University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI) is one of the University of California campuses. UCI is situated in suburban Irvine, California and is bordered on the north by a wetlands wildlife preserve. The campus was opened in 1965 and now serves some 23,000 students (2002-03 school year).
Academics
The UCI faculty has included two Nobel laureates -- F. Sherwood Rowland and Frederick Reines. It administers a medical school and a public teaching hospital, located some ten miles away in Orange, California (a regular shuttle bus ties the campuses together).
UCI is also one of the very few academic organizations to offer degrees in Social Ecology.
UCI's engineering program is well-regarded, and is supported by the local industry. Many of Orange County's world-famous biomedical, software, and aerospace companies recruit from UCI's student body.
UCI also offers liberal arts programs, although on a smaller scale. Along with its highly-ranked programs in philosophy, classics, and literature, the university maintains undergraduate and graduate programs in Dance, Painting, Sculpture, Music, Creative Writing, and Theatre, often with prominent artists-in-residence. Many professors in the performing arts are directly connected to, and active in, the nearby entertainment industry.
Amenities
The campus has mid-20th century modernistic buildings set in a circle around a large central park. Satellite parking lots lie in another circle outside this circle of buildings.
Popular legend holds that the campus was designed in an era of student protest, and this circular design was considered ideally suited to eliminate any geographical central point of contact where large numbers of students would collide with each other and exchange opinions and ideas. Students would drive into a building's parking lot, walk into class, then an hour later walk back out to their cars and drive home; therefore, most social contact between these commuting students would be with others studying in the same major. This design, allegedly, would minimize protests and rioting, and even deny snipers a convenient vantagepoint. Adding to this legend is the existence of underground tunnels linking the buildings, supposedly there to evacuate faculty and administrators and facillitate the movement of police. In truth the tunnels simply contain steam and utility lines. Most likely the design of the campus is simply representative of mid-60s urban design, favoring large open spaces and decentralized facilities over the dense layout of older campuses.
The local climate is a mild maritime Mediterranean climate, with more than 200 days of sunlight per year and fewer than ten inches (25 cm) of precipitation. Temperatures vary from a low of 50°F (15°C) to a high of over 90°F (30°C), with 2% to 20% humidity. Nearby (2 hour one-way) mountains provide winter sports opportunities from September to May, while local (30 minute one-way) beaches provide surfing and water sports from April to September, including the world surfing competition at Huntington Beach, California. Death Valley, Mount Whitney, Yosemite National Park, the Sierra Nevada and several coastal mountain ranges are less than a day away by car. Los Angeles, Disneyland and Hollywood are an hour or two away by car. The campus has active sports clubs and outings.
UCI's sports teams are known as the Anteaters (The unconventional mascot was chosen by student vote, in the non-violent and anti-establishment spirit that was popular in the school's early years). They participate in the NCAA's Division I-AA, and in the Big West Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
Despite the city environment, wildlife inhabit the University's central park and wetlands. The university had wolves up until 1985, and still has hawks, rabbits, raccoons, owls, and coyotes.
Irvine itself is one of the largest planned communities in the United States. Local residents are stereotyped as upper-income, conservative professionals, who stay at home and raise families. The housing market is extremely expensive. On campus, however, there is residence hall space for about only 3,200 undergraduates, and some on-campus apartment housing. There is also a trailer park that permit students to live in small travel trailers. The local economy is vibrant, and provides jobs in all ranges of skills and earnings, from unskilled service work to skilled professions. Although Christian denominations predominate, religious organizations of all types exist on-campus, in Irvine and nearby communities.
Public transit consists of hourly bus services. Most students need a car, and university parking is difficult, despite large parking structures. Traffic jams on the local freeways are commonplace. Since the climate is warm, many students find a motorcycle or motorscooter convenient, even though California prohibits 2-cycle engines.
External links
University of California
Berkeley | Davis | Irvine | Los Angeles | Merced | Riverside | San Diego | San Francisco | Santa Barbara | Santa Cruz