Skip to content

University of California, Irvine

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
260 Aldrich Hall
Irvine, California 92697
Phone
(949) 824-6703
Email address
admissions@uci.edu
School Information
"In 1965, the University of California, Irvine was founded with a mission to catalyze the community and enhance lives through rigorous academics, cutting-edge research, and dedicated public service. Today, we draw on the unyielding spirit of our pioneering faculty, staff and students who arrived on campus with a dream to inspire change and generate new ideas. We believe that true progress is made when different perspectives come together to advance our understanding of the world around us. And we enlighten our communities and point the way to a better future. At UCI, we shine brighter" (Source: https://uci.edu/about/). UCI has a total enrollment of over 37,000 students and has a student to faculty ratio of 18 to 1. The university offers 87 bachelor's degrees, 84 master's degrees, and 53 doctorates.
General Information
Recently, UCI has responded to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery with the creation of numerous initiatives. These include the End Racism Initiative, the Black Thriving Initiative, and numerous training programs. UCI calls upon all students, faculty, and staff to make a pledge against "anti-Blackness" and encourages the campus community to complete an Inclusive Excellence Certificate Program. All UCIPD officers and staff are required to complete the certificate and certain groups leaders are required to undergo anti-racism training. While anti-racism and Critical Race training is offered, it is not required of all students at this time. However, see developments below:

