Campus Community

Open Arms, Open Skies: Students Welcomed at Spirited, Soggy Scholars Bridge Crossing

August 26, 2025

Spirits were high and futures bright while all else was soaked in a summer storm that made Tuesday morning’s Scholars Bridge Crossing, UC Merced’s traditional greeting to new students, a welcome unlike any before. Call them Thunder ‘Cats. The ceremony embraced about 2,000...

Poet Laureate to Share Heroes Book with Area Youth

California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera will share his new children's book about Hispanic American heroes with local youth next month, an event sponsored by the UC Merced Center for the...

High School Students Get Road Map to College

Eleventh and 12th graders and their parents filled the gymnasium bleachers at McLane High School in Fresno on Thursday (Oct. 9) eager to find out what it takes — academically and financially — to...

Video Technology Gives Students More Access to Psychiatric Services

With psychiatrists in short supply throughout the community, UC Merced is leveraging modern technology to expand that service to students. The UC’s 10th and newest campus is the first within the...

Campus Launches Redesigned, Responsive Website

UC Merced today launched a redesigned website that features a responsive layout that looks great on phones, tablets and laptops, new and expanded information, a new color palette and wide photo...

New Faculty Members Expand, Strengthen Research

UC Merced has hired 34 faculty members for the 2014-15 academic year, giving the campus 212 tenure-track professors who expand the depth and breadth of research expertise. Excluding student employees...

Pine Needle Bacteria Earn Professor Second NSF Grant of the Year

Professor Carolin Frank will collect $1.6 million over the next four years to continue researching the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in pine needles and to work with the Sierra Foothill Charter...

Students Expand Build Skills in New Souza Leadership Center

Shy in high school, Rachel Fang didn’t want to follow the same pattern as a UC Merced student. “I decided that I was going to change,” Fang said. “I wanted to be more outspoken.” Fang found the...

Extreme Changes in Seasonality Affect Soils’ Ability to Store Water and Carbon, Research Shows

Extreme changes in seasonality in the Sierra Nevada can have lasting impacts on meadow health and could mean less water and carbon storage in high elevation wetlands, according to research conducted...

Climate Change Influencing Freshwater Mountain Runoff, Research Shows

As the climate warms, sources of the water so critical to life everywhere on Earth are drying up. By the end of this century, communities dependent on freshwater from mountain-fed rivers could see...