Pauley Pavilion by picdrops, on Flickr

DAILY BRUIN ONLINE - Thursday, February 08, 2001

Neverending stories

Do you skip the sixth stair of Janss Steps? Even if you don’t, you’ve probably heard the legend of the man buried beneath it, as well as many other UCLA myths

Making her way down Janss Steps, third-year psychobiology student Kim Nguyen carefully maneuvers around the sixth step.

"It's haunted," she said, in an attempt to explain her behavior.

Nguyen is alluding to the legend describing the two Janss brothers who designed the staircase. As supposedly requested in his will, one of the brothers is rumored to be buried under the sixth step.

The story goes that if a student steps on the particular step, he or she will have bad luck and be doomed to spend an extra year in college.

"It's true," said fifth-year religious studies student Shayla Kasel. "I stepped on it a lot. My parents thought I'd graduate in three years, but here I am a fifth-year student. That's why I'm still here!"

Though many students pay little attention to them, legends like the one involving Janss Steps evoke curiosity about their origins.

In her Folklore M15 class, titled Introduction to American Folklore, Professor Sandra Posey describes legends as being set in a historical time or present day, dealing with out of the ordinary events that are sometimes told as if they are true.

They often contest people's beliefs and are also localized, referring to real characters and places. In addition, just because a story is a legend, it doesn't mean that it isn't true.

And even if folklore experts don't classify UCLA's stories alongside the traditional legend genre, student tour guides value them as entertainment.

On the last day of UCLA's Orientation Program, counselors give incoming first-year students a tour of the campus, during which they relate stories regarding the different buildings and locations.

This locker, located in the Math Sciences building, is believed to have been used by Jim Morrison during his days as a Bruin.

"We tell them basically just to make (the tour) entertaining," said former orientation counselor and fourth-year history student Andrew Gafvert. "Imagine how boring it would be if we took those away."

And many students do remember these stories – some more well-known than others – for a long time after orientation.

One story many students recall involves the infamous moving of Bunche Hall.

According to the story, Bunche Hall originally used to face east-west, parallel to the 405 freeway. But due to its height and reflections off of its glass windows, the hall blinded motorists on the freeway and caused accidents.

To solve this problem, UCLA allegedly rented army helicopters to lift and turn the building to face north-south, where it is presently located.

This locker, located in the Math Sciences building, is believed to have been used by Jim Morrison during his days as a Bruin.
As preposterous as they may sound, these stories do have a purpose. The Bunche Hall story, for example, may help first-year students familiarize themselves in an otherwise enormous campus.

"There are so many buildings around here, so it's hard to remember their names," said fourth-year computer science student Puya Partow, who also works as a Student Recruiter assistant coordinator. "But if you know a story behind them, you remember them better and when you see them again, you remember the story too."

Student Recruiters, who give campus tours to elementary and junior high school students, also tell legends during their tours.

"It gives us a tool to make the tours interactive and interesting," said fifth-year chemical engineering student Matt Cardona, also a Student Recruiter program coordinator. "Stories make the tours fun."

One story Cardona cited as being popular among visiting students concerns the architect of the inverted fountain, which apparently plays on the USC-UCLA rivalry.

The designer, allegedly a former UCLA student who was expelled for poor grades, is said to have eventually graduated from USC with a degree in architecture.

When UCLA held an open contest for the fountain's design, he applied and won. Since he was still bitter from being kicked out of UCLA, legend says he designed the fountain to look like a giant toilet bowl with the water funneling inward and set against the backdrop of Franz Hall.

Though no one seems to know where some of these legends began, or to what lengths they tell the truth, some actually do contain bits of facts.

Royce Hall, for example, was modeled after Basilica of St. Ambrose in Milan, Italy, and its asymmetrical towers actually represent human imperfection.

But the part of the story describing Powell, Haines, and Kinsey Halls as emulating the back and two sides of the church are false.

Another partially true legend involves a creek which runs under the two quad areas between Perloff, Murphy and Schoenberg Halls.

The area over this creek apparently sinks a quarter of an inch every year. As a result, a new step is added every few years to even the ground.

In reality, a creek does exist underneath this area, but the land doesn't sink every year.

"What is important is what people believe about them," Posey said. "Folklore only lives because it is relevant to the person telling the story and the person listening to it. So in some sense, both UCLA officials and students find it meaningful in some way, whether they believe it or not."

Although the core of most legends basically remains the same, people will oftentimes add and subtract details to customize the stories.

"The more details the story has, the more likely (the students) will think it's true," Gafvert said. "Everyone has their own spin on the stories."

In addition to these more factual stories, are also some more outrageous ones.

"I was told that if you're lost on campus, you're supposed to hold up your BruinCard and then someone will come and help you," Nguyen said. "I actually believed that one."

She also said she rubbed the back paw of the Bruin statue, which is supposed to be good luck during finals. It seems Nguyen is not alone on this legend for the back paw of the statue does show signs of wear.

In addition to some of these more wide-spread stories, there are also a few lesser known legends on campus.

One involves the naming of Haines Hall. Since it was supposedly built during a hot summer, construction workers allegedly stripped down to their Hanes underwear to cool off, thereby inspiring the building's current name.

Another legend involves the two trees located on the side of Moore Hall, facing the Math/Sciences building.

Known as the "potato trees," the large potato-like objects hanging from the trees are said to be the result of radioactive experiments done on potatoes during the Cold War. According to the legend, the project was an attempt to create alternate ways of growing food in the event of nuclear war.

At the end of the Cold War, however, a graduate student working in one of the labs decided to play a practical joke and planted the potatoes. This is why there are potatoes growing from the trees when they are normally known to grow underground.

In reality, however, the tree is a Kigelia pinnata, more commonly known as a sausage tree and is indigenous to Africa. Its fruits, similar in appearance to potatoes, hang from long cords. The tree also has deep purplish-red flowers which bloom at night and are pollinated by bats.

The potato tree legend is one of the few legends on campus that are easier to research since there is a plaque with its official name attached to its trunk. The majority of the legends, however, are difficult to trace in origin.

UCLA students have passed most of the stories down over the years, and groups, like Student Recruiters and orientation counselors, utilize them over the years.

There are also instances where people will simply make up stories to explain portions of campus.

Regardless of whether the legends are true, students still enjoy hearing and telling them.

"I think they're fun," Nguyen said. "They bring character to the school and make the campus more interesting."

Author: Julie Yoshioka