University of California, Irvine

The University of California, Irvine is a public, coeducational university situated in suburban Irvine, California. It is one of ten University of California campuses and is commonly known as UCI or UC Irvine.

Campus and surroundings

The campus is primarily composed of 1960s Modernist/Brutalist buildings set in a circle around a large central park. Satellite parking lots lie in another circle outside the main circle of buildings. The park is completely encircled by a pedestrian walkway known as Ring Road. Each school at UCI is located on its own segment of the ring (except for the School of the Arts and the Medical School). Starting from the Main Library and Administration building and going clockwise, Ring Road passes through Social Sciences, Engineering, Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Humanities. Due to this unconventional circular design, there are plenty of stories about tourists and new students who unknowingly walk several times around Ring Road before realizing that they were going in circles.

Related Topics:
Brutalist - Social Sciences - Engineering - Physical Science - Biological Sciences - Humanities

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Popular legend holds that the campus was designed in an era of student protest, and the campus's circular design was meant to discourage student contact and congregation, and thus minimize protests and rioting. Students were meant to drive into a building's parking lot, walk to class, then later walk back to their cars and drive home. Therefore, most social contact would be with others studying in the same major. Adding to this legend is the existence of underground tunnels linking the buildings, supposedly for the emergency evacuation of faculty and administrators and to facilitate the movement of police. (In reality, 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.

Related Topics:
Protest - Major - Urban design

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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.(Note: As of Fall 2004, Vista del Campo opened providing an additional 1,500 beds for both Undergraduate and Graduate students. A second, larger phase is scheduled to open fall term of 2006). 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 in the surrounding communities. In recent years Middle Eastern philisophies have become prevalent.

Related Topics:
Planned communities - Residence hall - Vista del Campo - Christian

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Public transit consists of on-campus shuttle buses, campus bikeways, and free use of OCTA buses via the U-Pass program. Most students do not 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.

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Despite the suburban environment, a variety of wildlife inhabits the University's central park and wetlands. The university had wolves up until 1985, and still has hawks, rabbits, raccoons, owls, skunks and coyotes. The University of California, Irvine, Arboretum hosts a fine collection of plants from California and Mediterranean climates around the world.

Related Topics:
Wolves - 1985 - Hawk - Rabbit - Raccoon - Owl - Skunk - Coyote - University of California, Irvine, Arboretum

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