UC Irvine welcomes hundreds of students to campus before classes start Sept. 28

Another school year, another new set of Anteaters to welcome to UC Irvine.

Friday morning was move-in day for a number of students who will live in campus housing. It marked the beginning of Welcome Week, which will include a number of events and open houses to help students familiarize themselves with the campus.

Chancellor Howard Gillman will deliver remarks to new students at the Bren Events Center next Tuesday as part of the New Student Convocation.

With classes set to begin on Sept. 28, dozens of families and students made their way to the university’s various student housing complexes to unpack and give their sometimes weepy goodbyes. Thousands of applications were reported to come into the university this year, and while numbers are not yet finalized, estimates as of late August place first-year students at around 7,100 and transfer students at 3,000 — an overall student increase by about 700 over 2022.

UCI Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Willie Banks, center, chats with families moving their students into Mesa Court housing.

(Steve Zylius / UCI)

About 10,230 beds were available for students this year — 3,505 for graduate students and 6,725 for undergraduates.

The university houses about 49% of its enrolled students, 64% of them graduate students and 46% undergrads. The goal is to bring the total percentage up to 60% as part of the Irvine Campus Long Range Development Plan, first approved in 2007 by the University of California Regents and last amended in 2019.

Business major Matthew Marquez organizes his desk in his Mesa Court dorm room Friday.

(Steve Zylius / UCI)