Student activities and traditions at UC Irvine Information

The University of California, Irvine has a number of student activities and traditions.

UCI has separate student governments representing undergraduate and graduate students. The Associated Students of the University of California, Irvine (ASUCI) is the undergraduate student government. ASUCI has executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and is also a member of the United States Student Association. In 2014, after a referendum creating a self-governing territory, ASUCI withdrew from the University of California Student Association.

Many student organizations are funded by ASUCIs Student Programming Funding Board. ASUCI also sponsors annual concerts and festivals, including "Shocktoberfest", "Wayzgoose", "Summerlands", and "Soulstice".

The Associated Graduate Students (AGS) represents graduate students.

Other committees, such as the Student Fee Advisory Committee, provide for shared governance in certain areas of university administration, Many of these, such as the Student Center Board of Advisors, the Bren Events Center Advisory Board, and the Anteater Recreation Center Advisory Board were created to oversee campus entities funded by student-initiated referenda fees.

In March 2015, the legislative branch of ASUCI voted in favor of a resolution that would have banned all flags from a shared inner workroom in the undergraduate student governments offices. The text of the resolution stated in part that "The American flag has been flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism" and that "freedom of speech, in a space that aims to be as inclusive as possible, can be interpreted as hate speech".

After the student governments president expressed his opposition to the resolution in a public social media post, the resolution became controversial, with criticism and support from students and non-students. The student representatives who voted in favor of the ban experienced intense harassment and received numerous death threats.

The university administration called the ban "misguided", stating “The views of a handful of students passing a resolution do not represent the opinions of the nearly 30,000 students on this campus, and have no influence on the policies and practices of the university”, and the executive branch of the student council vetoed the ban.

During the controversy, California State Senator Janet Nguyen said that the state constitution could be amended to prohibit the banning of the American flag at taxpayer-funded campuses.

Numerous professors and students from universities across the state signed a letter of support for the students who passed the resolution, written in response to increasing hostility, death threats, and racial slurs.

UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman initially called the vote "outrageous and indefensible", and stated that the campus would install additional flagpoles. After criticism from students, faculty and others, however, Gillman published a conciliatory op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, urging a stop to the harassment of students and stating that criticism of the United States flag "is a feature of university life and a measure of a free society."

UCI attracted controversy in February 2010 when students disrupted a lecture by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. While the MSU had issued a statement condemning the university for inviting a man who "took part in a culture that has no qualms with terrorizing the innocent, killing civilians, demolishing their homes and illegally occupying their land", they denied responsibility for the protests and said the students acted on their own. According to the New University, 11 students were charged with section 403 of the UCIPD penal code – disrupting a public event on the Universitys property, for their actions. Nine were enrolled at UCI and three were from UCR. During the event, Chancellor Drake and political science department chair Mark Petracca "chided the protesting crowd and called the disruptions embarrassing". At one point, Chairman Petracca yelled "Shame on you" to the heckling crowd. In a statement issued the next day, Drake called the students behavior "intolerable", saying that "Freedom of speech is among the most fundamental, and among the most cherished of the bedrock values our nation is built upon." Dean Chemerinsky also condemned the disruptions. He stated, "Imagine if they had brought their own speaker and that person had been shouted down. There would be no free speech. There is no right to a hecklers veto." In response, the university suspended the group for the 2010–2011 school year and assigned it a probationary period for the following year. In addition, the members were responsible for completing a collective 50 community service hours before the groups reinstatement. The Muslim Student Union appealed the suspension. The punishment was later modified to one academic quarter, one hundred hours of community service and two years probation.

On November 30, 2007, the Office of Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education issued a report finding insufficient evidence in support of allegations that Jewish students at UCI were harassed and subjected to a hostile environment based on their religious beliefs. The federal agency investigated a total of 13 alleged incidents of harassment that occurred between the fall of 2000 and December 2006, and determined that 5 were "isolated acts" that could not be addressed because they were reported more than 180 days after they occurred. Further, the agency considered these acts, which included a rock thrown at a Jewish student, the destruction of a Holocaust memorial display, and various threatening or harassing statements made to individual Jewish students, substantially different in nature as to be unrelated to the 8 other recurring acts it investigated, which included graffiti depicting swastikas on campus, events during an annual Zionist Awareness Week (in which several Jewish students had, however, partook), exclusion of Jewish students during an anti-hate rally, and the wearing of graduation stoles signifying support for Hamas or Palestinian human rights. The agency ultimately found that none of the incidents leading to the allegations qualified as "sufficiently severe, pervasive or persistent as to interfere with or limit the ability of an individual to participate in from the services, activities or privileges" provided by UCI, and that university officials had acted appropriately in response to each incident. In December 2007, UCI Administration was cleared of anti-semitism complaints by the US Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights. Following a speech by Drake at the national Hillel meeting in Washington, D.C. in March 2008, Anteaters for Israel, along with three other Jewish organizations, issued a press release defending Drake and claiming that anti-Semitic activity was "exaggerated".In May 2009, UC Irvine hosted a two-week event titled "Israel: The Politics of Genocide", hosted by the schools Muslim Student Union. Scheduled speakers included Cynthia McKinney and George Galloway. Opponents of the event described it as "anti-Semitic" (despite its considerable support from Jewish students and stated criticism solely of Israeli policy) and called for Chancellor Drake to condemn both the event and the sponsoring organization. He declined to do so. One outdoor demonstration at this event included a display with an image of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank wearing a keffiyah, in an apparent attempt to draw an analogy between her sufferings and the plight of the Palestinian territories. The pro-Israel campus advocacy group StandWithUs described this image as offensive.

