Uc Irvine
Its extramural funding, which has shown exponential annual growth, was a record $263 million in 2005.
In 2006, UC Irvine operated 68 undergraduate degree programs, 53 minors, 45 master's degree programs, and 43 doctorate programs (including one M.D., two Ed. programs). At UC Irvine's 2005 Commencement ceremonies, the university conferred 6,759 degrees to what was at the time its largest graduating class.
Future growth
As a part of its long-term efforts to "attain flagship status," UC Irvine has implemented construction projects (estimated to cost $1.3 billion over the next decade) that will accelerate the campus build-out and employ the remainder of the university's land grant. The exponential increase in construction activity is a part of the Strategy for Academic Development at UCI through 2015, a master plan that outlines the vision of making UCI a first-choice university for college applicants nationwide. The university announced the "Shaping the Future Campaign" on Oct.
4, 2008 that focuses a $1 billion fund raising effort on four major strategic initiatives: the environment and sustainable energy, health care, training tomorrow's leaders, and global business and cultural partnerships.
Campus
UCI's core campus and surrounding areas. To further emphasize the layout, academic units are positioned relative to the center, wherein undergraduate schools are closer to the center than the graduate schools.
Within Aldrich Park, there are numerous thickly-wooded trees indigenous to the local Mediterranean climate.
The park itself has a network of paved and dirt pathways shared by pedestrians and cyclists.
Ring Road is the main pedestrian road used by students and faculty to travel around the core campus. The road measures up to a perfect mile and completely encircles Aldrich Park. Most schools and libraries are lined up by this road with each of these schools having their own central plaza which also connects to the Aldrich Park.
Other areas of the university outside of the core campus such as the College of Medicine and the School of Arts are connected by four pedestrian bridges.
The western side of the campus borders the San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh Reserve, through which Campus Drive connects UCI to the 405 freeway. The northern and eastern sides of UCI are adjacent to Irvine proper; the eastern side of the campus is delineated by Bonita Canyon Road, which turns into Culver Drive at its northern terminus and offers links to the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road and 405 freeway, respectively.
Additionally, UCI's southern boundary is adjacent to the San Joaquin Transportation Corridor.
There exists a "North Campus" that houses the Facilities Management Department, the Faculty Research Facility, Central Receiving, Fleet Services, the Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory, and numerous other functions. The university has bobcats, mountain lions, hawks, golden eagles, great blue herons, peregrine falcons, rabbits, raccoons, owls, skunks, weasels, bats, and coyotes.
The UCI Arboretum hosts a collection of plants from California and Mediterranean climates around the world. The initial landscaping, including Aldrich Park, was designed by an association of three firms, including that of the famous urban-landscaping innovator Robert Herrick Carter.
Aldrich Park was designed under the direction of landscape architect Gene Uematsu, and was modeled after Frederick Law Olmsted's designs for New York City's Central Park. There were only nine buildings and a dirt road connecting the main campus to the housing units.
Only three of the six "spokes" that radiate from the central park were built, with only two buildings each. These buildings were designed in a style which Pereira called "California Brutalist", combining sweeping curves and expressionistic shapes with elements of classic California architecture such as red tiled roofs and clay-tiled walkways.
Engineering complex
Construction on the campus all but ceased after the Administration building, Aldrich Hall, was completed in 1974, and then resumed in the late 1980s, beginning a massive building boom that still continues today.
This second building boom continued the futuristic trend, but emphasized a much more colorful, postmodern approach that somewhat contradicted the earthy, organic designs of the early buildings. There is also the large Gateway Study Center (across from Langson Library), one of the university's original buildings and under the custody of UC Irvine Libraries.
Other popular study areas include Aldrich Park, the Cross-Cultural Center, the Locus (a study room and computer lab used by the Campuswide Honors Program), and plazas located in every School.
Tunnels
An underground network of tunnels runs between many of the major buildings on campus and the Central Plant, with the major trunk passage located beneath Ring Road. These tunnels have been the subject of much campus lore, the most popular story being that the tunnels were constructed to facilitate the safe evacuation of faculty in the event of a student riot.
The main tunnel actually appears above ground in the form of an unusually thick bridge near the Engineering Tower, in an area where Ring Road crosses between two hills.
