Campus Community

UC Merced Named the 14th Best College in the Nation by Wall Street Journal

October 1, 2025

Following recognition as a Top 25 university by U.S. News & World Report, UC Merced has once again earned national acclaim, this time from the Wall Street Journal. In its 2026 report of the Best Colleges in the U.S., the highly respected media outlet has named UC Merced the 14th best college in...

Marcus Shaw will celebrate his dream of earning a Ph.D. in sociology at the university’s first Fall Commencement ceremony Dec. 16.

Former Street Kid Fulfills Educational Promise with Ph.D.

As a teenager in Merced, Marcus Shaw lived a life marked by poverty, poor choices and indifference to education. The idea of college — especially at the new UC Merced campus — seemed...

Five Students Score Big at SACNAS Conference

Five UC Merced students brought home awards for their research at this year’s Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Diversity in STEM conference...

Sociology Faculty, Students Gaining National Recognition

With race, immigration, rising inequality, gender discrimination and collective mobilization grabbing current headlines, the work of the UC Merced sociology unit — always relevant locally...

Sociologist to Discuss Hate Speech and Free Speech

The Bias Incident Response Team at UC Merced presents sociology Professor Nella Van Dyke, speaking on “Hate Speech and the Limits of Free Speech,” from 3-5 p.m. Nov. 29 in the California...

#GiveTueUCM Aims for 1,000 Donors in a Day

For the past three years, members of the UC Merced community and friends have made the Tuesday after Thanksgiving a showstopper for our campus. Give Tue UC Merced (#GiveTueUCM), the annual 24-hour...

Campus Voices: Serving Community Brings Benefits to Students

When it came time to apply for college, so many of us scrambled to compile those lists of community service hours to bolster our resumes. Was there enough? Could I explain in my personal statement...

Alumna Shavone Charles heads global music and youth culture communications at Instagram.

Shavone Charles is First Alum Chosen for Commencement Keynote

UC Merced is welcoming back its first alumni keynote speaker, Shavone Charles, to address December 2017 graduates at its first Fall Commencement ceremony on Dec. 16. Charles received her bachelor...

New Center, Conference Focus on Mesoamerican Studies

Topics ranging from ethnobotany, public health and feminism to agriculture, urban growth and social movements are among the highlights of the Mesoamerican Studies Center’s upcoming conference...

Grad Student Researches Biology Behind Political Views

If you’ve ever wondered why people stand where they do on the political spectrum, science might have at least part of the answer: People can be biologically predisposed to certain feelings...