University of California, Irvine

A view of Ring Road looking towards the Student Center and Aldrich Hall

Location

University of California, Irvine, Irvine CA, 92697

Phone

(949) 824-5011

Website

http://www.uci.edu/

Established

October 4, 1965

The University of California, Irvine or more colloquially UC Irvine or UCI is one of the ten general campuses of the University of California and is regarded as one of the premier research universities of both the University of California and the entire nation. UCI was originally established in 1965 on land donated by its namesake, the Irvine Company, and predates the City of Irvine that was developed and incorporated six years later in 1971. Nearly 28,000 students are enrolled, in addition to 1,100 faculty members and 9,000 staff, making UCI the largest employer in Orange County and with an economic impact of $3.9 billion every year. The school mascot is the Anteater.

Beginning in 1959, the University of California approached the Irvine Company about donating a portion of the Irvine Ranch to be developed into a UC Campus in what was then agricultural and rural South Orange County. In 1960 the Irvine Company acceded and sold 1,000 acres to the University of California for one dollar. Later in 1964, the University of California purchased an additional 510 acres for housing and commercial development.

The University of California commissioned William Pereira to develop and integrate the new campus, along with a master plan, in what would become an entirely planned city. UCI originally was designed to be at the center of this new city, in the middle of what is now Woodbridge and East Yale Loop and West Yale Loop, however the Irvine Company was unwilling to part with the valuable farm land and instead offered a tract of land at the base of the San Joaquin Hills. The legacy of this original plan however remains, from the convergence of many of Irvine's main thoroughfares upon UCI to the founding and naming of the City of Irvine after the New University.

UCI was dedicated on June 20, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson and was established on October 4, 1965 with Daniel Aldrich as Chancellor. At the time only 75% of the campus was complete, with only nine buildings and a dirt road connecting the main campus to the housing units and with only half of the inner circle and three of the six spokes, ending with two buildings each, from the mostly barren central park finished. It was concurrently during this period that the Anteater was chosen as the school mascot. Gradually over the next few years, UCI expanded, with the last of the initial construction ending with the Administration Building in 1974 and later the acquisition of the UCI Medical Center Orange County Medical Center in Orange in 1976.

A second wave of expansion began in the late 1980's and UCI entered a building boom that continues to today, earning UCI the moniker Under Construction Indefinitely.

The Bison entrance to UCI.

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