Governance
Like other University of California campuses, UC Irvine is governed by a Chancellor who has significant authority over campus academic and planning affairs. The Chancellor, in turn, is nominated by and is responsible to the Regents of the University of California and the UC President:
1962 Daniel G.
Every school on campus reports to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost through a Dean, and all other academic and administrative units report to his office through a Vice Chancellor or chief administrator. The most recent academic unit, the College of Health Sciences, was established in 2004. On November 16, 2006, the UC Regents approved the establishment of the School of Law, with an expected opening in fall 2009. The remaining academic units offer accelerated or community education in the form of Summer Session and UC Irvine Extension.
Additionally, UCI's Campuswide Honors Program is implementing an independent study program, which will allow students to develop their own curriculum across Schools and graduate with their own self-created major.
Frederick Reines Hall in the School of Physical Sciences, named after one of three UCI faculty members to receive the Nobel prize.
The Engineering Tower, located in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, is the tallest building on campus.
Academic units
Claire Trevor School of the Arts
School of Biological Sciences
Paul Merage School of Business
Department of Education
Henry Samueli School of Engineering
College of Health Sciences
School of Humanities
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
Interdisciplinary Studies
School of Law (due fall 2009)
School of Medicine
School of Physical Sciences
School of Social Ecology
School of Social Sciences
Summer Session
UC Irvine Extension
School of Design (proposed)
Research organizations
Calit2, UCI
To complement its mission as a research university, UCI hosts a diverse array of nationally and internationally-recognized research organizations. These organizations are either chaired by or composed of UCI faculty, frequently draw upon undergraduates and graduates for research assistance, and produce a multitude of innovations, patents, and scholarly works. Some are housed in a school or department office; others are housed in their own multimillion-dollar facilities.
These are a few of the more prolific research organizations at UCI:
Beckman Laser Institute
California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2)
Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies
Center for Unconventional Security Affairs
Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
National Fuel Cell Research Center
Reeve-Irvine Research Center
Center for the Study of Democracy
Center for Health Policy Research
Rankings and distinctions
Many of UCI's graduate programs received top-50 rankings from U.S. (20), cell biology/developmental biology (21), 19th- and 20th century literature (22), psychology – cognitive science (22), sociology (27), aerospace engineering (29), computer science (29), physics (29), mechanical engineering (30), civil engineering (31), biological sciences (32), history (32), environmental engineering (34), fine arts (34), political science (35), business (38), biomedical engineering (40), engineering (41), medicine (41), materials science engineering (45), mathematics (47), psychology and social behavior (47), economics (48), and electrical engineering (49).
UCI's Master of Fine Arts degree program in creative writing has graduated such authors as Richard Ford, Michael Chabon, and Alice Sebold.
The graduate program in philosophy was ranked 17th in the English-speaking world by the Philosophical Gourmet Report, while Chemical and Engineering News ranks UCI fifth (tied with, among others, Harvard University) in conferring doctoral degrees in chemistry. Irwin Rose received the Nobel Prize for his work on biological proteins.
UCI is the first public university to have two Nobel laureates (Rowland and Reines) who received their prizes in the same year (1995).
In January 2009, UCI Professor Reg Penner won the Faraday Medal for his research with nanowires.
Learned societies affiliations:
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (39 members)
American Association for the Advancement of Science (105 members)
American Philosophical Society (7 members)
American Physical Society (30 members)
American Psychological Association (20 members)
Institute of Medicine (5 members)
National Academy of Engineering (8 members)
National Academy of Sciences (22 members)
Admissions
UC Irvine is categorized by U.S. News and The Princeton Review as "most selective" for college admissions ratings within the United States. It is the fourth-most selective University of California campus on the ratio of applicants versus admitted students (behind UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego).
The choice to offer admission is based on the University of California's comprehensive review program.
It considers a candidate's personal situation, community involvement, extracurricular activities, and academic potential in addition to the traditional high school academic record, personal statement, and entrance examination scores. While residency is not a factor in admission, it is a factor in tuition expenses, with out-of-state residents spending more annually than California residents. UC Irvine for fall 2009 attracted the 3rd largest applicant pool of all UCs.
In fall 2008, 95.8% of those students identified with "Eligibility in the Local Context," a statistical indicator that identifies the top 4% of all California high school graduates as eligible for admission to the University of California, who applied to UC Irvine were admitted.
Incoming freshmen predominantly represent the San Francisco Bay Area and the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Imperial. The executive board is intended to keep track of changes and take care of bureaucratic matters, while the delegations as a group make final decisions on everything done within the IFC.
Major events in the Greek system include Rush Week (welcome week), Greek Songfest, and Greek Week.
Of the tasks the IFC undertakes, the most important in recent years has been monitoring recruitment events to make sure no illegal activities are taking place and running the Judicial Board, which is compromised of representatives from the individual chapters.
