Feb. 10, 2026

Vibrant colors fill the Irvine Barclay Centre stage at the 2026 UC Irvine Lunar New Year celebration. Scroll to see photos from the event (Photo by Steve Zylius / UC Irvine)

UC IRVINE NEWS

State of the unions

(Guest lecturer, Jeannine Pearce, former Long Beach City Council member.)

A new course – “Community Scholars: Learning ‘Power Mapping’ through Orange County’s Worker Campaigns” – allows students to examine Orange County’s evolution from conservative “Reagan Country” to “a center for robust labor and community organizing” – with local union organizers and community activists who helped make change happen. “Nothing has been written on this,” said Walter Nicholls, urban planning and public policy professor and chair, and Labor Center faculty director. “So we’ve invited speakers who are very active in the social justice movement to share their experiences, all through the lens of power.”

Future of spine surgery is bright

Spine surgery is evolving, and UCI Health orthopedic surgeon Dr. Sohaib Hashmi in the Comprehensive Spine Center feels optimistic about the specialty. He spoke to Becker’s Spine Review about how professional collaboration at UCI Health is advancing both knowledge and patient care. “Equally encouraging is the continued strengthening of collaboration between orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery. This partnership allows us to deliver the highest level of comprehensive, patient-centered spine care by combining complementary skill sets, perspectives and innovations,” Hashmi said.

Widening beaches

Southern California’s beaches have grown more than 500 acres over the past four decades despite being one of the most heavily urbanized and dammed coastal regions in the world, according to a new study from UC Irvine researchers. “This is a counterintuitive finding considering previous reports of widespread beach erosion in Southern California,” said co-author Brett Sanders, professor of civil and environmental engineering. “While several individual beaches did experience severe erosion, there were also several that experienced dramatic widening, and the overall trend shows widening at an average rate of 7.2 meters across 320 kilometers of Southern California coastline.” The work was supported by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. #SpeakUp4Science

UC NEWS

Tips for navigating unpredictable winter travel

Winter weather can create unpredictable travel conditions, from flight delays to limited ground transportation. A little preparation – and knowing what to expect while traveling – can go a long way in making the journey less stressful. The UC Travel team has compiled helpful winter travel tips to help plan ahead and navigate disruptions.

#IamUCI

Minding the gap

Maira Delgado Laurens, a fifth-year graduate student in global and international studies, has traveled to Colombia to compare the realities on the ground to official statements and media coverage about the Darién region – a focal point for international migration from 2020-24. “Maira challenges conventional scholarship on migration by taking a global perspective, allowing her to analyze the mobility of people across borders, regions and continents that previously had not been studied,” said Eve Darian-Smith, Distinguished Professor and chair of global and international studies.

#UCIconnected

UC Irvine Lunar New Year celebration

(photos by Steve Zylius / UC Irvine)

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