The school was renamed in 1929 after the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) moved its campus from East Hollywood to Westwood, and the reputation of former President Harding had declined after the infamous Teapot Dome scandal and other situations.

[citation needed] The name University is supposed to have originated because it became a site where teachers-in-training from nearby UCLA worked as assistant teachers/interns.

[citation needed] The original administration building was designed by the firm Russell & Alpaugh and the construction process began in 1923.

The administration building once displayed an octagonal tower and a portico, but these features were toppled in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.

Although the gymnasium and a beautiful and widely admired auditorium were condemned following the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, the school's original main building from 1924 remains in use.

The music building and gym (rebuilt in the early 1980s) have been scheduled to be taken down because they sit on a fault line and therefore against district policy.

Uni is one of a very few pre-World War II high schools in Los Angeles whose buildings have been at least partially spared by three major earthquakes since its inception.

[5] In 2009, Mitchell Landsberg of the Los Angeles Times stated that the school was "struggling to regain its reputation as a center of excellence".

Prior to its being fenced off, the area surrounding the springs and pond into which its waters feed was popular among the students as a place to meet and relax.

A third spring was located farther north, near Texas Avenue, but it ceased to flow during the 1940s when a local water company began drawing from the aquifer.

[8] Construction at the school in 1925 unearthed evidence of a Native American village, and in 1975, a grave was discovered from what archaeologists now believe to be a burial site.

[16] The foundation currently leases the site from the Los Angeles Unified School District for their monthly ceremony and guided tours.

[19][20] The Red Tide was an underground campus newspaper that expressed far-left opinions on the Vietnam War, racism, and women's issues.

Twenty-five years later, on September 8, 1997, the LAUSD Board of Education voted to remove the mascot as part of a ban on using Native American symbols.

The Class of 1985 had, as a senior project and gift to the school, painted a large Warrior mascot on the south entrance to the gym building.

According to the School Information Branch: Neighborhoods served by University High are parts of West Los Angeles, including portions of Brentwood[39] Beverly Hills Post Office (BHPO),[40] Westwood, Bel-Air,[39] and the Wilshire Corridor.

[41] Like other Westside high schools such as Westchester and Palisades, University High School enrolls a diverse mix of students from its enrollment area and various parts of the city; on top of Westside neighborhoods, Uni draws students from areas such as Koreatown and South Los Angeles.

Its brick facades, wide hallways, and "unique east coast look" make the school an attractive place to film.

[49] Filming often takes place during school hours, and students and teachers are moved from classrooms and walkways are blocked off as needed.

[46][49] Past articles in the Wildcat addressed not only the disruption to students,[48][52] but how the money made from the constant filming is spent.

[61][63] Ruben Rojas, the LAUSD's director of revenue enhancement, said that the district choose to continue working with the EIDC because of "its proven track record and ability to deal with complex film-permitting issues.".

However, as the film's production needs guided the color choices for the re-tiling and the schedule for construction, many students were upset by the behavior of the movie company and the school.