University High School Charter, commonly known as Uni, is a public secondary school, built 1923–1924, and founded 1924, located in West Los Angeles, a district in Los Angeles, California, near the city's border with Santa Monica. University High is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The campus also holds Indian Springs Continuation High School. The school contains the Tongva Sacred Springs, a sacred site of the Tongva–Gabrieleño native people and a registered California Historical Landmark.

History

While under construction it was known as Sawtelle High School, but it opened as Warren G. Harding High School when completed in 1924, after 29th President Warren G. Harding (1865-1923, served 1921-1923), who had recently died. The school was renamed in 1929 after the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) moved its campus from East Hollywood to Westwood.

The original administration building was designed by the firm Russell & Alpaugh and the construction process began in 1923. The style that was chosen recalls the Romanesque of Northern Italy and Spanish Mission style architecture. The administration building once displayed an octagonal tower and a portico, but these features were toppled in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. An original cafeteria building was located where the current cafeteria and theater stand today.

Although the gymnasium and a beautiful and widely admired auditorium were condemned following the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, the school's original main building from 1924 remains in use. The music building and gym (rebuilt in the early 1980s) have been scheduled to be taken down because they sit on a fault line and therefore against district policy. As of July 2010, the music building was gone.

It was in the Los Angeles City High School District until 1961, when it merged into LAUSD.

Other

Music classes have been moved to another unused room near the top of the school. The gym was still in use while, on the south end of the campus, in what was formerly a student parking lot, a new gym facility was under construction in 2010. The current football stadium, last rebuilt following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, is named in honor of Jackie Robinson (1919-1972), of Pasadena, California, the first African American professional baseball player in Major League Baseball, playing in 1947-1956 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, who also previously attended nearby UCLA, 1939-1940.

Uni is one of a very few pre-World War II high schools in Los Angeles whose buildings have been at least partially spared by three major earthquakes since its inception. The main building presents a very traditional and dignified appearance, with weathered brick and arched doorways, such that the campus is popular with film crews (see #Filming on campus). One-third of its class of 1942 did not graduate because of the internment of Japanese-Americans.

In fall 2007, some neighborhoods zoned to have their students to attend Hamilton High School were rezoned to University High School.

In 2009, Mitchell Landsberg of the Los Angeles Times stated that the school was "struggling to regain its reputation as a center of excellence".Landsberg, Mitchell. University High School hopes success can be engineered, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2009; retrieved March 26, 2014. That year, as part of a grant program, the Academy of Engineering was established at the high school.

For the entire 88-year history of University High, the football/baseball field had been without stadium lights until they were installed in the Spring of 2012.

Native American heritage

Located on Uni's campus are the Tongva Sacred Springs, California Historical Landmark #522. The springs, called "Kuruvungna" by the native Gabrieleno Tongva people, were used as a source of natural fresh water by the Tongva people since 400 BC, and they continue to produce 22,000-25,000 gallons of water a day. The springs are found at two separate locations on campus. The larger is now closed off from the rest of the campus and is under the care of the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation. Prior to its being fenced off, the area surrounding the springs and pond into which its waters feed was popular among the students as a place to meet and relax. The other spring is located on the northeastern edge of the so-called Girls' Field. A third spring was located farther north, near Texas Avenue, but it ceased to flow during the 1940s when a local water company began drawing from the aquifer.The Chieftain (Yearbook), 1974 ed.

The Portolá Expedition of 1769, one of the two expeditions that led to the founding of Los Angeles, camped at the Kuruvunga village while travelling along the route that would become known as El Camino Real. The name Serra comes from Father Junípero Serra the founder of the Alta California mission chain, who is reported to have said Mass to there. In the 1800s, the spring served as the water supply for the city of Santa Monica.

Construction at the school in 1925 unearthed evidence of a Native American village, and in 1975, a grave was discovered from what archaeologists now believe to be a burial site.

In 1980, Indian Springs Continuation High School, which is housed on the part of the campus where the springs are, was opened.California Department of Education's California School Directory

In 1992, tribal descendants, community members, and teachers and students from the school founded the Gabrielino/Tongva Springs Foundation, a non-profit foundation, to fight a proposed development a block north of the springs that would have cut off the springs' underground water source. They successfully fought the proposed parking structure, and since that time, the Foundation has been active at the springs.

That same year, the newly established Foundation held the first annual Life Before Columbus Day event. The event, which takes place just before Columbus Day every year and celebrates the history of the land and of the Tongva people, has been known to draw upward of 600 people some years, including Native Americans from various tribes, local politicians, community members, and students and faculty from the school.

The event includes tours of the Kuruvunga Village site and springs, performances by dancers from the Tongva and Aztec tribe, and storytelling from the Chumash tribe. There are also hands-on activities offered by authentic Native American vendors. The foundation currently leases the site from the Los Angeles Unified School District for their monthly ceremony and guided tours.

