Local News in Brief : Panel Told of UCLA’s Quake Vulnerability

The UCLA campus remains vulnerable to a major earthquake, despite extensive planning and substantial investment in rebuilding older structures, a state earthquake safety commission was told Thursday.

Chancellor Charles E. Young said the concentration of older buildings and lack of state funding for safety still leave the Westwood campus at risk, three years after a controversial university study dramatized the danger.

Young and officials of other UC campuses told the state Seismic Safety Commission at a meeting at UCLA that a bond issue is needed to fund the work, which some estimated could cost $800 million. A proposed $350-million bond issue died in the Legislature this year.

About $20 million from room fees is being spent for work on four residence halls at UCLA and design work on a student union building and two parking garages. But as much as $90 million is needed for work on a core of 24 older state-funded buildings, including Powell Library, officials said.