Campus Life

New Dining Space Mural Honors Native Heritage, Student Perseverance

June 6, 2025

Hidden for a year behind two large barn-style doors, a powerful new mural now adorns the walls of the Yablokoff-Wallace Dining Center. The latest piece of public art on the UC Merced campus explores Native past and future with themes of identity and representation. Funded through a grant from...

UC Merced VC of Student Affairs Charles Nies with students

Lighting the Path: Thank You and Farewell to Charles Nies

It’s spring break 2009 and Jane Lawrence is rushing across campus, the words from the phone call still ringing in her ear. The unimaginable is happening and she must tell Charles Nies...

A student is congratulated by Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz on the commencement stage.

More Than 1,300 Bobcats Will Cross the Stage During UC Merced Commencement Weekend

More than 1,300 students plan to participate in UC Merced's Spring 2024 Commencement, celebrated with three distinct ceremonies on the campus's Recreation Field. The first ceremony...

The 2023 spring commencement ceremony at UC Merced is shown.

UC Merced Announces Spring Commencement Speakers

The speakers who will address graduating UC Merced students at their commencement ceremonies May 10-12 come from a variety of backgrounds and achievements, but all three are vanguards in their fields...

author Jorge Cham speaks to a group of graduate students during a visit to UC Merced.

Author Jorge Cham Simplifies Science in an Entertaining Way

“Raise your hands if you want to know a secret,” acclaimed author and cartoonist Jorge Cham instructed a crowd of young children. Hundreds of tiny arms shot up in unison toward the...

Advisor and student of Undergraduate Research Journal

Happy Birthday to Undergrad Journals that Spark Students’ Aspirations

It’s a pair of special birthdays for UC Merced’s two student-run journals for undergraduates. The Vernal Pool , which publishes creative stories, poems and images, turned 10 this...

Chef Ed Porter adds finishing touches to dessert

Celebrity Chef Ed Porter Visits UC Merced in ‘Takeover’ of Yablokoff-Wallace Dining Center

Chef Ed Porter, winner of Guy Fieri’s Grocery Games who was featured on the hit Netflix series “Pressure Cooker,” visited campus on April 11 for a takeover of the Yablokoff-Wallace...

Students compete in the Aqua Arcade Game Jam at UC Merced.

Students Create Games to Teach About Safe Water

Ensuring people have access to reliable, clean water is no game. Except when it is. UC Merced's Secure Water Future interns, administrative assistant and coordinator joined the university...

Arbor Day Tree Planting Event (Slideshow)

A tree planting ceremony was held on campus to commemorate Arbor Day 2024. Various campus groups planted and dedicated 14 trees, each type representing a different tenet of the university. Volunteers...

UC Merced's Professor Valerie Leppert at Bobcat Day

Thousands Enjoy a Big ‘Welcome’ at Bobcat Day

Fernando Malagon and his mom stood at the head of a line for guided tours of the university he plans to attend this fall. The informational stroll around UC Merced would be more for her than for him...

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