In a milestone move to expand enrollment at the nation’s most popular university by creating a satellite campus, UCLA announced Tuesday that it is buying two large properties owned by Marymount California University, a small Catholic institution in Rancho Palos Verdes that closed its doors last month.
UCLA’s $80-million purchase of Marymount’s 24.5-acre campus and an 11-acre residential site in nearby San Pedro marks the university’s most significant expansion to help meet the burgeoning demand for seats. UCLA drew nearly 140,000 first-year applications for about 6,600 spots in fall 2021 and even more applications this year — sparking angst among the growing legions of rejected Californians and pressure from state legislators to reduce the number of out-of-state students…