New Web site connects UCI with community
New Web site fosters public interaction with campus.
Want to catch a UC Irvine baseball game, attend a musical performance or take part in a local outreach program? Check out UCI in the Community, a new Web site that helps the public connect with campus resources.
“UCI offers many activities for our community, but the university is like a small city and it can be challenging for people off campus to find their way around,” says Kristen Day, UCI’s new director for civic engagement.
Web site visitors can search for campus departments, groups, programs and events in such categories as global citizenship and society, energy and the environment, lifelong and continued learning, and health and medicine.
Day leads the Committee on Community & Civic Engagement, which – in addition to creating a new minor – developed the Web site. Manuel N. Gόmez, vice chancellor for student affairs, and Sharon Salinger, dean of undergraduate education, formed the group in 2008.
Committee member Stephanie Reyes-Tuccio, who directs UCI’s Center for Educational Partnerships, calls the online site a “one-stop shop” for area residents seeking opportunities to get involved with UCI.
In addition, she says, “it will give us the chance to develop relationships and work collaboratively with a broader cross section of the community.”
Committee member Darlene Esparza, director of the UCI Center for Service in Action, says the new Web site will make it easier for people to learn about the center’s projects, which include Alternative Break and UCI Earth Day.
“Having our organization featured in UCI in the Community should also increase our contact with other volunteer groups that match the career or academic interests of our students,” Esparza says.
Day believes the online site will further the campus’s goal of forging deeper ties with the surrounding community.
“This site,” she says, “will help members of the public take advantage of the resources we offer and help UCI – the only research university in Orange County – do a better job of addressing local problems.”