Newspapers

Wildcat

The weekly student newspaper, the Wildcat, is part of the High School National Ad Network. Print issues from the school's inception as Harding High are available in the journalism archives. More recent issues were previously archived online at the "My High School Journalism" site operated by the American Society of Newspaper Editors

The Worrier The Worrier was an underground student newspaper that began in 1966. At least seven Worrier staff members were transferred to other high schools, suspended or put on probation.

Red Tide The Red Tide was an underground campus newspaper that expressed far-left opinions on the Vietnam War, racism, and women's issues.McBride, David. "Death City Radicals: The Counterculture in Los Angeles," in John Campbell McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003), pp. 125–126. Its first issue appeared in November 1971.Carlip, Hillary. Queen of the Oddballs: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan (New York: Harper, 2006).Japenga, Ann. "Activist Memories Fuel Former Red Tide Staff - Radical High School Paper Celebrated in 15-Year Reunion", Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1986. Following the suspension of two students for distributing Red Tide #2, 500-700 Uni students occupied the administration building.Smith, Doug. "Clash at Unihi Raises Student Rights Issues" , Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1972.

The Red Tide challenged the Warrior mascot as racist. Twenty-five years later, on September 8, 1997, the LAUSD Board of Education voted to remove the mascot as part of a ban on using Native American symbols. In 1975 LA and Bay Area Red Tide branches moved to Detroit, where they organized campaigns to free Gary Tyler and other campaigns against racism.Allen, Joe. "Three decades of injustice" , International Socialist Review (1997), September–October 2006.

Mascot controversy

The school's mascot was formerly the Warrior, but was changed after the Southern California Indian CenterSouthern California Indian Center petitioned the LAUSD to eliminate the mascots and names of all schools that had American Indian mascot and names. In 1997 the LAUSD decided to eliminate all American Indian mascots. The LAUSD decision was upheld in federal court, but the California Racial Mascots Act,California Racial Mascots Act - AB 13 a bill which would eliminate American Indian mascots and names statewide, was vetoed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger twice.

Towards the end of the 1997–1998 school year, students were allowed to vote on a new school mascot. Students chose the "Wildcats" over the "Gators" and "Jaguars". The Class of 1985 had, as a senior project and gift to the school, painted a large Warrior mascot on the south entrance to the gym building. Shortly after the mascot change, this was painted over with its feline animal replacement.

School information

The Los Angeles School District provides open enrollment dates which start in late April and the beginning of March. The best way to contact schools is by phone or email. University High School provides tours; however, before and during enrollment, parents are able to submit a variety of applications for the students to enroll in different schools. University High School The school provides transportation. Three languages are taught at Uni: French, Spanish, and Mandarin. Extracurriculars for boys and girls

Demographics According to the School Information Branch: In 2008-09, 61.5% of students were Latino or Hispanic and 17% were African-American. 48.5% of students were female. In 2009-10, 62.5% Hispanic/Latino, 8.6% White, 16.3% African-Americans, 0.3% Pac Isl, 0.0% Filipino, 12.2% Asian and 0.1% AI/AlskSchool Information Branch In 2010-11 61.0% Hispanics/Latino, 17.6% African-Americans, 8.9% White, 0.3% Pac Isl, 2.0% Filipino, 9.9% Asian, and 0.4% Al/Alsk In 2011-2012 58.7% Hispanics/Latino, 16.7% African-Americans, 10.9% White, 0.5% Pac Isl, 2.1% Filipino, 10.5% Asian, and 0.5% Al/Alsk In 2012-13, 59.5% were Latino or Hispanic, 9.7% were White, 17.9% African-American, 0.4% Pac Isl 1.9% Filipino, 10.0% Asian, and 0.6% AI/Alsk In 2018-19, 53% of students were Latino or Hispanic, 25% African-American, 12.8% white, 6.8% Asian, 1.9% Filipino.

Attendance area

Neighborhoods served by University High are parts of West Los Angeles, including portions of BrentwoodSchool Brochure (Archive). University High School. Retrieved on March 27, 2014. Beverly Hills Post Office (BHPO), Westwood, Bel-Air, and the Wilshire Corridor.Lesel, Helene. "Mini-Manhattan, just west of Los Angeles ," Los Angeles Times. November 14, 2004.

Like other Westside high schools such as Westchester and Palisades, University High School enrolls a diverse mix of students from its enrollment area and various parts of the city; on top of Westside neighborhoods, Uni draws students from areas such as Koreatown and South Los Angeles. The school also enrolls many Capacity Adjustment Program students who come from areas zoned to heavily overcrowded high schools.

Two new LAUSD high schools opened in fall 2005, four more in fall 2006, and one more in fall 2007, decreasing the number of transfer students in other high schools.

Name change