UC Irvine’s annual Pi Day Celebration, hosted by the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) at the ANTrepreneur Center on March 14 sought to celebrate the mathematical holiday through the provision of free pizzas, pies, beverages and games.
Developed in 1706 to represent the ratio between a circle’s circumference and diameter, the term π (pi) has served as a recognized mathematical necessity for hundreds of years. Pi is the denotation for 3.14…, and as such, the symbol has since gained cultural recognition amid the popular Pi Day holiday that takes place every year on March 14. Beyond mathematics, Pi Day is also celebrated by many businesses and restaurant chains, such as Pieology and Blaze Pizza, that commemorate the phonetic similarity between pi and pie with discounted pizza pies.
Pi Day Celebration attendees had the opportunity to pie Dean of the Division of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Michael Dennin. They also could enter a pi recital competition where the top five contestants received Target gift cards. The winner of this competition, third-year biological sciences major Kelly Phung, successfully recited 62 digits of pi.
“Entering the competition, I was really nervous because back in high school I remember the competition was very fierce, so I didn’t think I was going to win today,” Phung told New University. “This is definitely the highlight of my quarter, and I hope to come back next year and try the competition again.”
This is the second year that DUE put together it’s Pi Day Celebration as a way to engage with students and spread the mission of its office, according to Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Operations and Career Development lead Michelle Foley.
“It’s just a day for students to meet all of the Division of Undergraduate Education,” Foley told New University. “A lot of students know these departments but they don’t know that they all go together and that some of their services can complement each other or sometimes overlap a bit. So it’s important for students to recognize what makes up the Division of Undergraduate Education and how it can support them in achieving success at UCI.”
Beyond its festivities, DUE’s Pi Day Celebration also served the critical role of bridging networking gaps between students, staff and members of the community. Networking is a primary skill that the DUE aims to develop for undergraduate students in accordance with its mission to “support and enrich the academic experiences of undergraduate students so that they succeed and thrive.”
“The first very real networking I argue most students have to do is to find faculty to do research, and it’s really a specialty of the Division of Undergraduate Education to help with it,” Dennin told New University. “Then to take that to the next level and network with strangers from the community who don’t have to talk with you is I think really good practice for students, because that’s just the way you get jobs in the world: you build networks.”
In the spring, DUE intends to host more events and opportunities where students can engage in research and develop their networking skills.
“I say this every chance I get: nobody graduates college alone. You just can’t do it by yourself, it’s not a thing you can do by yourself — you do it in a community,” Dennin said. “It’s not easy for everyone to find community, so reach out to the faculty, the groups, the student organizations that can help you do that, because it’s really together that we get through this wonderful thing called college.”
Skyller Liu is a Features Intern for the winter 2025 quarter. He can be reached at skyllerl@uci.edu.
Edited by Sofia Feeney.