Pre-1965
Pivotal moments that shaped UC Irvine’s creation.
Milestones
From early Regents decisions to site selection and planning before 1965
1957
UC Regents decide to expand UC system, including possible Orange County site. Clark Kerr took the reins as University of California president in 1957 and made finding room for a projected tidal wave of young people his top priority. Under the state’s new Master Plan for Higher Education of 1960 – which guaranteed “educational access for all”– three new University of California campuses were placed on the assembly line.
1958
Newly hired William Pereira drew up a list of 21 possibilities on the sparsely populated landscapes of Southeast Los Angeles County and Orange County, including one inside the Irvine Ranch, which sprawled across 93,000 acres. Kerr liked the Irvine site. He believed its vast expanse of empty land, all held by a single owner, would make the complex job of building a large campus much simpler.
1959
Irvine site selected. A 650-acre spot called the San Joaquin foothills was sold by the Irvine Company for $1 to the University of California. Pereira pronounced it “majestic.” Donald Cameron, an urban planner who worked for Pereira, described it as “one of the great bargains of all time.” In September 1960, the Irvine Company formally transferred the site to the University of California.
1960
In September 1960, the Irvine Company transferred the title for 1,000 acres to the University of California. However, a charter in the company policy stated that real property could not be donated to a public entity. As a result, the University of California paid the Irvine Company one dollar for the land.
1961
A few years later, after more negotiation, the company sold the university 510 additional acres, called an “inclusion” area. The campus was coming to Irvine.
1962
The first three times Clark Kerr asked, Daniel G. Aldrich Jr. said no. But he slowly warmed to the idea of starting a campus from scratch. On December 6, 1961, Kerr asked a third time, and Aldrich finally said yes. The path for the rest of Aldrich’s life was set: He was a founding chancellor.
1964
On a brilliant day in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson stepped from a helicopter into an undeveloped Irvine Ranch meadow and dedicated the land that would become UC Irvine. “California is not just talking about education,” he told the assembled crowd. “You are doing something about it.
