UCLA Janss Steps

A history of the steps’ name

UCLA Janss Steps, formally known as Tongva Steps, are the famous 87-step stairs located in the heart of campus. The steps connect the Wilson Plaza area to the Dickson Plaza area, where Royce Hall, Powell Library and the other two original buildings of UCLA are located. 

To locate UCLA Janss Steps, or Tongva Steps, visit 220 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90095 with the map linked below, or keep reading more about the well-known UCLA steps. 

The original name of the steps came from Harold Janss and Edwin Janss Sr., as well as their Janss Investment Company; however, a Daily Bruin article notes the exploration of the history of racial biases of the brothers and their company, which prompted a name change. For more information about the UCLA steps and their history, click the link below. 

UCLA Janss Steps underwent several name change propositions in 2020. According to a Daily Bruin article, the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) passed a resolution on July 28, 2020, to rename UCLA Janss Steps to Tongva Steps. The name Tongva comes from the Indigenous Gabrielino-Tongva people who inhabited the lands of UCLA, added the Daily Bruin. For more on the resolution, click the link below. 

However, the Daily Bruin has followed the resolution, adding how students from the American Indian Student Association and USAC also revised the plan in November 2020 to rename UCLA Janss Steps to Kuruvungna Steps instead of Tongva Steps; Kuruvungna is a word from the Gabrieleño language, meaning Kuruvungna, intended to be a more inclusive and accurate title for the steps. For further information on this revision, click the link below. 

To learn more about the Tongva peoples of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and southern Channel Islands area) and the UCLA steps, visit the UCLA American Indian Studies Center webpage through the link below.