Mission
The mission of the UCLA BBRC is to uplift, support, and inspire the UCLA Black and African Diaspora Community. With the goal of cultivating community, family, and power, the UCLA BBRC serves as a space where the community can call home.
Vision
The BBRC will be the root of the Black connection and collective effort at UCLA by providing direct access to resources housed within the space and in different locations on campus. The center will become an essential branch of support available to Black UCLA students, staff, and faculty at a departmental and institutional level. The center aims to:
- Support Black student retention and graduation rates
- Promote Black mental health and wellness
- Encourage a sense of belonging and comfort in all areas of campus that include and extends beyond the BBRC
- Ensure inclusion of non-traditional students
- Cultivate a sense of resilience and empowerment for Black students, staff, and faculty
- Champion the interdepartmental relations of Black Graduate Students across campus
- Foster the pride of intersectionality within Blackness across campus
- Grow the number of Black students enrolling in UCLA yearly at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional level
- Provide programming opportunities, community engagement, and fellowship
How We Got Here
The Black Bruin Resource Center is the culmination of efforts of Black students on UCLA's campus for decades. Students involved with the the Afrikan Black Coalition, a coalition of Black Student Unions across the UC and CSU systems, began calling for Black resource centers at all of their schools in 2015. UCLA first put funding in renovating the Black Forum space in Haines Hall - a collaboration with the Bunche Center. In 2018 Student Affairs then created the Black Community Center in Rieber Hall that was used as a programming and study space. After further advocacy for a space more central in location on campus by organizations like the Afrikan Student Union and Black Graduate Students Association at UCLA, the Chancellor established the Black Bruin Resource Center as a part of his Rising to the Challenge statement in June of 2020.