UCLA Connects

Group of students sitting around in round tables

Overview

UCLA Connects focuses on building connections — within and beyond our campus. Through a collection of current and evolving initiatives, we aim to create a campus climate that is welcoming to everyone.

This initiative aligns with goal one of our strategic plan: Deepen our engagement with Los Angeles, and goal two: Expand our reach as a global university.

Goals

Foster an inclusive, respectful and safe community where everyone feels valued and free from discrimination, harassment and hate speech.
Strengthen UCLA’s culture of excellence through intentional connections and respectful engagement in all that we do.
Build core competencies in constructive dialogue throughout our campus community.
Amplify UCLA’s local and global impact across scholarship, teaching and service.

Expected Outcomes

A strengthened campus community where open, honest and respectful dialogue among students, staff and faculty reinforces the True Bruin Values.
A safer campus environment free from all forms of discrimination, including antisemitism, achieved through enhanced education, improved civil rights reporting systems and robust policy enforcement.
Equitable and sustained community partnerships that empower the university to co-create knowledge and improve the quality of life for all residents of Los Angeles.
A culture of inclusive excellence woven into our institutional fabric through intentional connections, respectful engagement, deep learning and challenging yet constructive dialogue.
Elevated global leadership and engagement that leverages the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games to unite Bruins and global partners around shared values.

Progress in Motion

Conducted more than 10 conversations designed to foster dialogue and communications on campus, through partners across campus, under the umbrella of the Campus Community Conversations.
The latest report of the Initiative to Combat Antisemitism was released in May 2026. A new phase of work to further enhance training and education, improve the discrimination reporting system, and assure enforcement of rules, policies, and laws is being launched.
The inaugural UCLA Community Partnership Summit was held in March 2026 and focused on strengthening equitable, community-engaged collaboration across Los Angeles. A new website to encourage future partnerships was also launched.
Hired a new Vice Chancellor of Inclusive Excellence in Fall 2025, providing new ideas for promoting a healthy campus climate and a culture of collaboration and learning across differences.
Building campus collaborations around the 2028 Olympics to create and uplift programming that showcases the best of UCLA and will bring together athletes, scholars, artists and communities in a celebration of the Olympic ideals of excellence, fair play, inclusion and teamwork.

“True inclusive excellence requires us to bridge divides through intentional and authentic communication. UCLA Connects is our commitment to doing the hard necessary work of radical listening, ensuring that every member of our community feels seen, heard and valued as we forge stronger partnerships both on campus and across Los Angeles.” –Ralina L. Joseph, Vice Provost of Inclusive Excellence and Professor of African American Studies

Meet the Leads

Campus Community Conversations:

David Myers, Distinguished Professor and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History in the College and Director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy
Nicole Presley (Green), Senior Executive Director of UCLA Student Resilience and Mental Health Services

Community Partnerships:

Shalom Staub, Assistant Vice Provost for Community Engagement and Executive Director, UCLA Center for Community Engagement

Inclusive Excellence:

Ralina L. Joseph, Vice Provost of Inclusive Excellence and Professor of African American Studies in the College

Olympic Spirit:

C. Cindy Fan, Vice Provost for International Studies and Global Engagement and Professor of Geography in the College
Felicia Marie Knaul, Associate of the Chancellor and Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine

Meets Goal 1: Deepen our engagement with Los Angeles and Goal 2: Expand our reach as a global university

Goal 1: Deepen our engagement with Los Angeles
We aim to create the conditions that will allow UCLA to better serve, learn from and connect with Los Angeles. While UCLA has been entwined with the city since our university’s founding, we have the opportunity to more meaningfully impact the lives of Angelenos, tap into the contributions and expertise of our region’s communities, and partner with those communities to improve quality of life in the city. Furthermore, as the only major public research university in a global megacity, UCLA has a special opportunity to deepen connections with the city in our research projects and to educate students who are prepared to fully engage in the communities in which they live and work.

Goal 2: Expand our reach as a global university
We aim to expand UCLA’s role as a global hub and international gateway partner for Los Angeles and California. The world’s most pressing problems — from climate change to global conflict to infectious disease — know no national borders. We can only take them on by ensuring our students possess intercultural competence, strengthening international collaborations, and advancing research and creative activities between UCLA scholars and partners around the world. Since so many global issues have analogues in the diverse, international city of Los Angeles, we can use a “glocal” model to facilitate impact across both communities.