A. Strengths

The principal strength of UCI in planning for the future is the high quality of our faculty, students and academic programs. The fact that we have reached such a level within the first 40 years of our existence proves our capacity to combine rapid growth with the highest standards of quality (see “Where We Are Now,” pp.15-23). This achievement is directly attributable to the vision, ambition and determination of our founding faculty, which has been extended and renewed annually in a continuing series of outstanding appointments. It has been greatly facilitated by our membership in the University of California, by sustained support from the state, and by our location in one of the most beautiful, innovative, prosperous and diverse regions in the country.

Orange County and neighboring regions are extraordinarily vigorous in areas of cutting-edge technology, international business, environmental policy, immigration, cultural diversity and population growth – all of which are closely related to the scientific and academic strengths of our campus. The county’s gross metro product (GMP) grew faster than any other among the top-20 metro economies between 2002 and 2003 (latest comparative data available). Its GMP was the 11th-largest in the U.S. in 2003, ahead of San Diego and behind only Los Angeles in California; if Orange County were a country, its GMP would be the 42nd-largest GNP in the world.¹ Forbes ranked the county 27th out of 150 metro areas for “best places for business” in 2005, ahead of all other California counties except San Diego.² Twelve companies in the Fortune 1,000 are based in the county, including Ingram Micro, Fluor, Conexant Systems, Western Digital and Allergan, among others. The county’s strengths in international commerce and culture and high-tech industries are ideally matched to UCI’s plans to develop new programs in graduate research and professional training that can be directly applied to the social and economic opportunities surrounding the campus.

B. Challenges

The main challenge we face in realizing our ambitious plans for the campus is financial: state funding simply will not get us to where we intend to be 10 years from now. We cannot hire the number and kind of faculty that will be required to fulfill our plans solely with state resources, nor will we be able to compete against more prominent universities in the country for the best and most diverse range of students at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Furthermore, even if we could bring those people to campus, we would have no place to put them because state-funded capital plans will not produce enough offices, classrooms, housing, and laboratory and performance space. Not only is the level of state funding declining as a percentage of our general budget, that funding arrives only after the students have enrolled, which means that infrastructure – especially space for offices and classrooms – inevitably lags behind the need. It is therefore imperative that we initiate new and innovative programs to generate more extramural funding for the campus, specifically (though not entirely) through increased philanthropic and alumni giving.

Compounding these financial challenges are structural and procedural pressures associated with rapid growth at a relatively young university. In addition, UCI still has a relatively small number of degree programs for graduate and undergraduate students, and fewer professional schools and programs than the best public research universities. While not unexpected for such a young institution, the restricted number of academic options places us at a disadvantage compared to comparable universities, and fewer professional schools means fewer UCI graduates occupying places of power and influence in the state. While neither of these factors compromises the quality of the programs that we do offer, they limit the visibility and influence of the university in society at large. As a result, although we attract many more applications at the undergraduate level than we can accept, we are not always the first choice among the very best of those applicants. Furthermore, demand for our graduate programs is uneven across the campus, and with relatively few options available our ability to expand graduate enrollment is limited in many areas of the campus.

The development of new programs and academic units is a sign of our vitality as an academic institution, but new programs – especially of the scale associated with our initiatives in law and health sciences – inevitably require an inordinate amount of time and energy to establish appropriate management and oversight. Curriculum reform and innovation is an inherently slow process, especially when designing genuinely new and unique programs. New programs also often require fundamental revision of institutional structures that house them. At times, as in the case of health sciences and our plans for law, the new academic programs require the creation of large-scale schools and colleges that must be accommodated not only by our own campus but also within the entire array of professional schools in the UC system. These intercampus relations can further complicate planning and implementation of new programs. To meet these challenges, the campus must continually assess its procedures for development and management of new programs to avoid unnecessary obstacles and ensure adequate support and oversight for existing programs.

C. Opportunities

The most significant opportunities facing UCI derive directly from our strengths coupled with continued growth over the next decade. The high quality of our faculty and students will make it easier to recruit strong candidates in the future, and the quality of our research programs provides an excellent foundation from which we can extend our role in the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge in a wide range of fields. Continuing enrollment growth, fully funded by the state and accommodated by the extensive area of the campus itself, will support the creation of innovative new programs without undermining the strength and development of existing programs.

In addition to state-funded growth in enrollment, the constantly expanding economic strength of our region should make it possible to increase the number of partnerships between the university and local corporations and businesses, and to expand the base of philanthropic support for UCI. At present, philanthropic support comes from a relatively small number of exceptionally generous members of our community, and only a small percentage of our alumnae/i contribute financially to the university. Though these numbers of active supporters are growing annually, they remain modest for a university of our stature. We clearly need to convince more people in the community of the importance of private funds to a state-supported university, and we must work harder to instill the sense of institutional loyalty and affection that will keep more of our alumnae/i connected to the university after their time on campus. If we can do that, we should be able to increase the level of giving among our friends and graduates significantly over the next 10 years to match the level of support enjoyed by other major research universities across the country.

UCI’s location in a highly desirable area of exceptional racial, ethnic and economic diversity also presents extraordinary opportunities for growth with the highest standards of quality. Orange County has a large population of people in groups currently underrepresented in higher education, and within that underrepresented population there is an unusually high number of people who have completed four years of college and/or hold bachelor’s degrees. These factors combine to create an exceptionally broad range of people with high educational aspirations who are prepared to take advantage of the full range of opportunities offered by UCI’s graduate and professional programs.³

Continuing efforts to enhance students’ academic preparation at underperforming schools should increase the pipeline of students qualified for and interested in admission to UCI. Increasing numbers of high school graduates will increase the applicant pool from such schools even if the graduation rates remain low. Moreover, our proximity to the extraordinary range of cultures and international communities in Southern California facilitates recruitment of faculty from around the world. It also enhances the quality and range of educational experience available to our students through interactions with their peers in classes, extracurricular activities, and opportunities off campus to engage in community service and cultural enrichment.

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Last Updated: January 22, 2007