaunted research enterprise - that deep commitment to advancing knowledge that changes and saves lives - continues unabated, if largely unseen.

And those researchers are passing along their expertise. Over the summer months, undergraduates from UCLA and universities around the country have worked alongside faculty through programs devoted to the arts and humanities, neuroscience, genomics, chemistry, bioengineering, evolutionary medicine and other fields. At UCLA's Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, for instance, young scholars have spent these past months tackling real-world problems supplied by partners in industry and government.

Even the universe remained under investigation. UCLA physics and astronomy students spent the summer immersed in faculty-led research, while participants in the Summer Observing Workshop gathered once a week in the evening to study astrophysical objects using real data from telescopes around the world and in space.

In other words, somewhere at UCLA, somebody is always looking at something - from the workings of a cell to the center of the Milky Way.

►Learn more about how UCLA summer research programs fuel discovery

Summer school, broadly defined

Of course, plenty of those on campus this summer haven't been enrolled at the university at all. Many aren't even old enough to drive.

UCLA Recreation's summer camps have brought children and teenagers to campus for swimming, theater, arts, sports, science and outdoor adventures. At the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, nature camp turned the living collection into a classroom for young explorers. Other kids learned about organic chemistry, took to the water at UCLA's Marina Aquatic Center or headed out on excursions around Southern California.

Likewise, high school students from across Los Angeles and beyond arrived to study and participate in labs around the sciences, art, architecture, design, theater and film, many as part of free programs.

And UCLA students themselves used the break to take courses, conduct research or get ahead through UCLA Summer Sessions, which offers hundreds of courses and programs. Many of our incoming students also began learning their way around campus - and undoubtedly discovered just how steep the walk up to the Hill really is.

Into the garden

By twilight, the botanical garden feels removed from the city surrounding it. Paths wind beneath a canopy of trees, and water bubbles through the stream. The day's heat begins to lift.

But on a few evenings this summer, visitors didn't have to leave when the light began to fade. "Twilight in the Garden" invited visitors from UCLA and the public to linger for live music, picnicking and sunset among a collection containing thousands of plant species from around the world.

During daylight hours, the garden has been just as busy, with public tours, educational programs, research and the children's summer nature camp making use of what is, at once, a botanical collection, a classroom and a laboratory.

The show goes on

Down the hill, in Westwood Village, UCLA's night shift has been considerably louder.

At the Hammer Museum, Thursday evenings in August brought JazzPOP, filling the museum's courtyard with music while audiences gathered beneath the night sky.

Jazz was only one part of the Hammer's public summer program, which also included film screenings at the Billy Wilder Theater, exhibitions and artist talks, family programs and meditation sessions, art-making, and after-hours events, including DJ performances. During the World Cup, the museum even became a soccer-watching destination, with matches shown on large screens.

Elsewhere at UCLA, others were learning how those film images get made. Students in UCLA's summer film programs studied acting, screenwriting, production and other aspects of filmmaking, while participants in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Film Production Summer Institute worked on digital cinematography on UCLA soundstages.

The Fowler Museum at UCLA had a busy summer of its own. Exhibitions explored subjects ranging from community-based art in Brazil to textiles, material culture and spirituality, accompanied by workshops, curator talks and other programs.

In August, nighttime exhibition events brought artists and visitors - along with music and food - to the museum. It's another scene that feels distinctly different after dark.

Almost back to 'normal'

It won't be long before UCLA looks like UCLA again. In the coming weeks, students will return, residence halls will fill, classes will begin and Bruin Walk will be packed with its familiar crowds.

But summer has hardly been time off. Researchers have continued their work, students of all ages have come to learn and explore, athletes have trained and begun competing, and our museums, theaters and gardens have welcomed visitors from UCLA and the wider community.

If anything, the summer has been a reminder of just how much happens at UCLA beyond the traditional academic year - and of a university that continues to discover, create, teach and serve while preparing for what comes next.

UCLA never really went on summer vacation. It just stayed up late.

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