The development of new programs and centers is essential to any vital academic community, but it is especially important to an ambitious research university growing as quickly as UCI. Since 2000 alone, 23 new campuswide centers and institutes have been established at UCI and are conducting research at the leading edge of their fields, among them the Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs. Similar growth among our degree programs is evident as well. Since 2000, UCI has created 18 new baccalaureate degrees (while terminating one), and we have created eight new minors for undergraduates (while terminating one). Seventeen new graduate degrees have been approved, including seven Ph.D.s, an Ed.D. and nine master’s degrees.

Perhaps even more impressive is the number of new departments and larger academic units created at UCI since 2000. In that time, we have established new departments in the logic and philosophy of science, Asian-American studies, biomedical engineering, statistics, and film and media studies. In addition, what had been the Department of Information and Computer Science became a school with two new departments, computer science and informatics. In 2005, the UC Regents approved a College of Health Sciences at UCI that houses new programs in public health, pharmaceutical sciences and nursing science, along with our School of Medicine, which itself created two new departments in emergency medicine (2002) and urology (2001). This new college will create more opportunities for research and professional graduate education in those fields, which also will involve extensive collaboration with the schools of Biological Sciences, Social Ecology, Physical Sciences, Engineering and other units across the campus.

In 2006, the UC Regents approved a school of law at UCI. The search for a founding dean is under way, and we hope to admit our first J.D. students in fall 2009. The idea for a law school at UCI was first expressed by founding Chancellor Dan Aldrich in 1965 as part of the original plan for the campus. The faculty approved an earlier proposal for a law school in 1990, but it was not forwarded to the Office of the President due to the budget crisis of that time. A decade later, on Jan. 25, 2001, the Divisional Assembly of the UCI Academic Senate unanimously approved a new proposal to create a school of law at UCI. The proposal was endorsed by the Associated Students and the Associated Graduate Students of UCI, and by the executive vice chancellor and provost and the chancellor. That spring, the UC Academic Senate also endorsed the proposal. Unfortunately, budget problems in the state delayed a decision on the school for several years, but in spring 2006 a special committee was convened by UC President Dynes and charged with reviewing the role of professional education in the UC system generally and with assessing the need for another UC law school and its location. That committee endorsed our proposal enthusiastically, and the regents formally approved the proposal in November 2006.

The reasons for creating a UC-caliber law school at UCI are compelling. Most importantly, it will draw on and extend our existing academic strengths in research and educational programs and forge important connections among our professional programs in engineering, law, medicine and business. UCI can count on significant support from the surrounding community since a law school will increase access to a first-class, state-supported legal education for a wider range of the population; attract more high-quality graduate and professional students; and contribute significantly to the cultural, intellectual and economic growth in the region.

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Last Updated: January 22, 2007