Actions Taken

Admissions Policies
  • UCI’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee will “add guidance on DEI for those conducting admission interviews.”
Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
  • Following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery, UCI created the End Racism Initiative in June 2020. This initiative requires the training of all work group leaders regarding topics of "systemic racism," effective 2021.
  • UCI offers numerous training for implicit bias, anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • The UCI Strategic Plan states that it would "Educate UCI faculty, staff, and administrators about implicit biases that may create barriers to building diverse and interdisciplinary teams."
Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • UCI offers an Inclusive Excellence Certificate Program.
  • UCI’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has its own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee which will “add curricular content on DEI throughout our courses.”
Program and Research Funding
  • Within the Black Thriving Initiative, the Inclusive Excellence Term Chair Program awards $30,000 annually for researchers "advancing the Black experience and serving as drivers of well being for UCI and external community members."
  • In 2020, UCI began "investing in student achievement and honoring Black faculty" through numerous programs.
  • The UCI School of Social Sciences created a Black Lives Matter Research Scholarship.
  • Since the establishment of the UC-Historical Black Universities and Colleges Initiative grants in 2011, UCI has been awarded 11 grants. In 2021, the UC-HBCU grant of $600,000 for three recurring years in order to support 30 students.
  • UCI awarded researchers the Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Special Research Grant in June 2021.
  • The Department of Materials Science and Engineering created the Anti-Racism Work Group for 2021-2022.
  • The Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Award is a "two-year, non-renewable appointment for selected new UCI Senate faculty..." The award provides "$50,000 to awardees to support continued scholarship, pedagogy, and exemplary service leadership contributing to diversity, equity, and inclusion at UCI."
  • UCI's Office of Inclusive Excellence outlines its funding proposals on the topic of "Understanding Extremism" and state the following: "Understanding extremism is a fundamental responsibility for citizenship in the 21st century. The scale and scope of extremism poses a threat to our civic institutions, democratic values and our very multi-cultural society. It demands more than an initiative. The Confronting Extremism Program initially grew out of needs to understand rising extremism in the nation while fortifying our resilience as a campus community. Nearly 50 programs have been funded to-date to advance knowledge and positive actions for inclusive excellence."
  • UCI's Office of Inclusive Excellence "Inclusive Excellence Spirit Awards" support faculty activities which "promote equity, diversity, and inclusion on campus among faculty, students, and staff, as well as the community served by UCI."
  • UCI's School of Humanities' Center for Liberation, Anti-Racism & Belonging identifies "research questions, explore methodologies and experiment with diverse publication dissemination methods that bring attention to and work towards social justice." The Center "seeks to create a research justice university."
  • UCI BioSci’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion supervises the Minority Science Programs alongside NIH.
  • UCI’s BioSci Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has a PROMISE Task Force which seeks to work on “Promoting an Inclusive Student Experience” for undergraduates.
  • All UC schools partake in California Alliance for Minority Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, which is known as CAMP and is funded by NSF.
  • The Department of Earth System Science has a program called Unlearning Racism in Geoscience program which is funded by NSF.
Re-Imagining Policing
  • The UCI Police Department made a Campus Commitment to Inclusive Excellence by "communicating campus expectations that all sworn officers promote equity, diversity and inclusion in serving the community." Every member of UCIPD must complete the Inclusive Excellence Certificate Program.
Resources
  • UCI provides numerous resources and definitions for anti-racism and related terms. Ibram X. Kendi's book, "How to Be an Anti-Racist," is a recommended reading.
  • The UCI Black Thriving Initiative "recognizes and responds to anti-Blackness as an existential threat to our mission as public research university" and holds numerous events and programs to discuss anti-Blackness. The Black Thriving Institute also explores "how anti-Blackness, racial justice and slavery implicate and shape human histories, contemporary realities and futures of nation-states, cultures and communities, and people within and in relation to the African diaspora."
  • In 2020, UCI created an External Advisory Board to look after the affairs of the Black Thriving Initiative and the Office of Inclusive Excellence Speakers Bureau.
  • UCI has an Academic Excellence Black Scholars House which is a first-year residential experience that supports diverse students.
  • The UCI Counseling Center offers numerous resources for "racial trauma."
  • The Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation has an "Anti-Racist Pedagogy Reading List." UCI also provides a list of anti-racism books from UCI Law, and the UCI Library hosts an "eBook Collection on Understanding and Combating Racism" in addition to a media series of "Anti-Racism Films." Additionally, the Office of Inclusive Excellence provides resources for microaggressions and UCI Student Affairs provides staff with resources on how to "combat anti-Black racism."
  • The UCI Sustainability Resource Center made a statement in solidarity "with the movement for Black lives" by saying, "We emphatically condemn the continued killing and harassment of Black folks by police departments and a culture of white supremacy across the nation." The center provided resources in conjunction with this statement to further its mission.
  • The University's Office of Inclusive Excellence describes the role of an "Equity Advisor" and states the following: "An Equity Advisor is a senior faculty member, appointed as Faculty Assistant to the Dean in their respective schools. Equity Advisors participate in faculty recruiting by approving search strategies and raising awareness of Best Practices. Additionally, they organize faculty development programs, with both formal and informal mentoring, and address individual issues raised by women and underrepresented minority faculty."
  • UCI's Office of Inclusive Excellence links to many resources on the topic of "Campus Ally and Awareness" which include "AB540 and Undocumented Student Ally Training" and "ZotAbility Ally Training."
  • UCI's Office of Inclusive Excellence offers Diversity Planning Resources and Tools to "support the development, implementation, and assessment of school, unit and program diversity plans."
  • On February 14, 2022, a UCI News article titled "Critical race theory, explained" reports on a CRT video series in which "Five UCI professors from the schools of humanities, law and social sciences have collaborated on a series of 10 videos on critical race theory." Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Chancellor’s Fellow, director of the UCI Humanities Center and professor of Asian American studies, explains that "Critical race theory is the study of race and racism and how these categories and structures of inequity are connected to other forms of hierarchy in our society,"
  • UCI's Cross Cultural Center outlines its many "Activism and Social Justice Programs" including: "Careers and Social Justice Series," "Social Justice in Action Series," and "Queer & Race Series."
  • The End Racism Initiative has a site dedicated to Anti-Racism Resources.
  • On November 27, 2023, the End Racism Initiative and the Biological Sciences Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hosted a symposium on “Anti-Racism Education in the Academy.”
  • UCI’s Department of Earth System Science has a page dedicated to its “Commitment to Anti-Racism” and its solidarity with BLM.
  • UCI’s Department of Earth System Science shared a guide for “Ten Simple Rules for Building an Anti-Racist Lab.”
  • UCI’s School of Biological Sciences’ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has a site for “Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ARDEI) in EEB.”
  • On May 25, 2023, UCI announced that it named Dyonne Bergeron as its new Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion as well as Chief Diversity Officer.
Symbolic Actions
  • UCI is #CallingAllAnteaters to take the pledge against "anti-Blackness," "anti-Black micro- and macro-aggressions," and "unconscious and conscious acts of bias, prejudice, and bigotry."
  • UCI's Writing Center hosts an annual Black Lives Matter Writing Contest. The 2021 contest has a theme of "A Call for Accountability: Reassessing How We Care for Black Womxn."
  • UCI appointed a new Director of Diversity Initiatives in the School of Biological Sciences.
  • On June 7, 2021, UCI named a stretch of road near campus "Michael Drake Drive" after the former chancellor emeritus.
  • The Office of Inclusive Excellence and the president have made numerous statements of solidarity and support for events surrounding Juneteenth, George Floyd, and Daunte Wright, among many others.
Last updated July 15th, 2024
©2024 Critical Race Training in Education. All rights reserved.