The Linguistics Department was officially formalized as an interdisciplinary department in 1973; this was due partially to the work of John Oller Jr. “John Oller Jr., an enthusiastic and aggressive young applied linguist at UCLA, was hired (with an appointment in Educational Foundations) to serve as director of the [Linguistics] Program. He quickly marshalled forces, prepared a new proposal, and secured approval for a Department of Linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences effective July 1, 1973.” (Bills MS, 1989)

However, the department continued under this interdisciplinary system and was not a fully independent department until 1988.