UCI Tunnels

So I got dragooned into taking the Taiwan saints for a tour of UCI...well not really dragooned but I somehow always get asked to give tours of schools I never attended.  All in all it wasn't bad since the weather was slightly cooperative in offering a breeze.  The saints were particularly intrigued by the tunnels underneath UCI.  Legend has it that the tunnels were built in order for faculty members to escape student protests and for the National Guard to have an entry point.

What prompted such a building project?

Well apparently because UCI was established in the 1960s at the height of student protests, especially in Berkeley, the UC system decided that a series of tunnels would be good for faculty members who may be locked up in the building because of an angry mob of students.  Now of course if you know what Irvine has developed into these days you would think such an idea is ridiculous.  But UCI was built in the hippie era and you never know what may happen on a campus that could potentially go very liberal so they decided to cover all their bases.  They did not want to have another Berkeley on their hands at least when it comes to student protests.

Is any of this true?

Perhaps.  The tunnels are there although they have a much more practical function in that they house the cooling and heating pipes as well as the phone, electric, and data wires.  The tunnels do at one point connect to the administration building so perhaps the UC system though they could kill two birds with one stone in building these tunnels: (1) for escape (2) housing their pipes and wires.

At any rate students have gone down in the tunnels to explore.  They are located under Ring Road or Ring Mall.  We tried to look for the entrances while walking on campus but didn't find any although we weren't looking that hard.  Apparently one way to enter those tunnels is to make friends with the operators at the UCI Central Plant.  All other entrances are locked but at the Central Plant if the operators are up for it they could give you a tour.  Now that is something to try out one of these days as soon as I figure out where the Central Plant is.  Oh what fun facts you learn about UCI.