UCLA’s Bruin Woods camp will probably be closed for the summer season as the college faces allegations of hazing traditions and sexual assault from two college students who labored on the Lake Arrowhead getaway, officers confirmed to The Instances on Thursday.
The ten-week camp, which hosts 85 alumni households every week, notified contributors in regards to the closure Friday.
“We’re conscious of allegations of inappropriate exercise regarding our Bruin Woods program, and proceed to look into the matter,” UCLA spokesperson Margery Gray stated in an announcement to The Instances. “We’re additionally making adjustments in an effort to offer an distinctive expertise for everybody.”
Gray stated the suspension was essential to “absolutely replace our operations.” She stated she didn’t know what particular adjustments officers have been making on the camp, or whether or not the camp would resume operations for the 2024 summer season.
The short-term closure comes months after UCLA college students Samea Derrick and Lydia Dixon, who labored on the camp final summer season, filed a lawsuit in opposition to the College of California regents in October.
Within the lawsuit and in earlier interviews with The Instances, the pair alleged they have been sexually assaulted and hazed by returning scholar counselors, together with bodily and verbal abuse, sensory deprivation, compelled nudity and coercive consuming video games. The lawsuit additionally alleged that the hazing actions, referred to by counselors as “traditions,” had taken place for many years on the camp, which was established in 1985 for UCLA alumni and their households.
Different camp counselors, together with two males accused of sexually assaulting the scholars, have been additionally named as defendants. The go well with alleges negligence, civil rights violations, hazing, gender-based violence, two circumstances of assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional misery. It seeks a jury trial, $50,000 in damages and compensation for authorized charges and medical bills.
Regardless of UCLA’s dedication to adjustments on the camp, the UC regents have denied the allegations and stated the board was not answerable for damages, in accordance courtroom paperwork they filed in November in response to the lawsuit. Attorneys for the college system stated Derrick and Dixon “didn’t exhaust the executive cures obtainable to them by the College of California’s established inner grievance procedures.”
The Board of Regents additionally alleged in courtroom paperwork that it had taken “immediate and applicable corrective actions” in response to the scholars’ considerations.
The case is about to go to trial Feb. 8.
Bruin Woods depends on the greater than 50 UCLA college students who function camp counselors every summer season. The positions are coveted amongst college students, given the networking alternatives with alumni, and infrequently draw a big pool of candidates.
It was unclear whether or not the camp had employed new scholar employees earlier than the choice to shut the camp was made. However college students have been supplied various employment choices, Gray stated.
UCLA stated that the venue itself was nonetheless open to alumni and their households, however that with out scholar counselors, it could not supply the same old Bruin Woods programming.
Scott Carr, an lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Derrick and Dixon, stated that he and his shoppers have been glad to listen to in regards to the short-term closure and that “others this yr aren’t going to be subjected to the identical remedy that our shoppers have been subjected to final yr and others have been topic to prior to now.”
“I feel the suspension of operations at Bruin Woods is a transparent sign that the regents are taking the allegations critically, and it’s a primary step towards accountability and the prevention of future hurt,” Carr stated. He added that he hoped the suspension was “a catalyst for change in making a protected and wholesome atmosphere for workers and attendees of the camp.”
Derrick and Dixon spoke with The Instances shortly after the lawsuit was filed and recalled their experiences at camp, together with a five-day interval in June when the majority of the abuse allegedly occurred. They ultimately left camp early and stated that, within the months after they returned to campus, their psychological well being had suffered.
Carr stated that, apart from compensation for what they went by, a aim of his shoppers was to ensure nobody else would expertise related abuse.
“This summer season,” he stated, “that aim appears to be achieved.”
