Welcome from Chancellor Michael V. Drake, M.D.

As we begin the 2010-2011 academic year, I want to welcome you and your family to the University of California, Irvine. We are proud that our campus combines the full benefits of a research university with the highly personalized experience of a small college. We do so by developing the whole person through four pillars of excellence: academic excellence, research excellence, leadership excellence and character excellence. Academic excellence and research excellence are fostered in our classrooms and labs, where our students learn from award-winning faculty in state-of-the-art facilities. Leadership excellence and character excellence are usually honed outside the classroom, through co-curricular activities, clubs, athletics, and community involvement.

I am pleased to introduce Interim Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs Thomas A. Parham, Ph.D. who will be working to ensure your student can fully access and experience all the opportunities UC Irvine has to offer.

This year's incoming class is perhaps our most academically competitive ever. Nearly 60,000 students applied for admission, and we are welcoming the best and brightest 6,000 of those this fall. In fact, our incoming freshmen boast an average 4.01 GPA. We will continue challenging them throughout their academic careers. Last year, UC Irvine undergraduates and alumni won 15 of the nation's most competitive academic awards, including four Fulbright Fellowships, six National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, and two Goldwater Scholarships.

Even in choosing UC Irvine, our students demonstrated their intelligence. We were recently ranked among the top 20 best values in public colleges by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Keeping higher education affordable for families continues to be a significant concern for the university, and I am pleased to share that we increased grant funding for eligible students by 25% this year.

Our faculty continue to conduct groundbreaking research that is shaping the future of issues including health and sustainable energy. This summer, UC Irvine won a $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help speed scientific discoveries into medical treatments for patients. The grant will foster research in our community that ranges from diabetes to cancer and pediatrics to gerontology. Other teams of researchers are pioneering innovative fuel technologies for the future. For example, our campus is part of a team of California research institutions that just won a highly competitive $122 million grant from the Department of Energy to advance solar fuel technology.

One of the most distinctive aspects of UC Irvine's undergraduate experience is that so many of our students participate in research. In fact, about 1,700 individuals take advantage of our highly regarded Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program each year.

We also provide meaningful opportunities for our students to build their character excellence and leadership skills. This summer, for example, a 17-member dance troupe traveled to Ghana to study and perform in a program that not only benefited them artistically, but enriched them culturally.

The physical space of our campus has also been growing to support our growing student population and our expanding research agenda. We opened 1.8 million square feet of space in the last year and a half, including state-of-the-art dorms to house an additional 1,500 students. As we have grown, we have also become greener, with more UC Irvine buildings certified LEED Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council for their energy efficiency and sustainability than at any other campus in the nation.

UC Irvine's students are tomorrow's global leaders. We strive to develop the whole person, providing each individual with the tools to realize his or her unique potential. We are excited about the future of our university and the bright future of our students. Thank you for your support.