UCLA Expands With Purchase of Marymount California Campus

Updated on October 4, 2022

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The properties in Rancho Palos Verdes and San Pedro will enable UCLA to accommodate an additional 1,000 students.

Los Angeles, CaliforniaSept. 27, 2022UCLA will purchase two properties owned by Marymount California University, a small Catholic institution in Rancho Palos Verdes that has closed. Sept. 27, 2022. Marymount California University is located at 30800 Palos Verdes Dr. E, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Credit: Carolyn Cole / Contributor / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images

Marymount California University officially closed last August due to decreased enrollment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
UCLA purchased Marymount’s 24.5-acre main campus in Rancho Palos Verdes and 11-acre residential site in San Pedro for $80 million.
The satellite campuses will enable instruction for an additional 1,000 students.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) last week announced the purchase of two sites from defunct Marymount California University in a push to increase enrollment and student housing.

Marymount California was a private Catholic university that officially closed last August due to decreased enrollment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

UCLA purchased Marymount’s 24.5-acre main campus in Rancho Palos Verdes and 11-acre residential site in San Pedro for $80 million despite “intense interest” from residential developers, UCLA officials said.

“We are grateful to have been chosen as stewards of this site and to extend the tradition of teaching and learning there,” UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement. “We are thinking deeply about how the site can best increase access to education for our students and enhance the broader community, and we’re looking forward to sharing more in the future.”

The satellite campuses are located approximately 30 miles south of UCLA’s Westwood campus. They will enable instruction for an additional 1,000 students, UCLA said.

In a separate letter sent to the university community, Block said that the newly acquired sites may start hosting academic programs as soon as next year.

The campus expansion is the latest effort by UCLA to meet the University of California’s systemwide enrollment goals by 2030. They previously increased summer enrollment and expanded its remote learning programs.