The UCLA College of Letters and Science is the arts and sciences college of the University of California, Los Angeles. It encompasses the Life and Physical Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences, Honors Program and other programs for both undergraduate and graduate students. The bulk of UCLA's student body belongs to the College, which includes 34 academic departments, 21,000 undergraduate students, 2,700 graduate students and 900 faculty members. Virtually all of the academic programs in the College are ranked very highly and 11 were ranked in the top ten nationally by the National Research Council. The College originated on May 23, 1919, the day when the Governor of California signed a bill into law which officially established the Southern Branch of the University of California. At that time, a College of Letters and Science was established as the university's general undergraduate program and it began to hold classes the following September with only 250 students in the college. At its inception, the College originally offered only a two-year program, making it a glorified junior college. Young people interested in four years of college were required to proceed to the Berkeley campus or other universities to attend upper-division courses. The inferior two-year program was intolerable to the many Southern Californians who had fought to establish the southern branch. They vigorously lobbied the Regents of the University of California for a third year of courses at the southern branch, which was then followed by demands for a fourth year. The Southern Californians ultimately prevailed, and in 1925, the College awarded its first bachelor's degrees. A milestone occurred in 1927 when the southern branch was officially renamed the University of California at Los Angeles, although UCLA would have to wait until 1951 to achieve de jure coequal status with UC Berkeley and 1957 to achieve true de facto equality.
Divisions
The college is divided into four divisions — Division of Humanities, Division of Life Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences, and Division of Social Sciences.
Division of Humanities
Applied Linguistics, Art History, Asian Languages & Cultures, Classics, Comparative Literature, English, French & Francophone Studies, Germanic Languages, Italian, Indo-European Studies, Law and Philosophy Program, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies, Linguistics, Musicology, Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, Philosophy, Study of Religion Major, Scandinavian Section, Slavic Languages & Literatures, Spanish & Portuguese, Writing Center and Writing Programs,
Division of Life Sciences
Psychobiology, Computational and Systems Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Physiology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Physiological Science.
Division of Physical Sciences
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Earth and Space Sciences, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, and Statistics
Division of Social Sciences
Afro-American Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Communication, Economics, Geography, History, Human Complex Systems, Political Science, Sociology, Gender Studies
Paul Terasaki, organ transplant medicine and tissue typing
Commencement ceremonies
The main graduation commencement ceremony for the College of Letters and Science is held annually on a Friday night in June in Pauley Pavilion. For two years in a row, the scheduled commencement keynote speaker had canceled the engagement. Bill Clinton canceled in 2008 for not wanting to cross a picket line. Actor and alumnus James Franco canceled in 2009 because of his filming scheduling conflicts. Rock band Linkin Park's Brad Delson accepted the last minute invitation to speak at the 2009 commencement ceremony.
