UC Irvine traces its roots to the late 1950s, when the University of California began planning for a new campus to meet the needs of Southern California's growing population. Orange County still contained vast open spaces, particularly on the Irvine Ranch, which gave the University a variety of options for locating a campus.
The campus opened for classes on October 4, 1965. 119 faculty and 1,589 students began their work on a campus that was still very actively under construction.