About the UCI Anteater Virtues Project

At UCI, we offer students an educational experience that goes beyond teaching the specific facts and skills of a particular subject. Instead, we strive to provide a holistic education that helps students develop their intellectual character and become inquisitive, open-minded and sincere individuals. This is why we have developed the UCI Anteater Virtues Project, a campus-wide initiative designed to help students achieve success both at UCI and in the wider world. The project revolves around the promotion of the Anteater Virtues, a set of intellectual character traits that we aim to cultivate on campus.

There are four Anteater Virtues: curiosity, integrity, intellectual humility and intellectual tenacity. Curiosity encourages students to seek out knowledge and explore a variety of intellectual interests. Integrity pushes students to be honest and avoid self-deceit and the deceit of others. Intellectual humility reminds students to be open to new ideas, to be willing to make mistakes and to admit when they are wrong. Finally, intellectual tenacity bolsters students to keep pursuing an intellectual interest, even when they encounter obstacles or other challenges. Each of these Anteater Virtues is an important character trait, and developing them will help students to prosper not only academically but also in their future endeavors. The goal of the Anteater Virtues is to show students that their UCI education not only offers them an excellent grounding in a particular subject, but it also helps them develop as individuals and prepares them to succeed on whatever path they take.

The Anteater Virtues Modules

In order to promote the Anteater Virtues in the classroom, we have assembled a suite of online modules that are devoted to helping students to develop their understanding of these intellectual virtues and incorporate this understanding into their UCI learning experience. At present, these modules are organized into two groups: five introductory modules which explain each of the four Anteater Virtues and then a further seven advanced modules that build on the knowledge acquired in the introductory modules (a further group of ‘capstone’ modules are in development). You may have already encountered some of the materials from the introductory modules as part of your UCI orientation. Topics for the advanced modules include ‘Intellectual Vice’, ‘Wisdom’, and ‘Intellectual Virtues in the Information Age’. Students must complete the introductory modules before moving onto the advanced modules. Each module takes around 1-2 hours to complete and is composed of videos and quizzes. The modules incorporate a variety of disciplinary and historical perspectives, with a wide range of intellectual traditions represented. You will learn, for example, about what Shakespeare can teach us about integrity, or what thinkers in the classical Indian tradition thought about wisdom. Here is a summary of all the modules.

How to Enroll in the Anteater Virtues

Your professors and instructors will be sharing more information with students about the Anteater Virtues throughout the year. You can also self-enroll on the modules as a whole (which makes all the modules available on your Canvas page).

Alternatively, you can self-enroll on the specific Anteater Virtues module devoted to ‘Integrity’ (so that only this module is available on your Canvas page).

Further Information

Further information on the UCI Anteater Virtues project is available on the Canvas course space and also at the project webpage.