Fraternities and sororities
Clubs and Organizations
UCI has over 400 student clubs representing the following categories: multicultural, performance, political, religious, service, social, recreational, special interest, academic and international.
Residential accommodations
Residence Halls at the Middle Earth undergraduate housing complex (for freshmen) are named after places and characters from J.
Approximately 36% of UCI students are housed in university accommodations; 3,300 live in freshmen residential dormitories, approximately 4,000 other undergraduates live in apartment/theme community housing, and 1,542 living units are available for graduate students and their families. Part of UCI's long-range development plan involves expanding on-campus housing to accommodate 50% of all UCI students.
The on-campus housing communities for undergraduates are: Mesa Court, Middle Earth, Campus Village, Arroyo Vista, Vista Del Campo, and VDC Norte. Graduate students are able to live on campus in Palo Verde, Verano Place, Vista Del Campo, and VDC Norte.
There are 42 houses located in Arroyo Vista and 38 are currently in use; 4 are under renovation and will be open again in the summer.
There are 8 sorority and 4 fraternity houses that are located in Arroyo Vista. Arroyo Vista also has many academic themed houses such as Campuswide Honors Program, Engineering, Information and Computer Science, Humanities, and Sociology.
Arroyo Vista houses first, second, third, fourth, and fifth-year undergraduates all in the same community, in complexes that may be called houses, but have dorm-like qualities.
Their traditional rivals are Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, and UC Santa Barbara.
UCI fields nationally-competitive teams in cross country, track and field, basketball, baseball, volleyball, water polo, soccer, swimming, rowing, and sailing. The most recent NCAA Division I national title was won by the men's volleyball team on May 9, 2009 against USC (3-2) at Provo, Utah.
Other national titles include three Division I men's water polo titles, two baseball Division II titles, three men's swimming titles (Div. The week of April 20th, 2009 was a historical milestone for the UCI athletics program, as both school’s Men’s Volleyball and Baseball squads were simultaneously ranked No.
This 430-pound statue is a gift of the class of 1987.
The anteater was chosen in 1965 when students were allowed to submit mascot candidates, which would be voted on in a campus election. The anteaters are not to be confused with the aardvark, an African animal that also eats ants.
Also, the fact that food service workers are not UC employees further lowers costs for the university. Furthermore, UCI notes the large investment Aramark is making is in dining infrastructure, which will outlast its current contract and support UCI's long-range development plan.
Law School Dean
In hiring an inaugural dean of the School of Law, which opens in 2008, the University approached Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, a well known legal scholar in constitutional law and liberal commentator.
After signing a contract with Chemerinsky on September 4, 2007, the hire was rescinded by UCI Chancellor Michael V. Drake because he felt the law professor's commentaries were "polarizing" and would not serve the interests of California's first new public law school in 40 years; Drake claimed the decision was his own and not the subject of any outside influence. The action was roundly criticized by liberal and conservative scholars who felt it hindered the academic mission of the law school, and disbelief over Chancellor Drake's claims that it was the subject of no outside influence.
The issue was the subject of a New York Times editorial on Friday, September 14. Details emerged revealing that UCI had received criticism on the hire from California Chief Justice Ronald M.
George, who criticized Chemerinsky's grasp of death penalty appeals as well as a group of prominent Orange County Republicans and Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. The chancellor reiterated his lifelong, unqualified commitment to academic freedom, which extends to every faculty member, including deans and other senior administrators."
UCI Extension
From 2002 to 2007, Capella University, a for-profit, on-line institution, paid $500 per student to UCI Extension for each of the 36 students who transferred to Capella.
The federal agency investigated a total of thirteen alleged incidents of harassment that occurred between Fall of 2000 and December of 2006, and determined that five were "isolated acts" that could not be addressed because they were reported more than 180 days after they were occurred. Pro-Palestinian student groups are still inviting anti-Israel speakers. UC Irvine's Muslim student association has the reputation of being one of the most conservative in the county.
UC Irvine is currently hosting a two week event titled "Israel: The Politics of Genocide", hosted by the school's Muslim Student Union.
He has declined to do so. One outdoor demonstration at this event included a display with an image of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank wearing a keffiyah, in an apparent attempt to draw an analogy between her sufferings and the plight of the Palestinians in the Palestinian territories. Commander Chuck also made an appearance at UCI Medical Center in 2006.
On MTV's America's Best Dance Crew various parts of UCI are shown as the dance crew Kaba Modern is at UCI.
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