This site was chosen to accommodate the county's growing population, complement the growth of nearby UCLA and UC Riverside, and allow for the construction of a master planned community in the surrounding area.

[22] On June 20, 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated UC Irvine before a crowd of 15,000 people, and on October 4, 1965, the campus began operations with 1,589 students, 241 staff members, 119 faculty, and 43 teaching assistants.

[22] On campus, UC Irvine's first Chancellor, Daniel G. Aldrich selected a wide variety of Mediterranean-climate flora and fauna, feeling that it served an "aesthetic, environmental, and educational [purpose].

Pereira intended for the UC Irvine campus to complement the neighboring community, and it became clear that the original 1,000 acres (400 ha) grant would not suffice.

[30] The "principal author" of the plan was Ivan Hinderaker, who served under Aldrich as UCI's vice-chancellor for academic affairs before departing to become the second chancellor of UC Riverside.

[32] In early July 2018, UC Irvine removed benefactor Francisco J. Ayala's name from its biology school and central science library after an internal investigation by the university's Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity substantiated a number of sexual harassment claims.

Aldrich Park is the site for "Wayzgoose", a medieval student festival held each year in conjunction with the "Celebrate UCI" open house.

William Pereira's original street layout for the region surrounding the university had a wingnut-shaped loop road as the main thoroughfare, which twice crossed the campus.

The university is home to cougar, hawks, golden eagles, great blue herons, squirrels, opossums, peregrine falcons, rabbits, raccoons, owls, skunks, weasels, bats, and coyotes.

These buildings were designed with the appearance of being displayed on "pedestals" (containing the first floor and basement levels) that elevated them above the rolling terrain, with distinctive white railings evoking the deck of an ocean liner.

Architects such as Frank Gehry, Robert Venturi, Eric Owen Moss, James Stirling and Arthur Erickson were brought in to bring the campus more up to date.

This, in turn, led to a "contextualist" approach beginning in the late 1990s combining stylistic elements of the first two phases in an attempt to provide an architectural "middle ground" between the two vastly different styles.

Smaller tunnels branch off from this main passage to reach individual buildings, carrying electrical and air-conditioning utilities from the Central Plant.

The main tunnel actually contains an above-ground section, in the form of the interior of an unusually thick pedestrian bridge near the Engineering Tower, in an area where the Ring Mall crosses between two hills.

The center serves as the headquarters of the University of California Office of Federal Governmental Relations and supports UC students interning in the District of Columbia.

Like other University of California campuses, UC Irvine operates under a system of shared governance, or a partnership between the Chancellor and his administration and the faculty through the Academic Senate.

UC Irvine Medical Center is ranked among the nation's top 50 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for the 12th consecutive year.

[80] In 2018, Sierra Magazine ranked UCI 1st in its "Coolest Schools" in America list for campus sustainability and climate change efforts.

[88] It was the third-most selective University of California campus for the freshman class entering in the fall of 2019, as measured by the ratio of admitted students to applicants (behind UC Berkeley and UCLA).

[93] The choice to offer admission is based on the University of California's comprehensive review program, which 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.

Since the approval of Proposition 209 in November 1996, California state law has prohibited all public universities (including UC Irvine) from practicing affirmative action as part of their admissions processes.

[97] It was created in 1987 and contains 622 datasets from several domains including biology, medicine, physics, engineering, social sciences, games, and others.

[107] On November 30, 2007, the Office of Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education issued a report finding insufficient evidence in support of allegations that Jewish students at UCI were harassed and subjected to a hostile environment based on their religious beliefs.

[121] The first phase included seven halls: Hobbiton, Isengard, Lorien, Mirkwood, Misty Mountain, Rivendell, and the Shire, along with a separate Head Resident's manufactured home called "Bag End".

The second phase was built in 1989 with thirteen more halls: Balin, Harrowdale, Whispering Wood, Woodhall, Calmindon, Grey Havens, Aldor, Rohan, Gondolin, Snowbourn, Elrond, Shadowfax, and Quenya.

The last phase was completed in the summer of 2019 and officially opened September 16, 2019; although reported in the media as being called the two towers of Middle Earth,[122] its two buildings are actually named Telperion and Laurelin, after the Two Trees of Valinor.

[124] In the early years of the school's existence, the teams participated at the NCAA Division II level with great success as explained in the UC Irvine Anteaters page.

Three undergraduates named Pat Glasgow, Bob Ernst, and Schuyler Hadley Basset III were credited with choosing the anteater and designing a cartoon representation, having been disappointed with other candidates such as a roadrunner, unicorn, seahawk and golden bison.

[131] These include astronauts (Tracy Caldwell Dyson), athletes (Steve Scott, Scott Brooks, Greg Louganis and 53 Olympians), Broadway, film, and television actors (Bob Gunton, James LeGros, Jon Lovitz, Brian Thompson, Teal Wicks, Windell Middlebrooks), technological innovators (Roy Fielding, Paul Mockapetris, and Patrick J. Hanratty), educators (Erin Gruwell), musicians (Kevin Kwan Loucks), and scientists (Mika Tosca).

The Comparative Literature and Philosophy departments at Irvine have accommodated distinguished intellectuals of international acclaim, including Jacques Derrida, a philosopher and critic most commonly associated with postmodern and post-structuralist thought, who held a position at the University of California, Irvine Department of Comparative Literature from 1986 to his death in 2004; his colleague, Jean-François Lyotard, who taught at UCI from 1987 until 1994;[135] Fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British philosopher Margaret Gilbert best known for her founding contributions to the analytic philosophy of social phenomena; and British philosopher and FRSE Duncan Pritchard.