In October 2009, students from UCI met with Hamas official Aziz Duwaik on a university-sponsored trip to the West Bank under a program called the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), a neutral, apolitical education group that studies the Arab-Israeli conflict. The meeting was questioned in 2011, and the initial response from UCI was that the meeting was justified, as the education group was studying the different narratives that contribute to the situation in the Middle East. After the Zionist Organization of America informed UCI about Hamas nature and urged UCI to dissociate itself from the OTI, UCI referred to the meeting as a "misstep". Many of these accusations were contradicted organizations and members of the group who are pro-Israel and of Jewish descent.

In May, 2010, forty members of the faculty issued an open letter expressing concern about "hate-promoting actions" including "a statement (by a speaker repeatedly invited by the Muslim Student Union) that the Zionist Jew is a party of Satan, a statement by another MSU speaker that the Holocaust was Gods will" that have given UCI "a growing reputation as a center of hate and intolerance". Neither of the speakers were named nor were any students shown to have had affiliation with such remarks.

The New University (New U) is the officialstudent newspaper at UC Irvine. Originally named the Spectrum, later Spectre, The Tongue, and The Anthill, it is published once a week during the regular academic year. The New Universitys editorial staff consists of UCI undergraduates. The next years editor in chief is elected late in the winter quarter by a vote of the current years staff; the editor in chief-elect then select new senior and associate editors.

The newspaper is an official department of the university, housed under the universitys Student Government and Student Media department, but receives funding through advertising and student fees. As an official university department, the paper receives many benefits not generally available to other student media, such as rent-free office space, free advertising space, and exclusive distribution boxes on the UCI campus. However, the newspapers freedom of the press is legally guaranteed by Californias Leonard Law, which was amended in 2006 to include public higher education institutions. Unlike many college newspapers, the New University has no faculty advisor and is not formally tied to any academic program. In practice, the newspaper operates with relative independence and autonomy from the university.

The Anteater Recreation Center (ARC) is a gym on campus established by a student fee initiative. Members may opt to participate in fee-based courses in martial arts, team sports, SCUBA diving, sailing, and more. Additionally, club sports are open for all ARC members to join, such as badminton, ice hockey, lacrosse, roller hockey, rugby, sailing, volleyball, etc. .

The Student Center and Cross-Cultural Center are central locations for many student activities and resource centers. A recent student center expansion project will expand the existing facility to 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2). Two new food courts, a large ballroom, a clock tower, and several conference centers and stores are among the additions. The UCI Student Center has undergone four phases over the past 30 years. Phase I was when the student center was first established in 1981. This included a bookstore, restaurant, music room, small game room, a few study areas, and two conference rooms. Phase II occurred when another study lounge, food unit and 300-seat multipurpose room was built a year later. In 1990, Phase III led to the student center being expanded with a larger bookstore, more study and lounge space, a new game room, an expanded food area, Crystal Cove Auditorium, and more meeting rooms. The Cross-Cultural Center was also opened during this time with meeting rooms, Student Umbrella Organization offices, and study and lounge space. From 2007-2009, the Student Center underwent Phase IV of its latest reconstruction developments with now triple the amount of space for conference and meeting areas along with a multipurpose room and large ballroom. Study space areas have also increased making it available for both individuals and small study groups. There are also two new dining areas with seating areas indoors and outdoors along with a permanent performance area in the student center terrace. The Cross Cultural Center also had new developments as it is now double in size providing a large multipurpose room and additional conference and office space.

Annual traditions include "SPOP", an orientation program for new students and their parents; Welcome Week; an ostensibly medieval-themed festival titled "Wayzgoose"; "Soulstice", an annual student-run talent competition; and "Care-a-Thon", a charity dance marathon.

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