Brenda Ortiz

Founding UC Merced Staffer Wraps Up 45 Years in Law Enforcement

August 28, 2025

A collage of photos depicting Tamela Adkins and other staff during the past 20 years.

On Aug. 12, 2005, less than one month before UC Merced opened its doors to undergraduate students, Tamela Adkins joined the campus’s Police Department as support services manager. Intially, her role included managing records and evidence, overseeing the police dispatch center and hiring....

Mentoring Program Empowers Student Leaders

For senior Jessica Nguyen, UC Merced has fueled more than academic preparedness — it has sparked her fervent interest in civic leadership. Nguyen has been involved in the Women’s Program’s Lift While...

Campus Celebrates 10th Annual Leadership Awards

The 2015 UC Merced Leadership Awards were held this evening (April 30) at the Wallace-Dutra Amphitheater. Presented by the Margo F. Souza Student Leadership Center, the awards recognize and celebrate...

Volleyball Standout Excels On Campus and Abroad

Daniel Sabzehzar didn’t initially think of UC Merced as a strong contender when weighing his choices for college. In fact, he was days away from selecting another university when UC Merced offered...

Peer Learning Support Boosts Student Success

From the moment students walk onto campus, they have access to countless resources, including the Peer Assisted Support Learning Support (PALS) program, which is part of the Calvin E. Bright Success ...

Martins Named Cal Pac Men’s Soccer Coach of the Year

The Cal Pac Conference has named UC Merced’s men’s soccer coach Albert Martins as 2014 Men’s Soccer Coach of the Year. Since Martins joined two years ago, the team’s wins improved from four last...

April Events Dedicated to Sexual Assault Awareness

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), and UC Merced’s CARE Office is joining universities and colleges across the globe in an effort to increase awareness about sexual assault,...

Mobile Farmers Market Begins on Campus

UC Merced’s Dining Services is bringing Produce on the Go, a mobile farmers market, to campus from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Wednesday, beginning April 1. The truck will sell fresh, local and...

Academic Trailblazers to Address UC Merced’s 10th Graduating Class

The University of California, Merced, has spent the past decade blazing a trail as the nation’s first research university of the 21st century, and its students are no different. In May, the campus’s...

Student-Athletes Give Back to Community

There’s no offseason for giving back, and that’s exactly how the UC Merced men’s and women’s soccer teams felt as they recently reached out to help the local community. The men’s soccer team headed...