Clouds loomed over the Carol Tomlinson-Keasey Quad last weekend, but nothing was going to rain on the parade of the more than 1,300 Bobcats who walked the stage at UC Merced’s commencement.
Long hours spent using the library’s print and digital resources are often a hallmark of a college student’s academic career. For Marisela Padilla Alcala and Sarah Lee, time spent in the library resulted in being named recipients of the Carter Joseph Abrescy and Larry Kranich Library Award for Student Research Excellence.
It was not my intention to be your commencement speaker this morning, and you were no doubt looking forward to having California’s First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom share her wisdom with you today. I am sorry that she could not be here, but I understand and respect her decision not to attend this ceremony, as the University of California system continues important contract negotiations with one of its labor unions.
In Ms. Siebel Newsom’s stead, as your chancellor, it is my great honor to formally address the UC Merced graduating class of 2019.
The University of California Board of Regents today (May 16) voted to approve President Janet Napolitano’s appointment of systemwide Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Nathan Brostrom as interim chancellor of UC Merced.
Brostrom will succeed Chancellor Dorothy Leland, who earlier this week announced her intention to step down effective Aug. 15. He will serve until a nationwide search for a permanent successor is completed.
Undergraduates Victoria Arias and Cydney Caradonna entered UC Merced through different doors.
Arias was a freshman impressed with the campus and community. Caradonna was a transfer student and athlete sold on UC Merced’s championship women’s basketball team.
Graduating senior Araceli Perez was looking for a new environment when she moved from Hacienda Heights to attend UC Merced in 2015.
The shift from the high-intensity region of Los Angeles to the more relaxed atmosphere of Merced was more than a change of pace. In her four years at UC Merced, she always welcomed the chance to experience something new — whether that was cheerleading or back-packing for an archaeological project in the Sierra Nevada.
Dorothy Leland announced today (May 13) her intention to step down as chancellor of the University of California, Merced, effective Aug. 15, 2019.
“These have been the most gratifying eight years of my long professional career,” said Leland, who was appointed by the Board of Regents in 2011 to serve as the third Chancellor of the then 6-year-old campus. “The decision to step down is not easy, but the moment is right, both for the campus and for me.”
The Cool Campus Challenge called for UC campuses to spend the month of April pledging to reduce their carbon footprints, and UC Merced didn’t disappoint. The university finished fourth overall in the competition, but was one of three campuses specially recognized for its efforts.
The university received an award for the largest percentage of participation relative to its campus population size.
The friendly competition was an effort to help the UC system reduce its carbon emissions by 2025. UC Merced plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020.
There’s a striking image of “San Andres” that was recently on display at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center. The illumination of the saint’s torso and visage are iconic.
But this version is different. It’s darker – and newer.
On second glance, it’s not the famed painting created by Jose de Ribera in 1631 at all.
This version of “San Andres” is only a year old, and it’s the handiwork of Richard Gomez, a visual artist in the Global Arts Studies Program.
UC Merced welcomed more than 500 students from across the San Joaquin Valley to campus Wednesday to celebrate College Signing Day.
Every student was a high school senior who will move on to higher education in the fall. Seven colleges and universities were represented, including UC Merced, Fresno State, Stanislaus State and CSU Bakersfield.
The event at UC Merced coincided with a larger College Signing Day event at UCLA — put on by former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher foundation — and Obama gave the keynote address.
