Sizing up 2017
Record-breaking donations highlight big year at UCI
No doubt about it: 2017 is the year UCI went big. A $200 million gift from Henry and Susan Samueli – the seventh-largest private donation ever to a single public university in the U.S. – will transform the College of Health Sciences. The Buck Collection – a stunning trove of 3,200 pieces of California art – was bequeathed to the campus. A conversion begun this year of the central cooling plant will save more than 50 million gallons of drinkable water. The new FRESH Basic Needs Hub, one of the most substantial facilities of its kind in the nation, distributes more than 2 tons of edibles per week to UCI students fighting food insecurity. And The New York Times touted UCI as the “No. 1 university doing the most for the American dream.” As always, it was a good year to be an Anteater. Here are the highlights in numbers.
UCI ranks No. 1 on The New York Times’ annual College Access Index, making it the top U.S. campus “doing the most for the American dream.” Elena Zhukova / UCI
| 200 million | Amount in dollars donated to UCI by Henry and Susan Samueli to advance the health sciences on campus and create a comprehensive institute for research, training and patient care focused on integrative health |
| 100 million | Black holes in the Milky Way galaxy, as estimated by the research group of James Bullock, professor of physics & astronomy |
| 50 million+ | Gallons of drinkable water saved annually by converting the school’s central cooling plant to an environmentally friendly system using recycled water |
| 2 million | Pollution-free rides students will take each year as a result of UCI in 2017 becoming the first college campus in the nation to have an all-electric bus fleet |
| 430,000 | Measurements made by sensors every five seconds in UCI buildings to gauge energy use, indoor air quality and system performance, reducing campuswide energy use by more than 50 percent |
| 105,494 | “Likes” of the @UCIrvine Facebook page, 8,000 more than at the same time last year |
| 55,500 | Followers of #UCIrvine on Twitter, an increase of 13,000 over last year |
| 27,562 | Weight in pounds of food eaten by Los Angeles Rams players during their August training camp on campus |
| 4,500 | Pounds of food given away weekly to an average of 400 students by the FRESH Basic Needs Hub – one of the largest facilities of its kind on a U.S. campus – launched this fall |
| 3,200 | Number of pieces donated to UCI in the Buck Collection, the most extensive private trove of California art in the world |
| 65 | Percent of UCI employees who commuted to work sustainably through walking, biking, electric vehicles, car pools, van pools, trains, shuttles or buses, according to a 2017 survey |
| 57 | New faculty members for the 2017-18 academic year |
| 54 | Percent of bachelor’s degrees (4,880) awarded to first-generation college students |
| 25.7 | Percent of undergraduates who identified themselves as Latino (qualifying UCI for Hispanic-serving institution status for 2017-18) |
| 9 | UCI’s ranking on U.S. News & World Report’s list of best public colleges, released in September |
| 8 | Years in a row UCI has been ranked a top 10 “Cool School” by Sierra magazine |
| 4 | Starbucks locations on campus |
| 1 | Ranking on The New York Times’ annual College Access Index, making UCI the top U.S. campus “doing the most for the American dream” |