COMMENTARY ON UC IRVINE : After 25 Years, Dream That Started It All Has Been Achieved : A diversified, multicultural city has been created to serve families that chose to live in county’s central area.

The 25th anniversary of UC Irvine deserves to be celebrated this year with the same joy, reflection and sense of pride that we reserve for 25th wedding anniversaries. After all, the 25th is Silver. A major achievement. An occasion when a couple recalls the dreams and apprehensions that they had when they made their most significant lifetime commitment.

A 25th anniversary is also a time for friends, family and neighbors to judge the wisdom of the union and what impact and value it has produced. UCI was created from such a commitment between the Irvine Co. and the University of California.

I was present when it was made: a commitment to create a new university and a new town, integrated in a way that would add vitality, intellectual and economic energy and diversity of thought to the physical design and planning of a large chunk of vacant land in a dynamic part of the world.

My job was to help give shape to that dream: On a daily basis, the founding chancellor, Daniel Aldrich, and I joyfully and thoughtfully shared ideas and progress as life was given to the idea-- authored by prominent architect William Pereira-- to merge town with gown in conservative Orange County.

Our goal was to create a diversified, multicultural city serving families that chose central Orange County in which to live and work and the university as a setting in which it could grow.

As in any marriage, there were apprehensions about the future. Mostly, they were confined to some residents who had lived here for years and were concerned about change. They feared the consequences of creating another liberal Berkeley in conservative Orange County. They asked:

Would the University bring conflict along with its diversity?

Would it change the politics of the area?

Would it set neighbor against neighbor?

With UCI’s 25th commencement ceremony this month, how shall we assess the soundness of our commitment, the accomplishment of our dreams, the value of our achievements, and even the legitimacy of the apprehensions? To be sure, this is only intermission and not the curtain call. But, from my perspective, the dreams have come true.

UCI is a thriving, growing institution that is entering the realm of the country’s great research universities. Highly regarded research programs now generate more than $70 million in outside support. More than 16,500 students are offered degrees in 46 subjects, an array of academic options to rival any comparable institution.

And all this takes place on a campus that is a mixture of the landscaped beauty of central park, architectural diversity with style and occupied by students of every color, ethnicity and political persuasion. A collage of suburban physical beauty and cultural and political diversity.

For many of us, UCI is also the most prominent citizen of the city of Irvine, which itself has grown to a community of over 100,000 residents and 150,000 jobs. A city equally celebrated for its thoughtful master planning, its growing economic base and cultural and political diversity.

Indeed, the merger of town and gown has occurred in many ways. The recent opening of the new Irvine Barclay Theatre on campus is a community-university facility in every sense. It was jointly paid for by the city, university and individuals in the community. A beautiful pedestrian bridge crosses Campus Drive and allows resident and student to safely stroll between campus and community.

Most significantly, there has not developed the usual moat that often separates such institutions from the surrounding community while it pursues concerns of the world. To the contrary, Irvine is the home to many UCI faculty and administrators. And they take seriously their citizenship.

There are many examples, but three come to mind. Land-use professor Joe DiMento served for years on the Irvine Planning Commission, as did Ray Catalano, since departed for UC Berkeley, who also was a city councilman. And Mark Petracca, an assistant professor of political science, is a persistent letter writer and citizen participant at City Hall, who brings his liberal perspective to many community debates. Though his voice often clashes with conservative community voices, the debate is beneficial to the city’s governance.

The occasional clash between liberal and conservative principles has produced a healthy public policy debate and vitality in Irvine that is virtually unmatched in any other Orange County city. It has produced an enviable activism and citizen involvement that assures full ventilation of any and all issues.

For some this activism and citizen involvement may be uncomfortable and prove that their original apprehensions were well-founded. For me just the opposite is true. It demonstrates that a society, as a family, that un-self-consciously encourages full discussion of all points of view is a healthy and vital community. And that is what a small group of us set out to create about 25 years ago.

I realize that this assessment may be viewed by some as on par with that best-seller in Atlanta bookstores: “An Unbiased History of the Civil War Written from the South’s Perspective.” But biased or unbiased as I may be, I firmly believe that out of that commitment to join the idea of a new town and a new university, a common goal has indeed been established. It produced a marriage 25 years ago that not only survived, but has thrived.

As university anniversaries go, the 25th is not particularly significant. After all, Harvard is 355 years old, Stanford is 106, and UCI’s older cousin, Berkeley, is 123. But I’d be willing to bet that more has been accomplished in these first 25 years than was accomplished in the first 50 years at Harvard, Stanford or Berkeley.

And as this wonderful and serious experiment progresses, I’m confident that UCI and the surrounding community will earn even greater praise and recognition. The magnitude, energy and scope of the dream that is being realized here is very different than just creating a new, vigorous university, or another well-manicured suburban subdivision in Southern California.

UCI, we are better because you are here.

Thankfully, your successes have become our successes.

And, gratefully, the dream of your active participation in the growth and maturity of our community has been realized time and time again.

As they say in the diamond commercials: Tell her that you would do it all over again.

I would.