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...

Rare Flower Variant Discovered by Professor Offers Insight into Evolution

The discovery of a new, rare species of monkey flower by Professor Jason Sexton provides clues as to how new species are born. Sexton, who researches the monkey flowers that grow wild throughout...

Educator’s Legacy Lives on Through Campus Endowment

Throughout his 51-year teaching career, John Elia made a profound impact on the lives of more than 10,000 students. Now, his legacy will continue through an endowment created by his family. A...

Engineering Students Working on Water Issues for Summer Research Project

Spending a summer finding ways to make toilet water reusable and trying to extract urine from wastewater might not sound glamorous. But the results of the work two UC Merced students are doing though...

President Napolitano Delves into UC Merced-Yosemite Partnership

A two-day visit to Yosemite gave University of California President Janet Napolitano an up-close look at UC Merced’s partnership with the neighboring national park, including some of the students...

Campus Purchasing Land in Downtown Merced for 2020 Project

UC Merced is the top bidder for a piece of publicly auctioned land in downtown Merced that will likely serve as the site of a building for staff members, a significant step forward in the campus’s...

Facilities Management Seeks Campus’s Help in Attaining Sustainable Certifications

UC Merced is one of the greenest campuses in the nation, with 100 percent of its new construction having earned LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Those certifications have been...

Big-Data Project Nets Professor a Big Award

Professor Florin Rusu’s passion for analyzing voluminous amounts of data has won him a prestigious early-career award from the federal Department of Energy, making him the fifth of the nine eligible...

Southern California Edison Earns Engineering Vanguard Award

Southern California Edison has been selected as this year’s recipient of the UC Merced School of Engineering Vanguard Margin of Excellence Award. “Southern California Energy’s partnership with UC...

Scholarship Helps UC Merced Senior Expand Her Worldview

Patricia Leslie is the first in her family to attend college. And the UC Merced senior is making the most of it, both on campus and beyond. Leslie is studying abroad in Córdoba, a small city located...