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...

UC Celebrates $15 Million Mellon Grant to Support Faculty Diversity

The University of California today (July 16) announced the receipt of a $15 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP). This...

Professor’s Drive to Help the Community Gets Underway for 13th Year

To help Merced people in need, Professor Patti LiWang has been leading a diaper and toilet paper drive for the past 12 years. “When we moved here, the recession hit. It was hard for us, a...

Cows are Udderly Useful for Healthy Vegetation Management on Nature Reserve

Today is National Cow Appreciation Day, a “holiday” invented by a fast-food chain that sells a lot of "chikn." But it’s still a good opportunity to celebrate our neighbors...

Campus Announces Partnership with Mobile App to Help Feed the Valley Community

UC Merced continues to be a leader in helping lower food insecurity in the Central Valley community after announcing its partnership with the mobile application Fresh Food Connect. The app will...

Yosemite Seminar to Connect Veterans with Crucial Career Services

For the second time in three years, a four-day seminar developed at the University of California, Merced, will allow veterans from our California region to connect with several programs to help build...

Ph.D. Student Named Underrepresented Chemist of Color by Merck

Chemistry and Chemical Biology graduate student Ali Abou Taka is one of 12 students to receive the inaugural Merck Research Award for Underrepresented Chemists of Color. Abou Taka, a Ph.D....

UC Merced Moves Up Eight Spots on International Young University Rankings

UC Merced continues to demonstrate academic success, as it was announced today (June 23) that the university ascended to No. 57 on the international 2021 Times Higher Education Young University...

Former Assemblymember Rusty Areias, U.S. Rep. Jim Costa, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz pose for a photo on the UC Merced campus.

California Lieutenant Governor Tours UC Merced

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis visited UC Merced in early June for a tour of the new Merced 2020 Project facilities and to learn more about water and agriculture concerns. Kounalakis and UC Merced...

UC Merced Receives Largest Philanthropic Gift in Campus History

Philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett, have made the most significant gift to the University of California, Merced, in the university’s 16-year history. Scott...