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...

Campus Invests Time, Resources to Help New Faculty Adjust

Management Professor Alexander Petersen said that without the roadmaps UC Merced offers for new faculty, he’d have been adrift on campus his first year. “I tend to get lost easily when...

Current and prospective students are encouraged to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) before the March 2 deadline.

Tips to Help Students Maximize Aid

The UC Merced Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships is committed to ensuring a world-class education remains within reach for all eligible students who need financial assistance to achieve their...

U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham meets with graduate student Boe Mendewala and Chancellor Dorothy Leland.

Chancellor Leland Visits D.C. to Urge Congress to Protect Dreamers

UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland united with members of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration in Washington, D.C., earlier this week to call on Congress to pass a...

Jonathan Grady is working with campus partners to focus on making sure UC Merced students are successful.

New Dean of Students Shares Vision and Goals

Jonathan Grady brings more than 14 years of experience as a researcher, educator and leader in academia to his new role as associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs and dean of students at UC...

A woman seated, behind the alumna keynote speaker at fall commencement, smiles.

Campus Hosts First-Ever Fall Commencement

More than 80 undergraduate and graduate students gathered in downtown Merced on Dec. 16 for UC Merced’s first-ever Fall Commencement. Graduates — along with their family and friends,...

Shavone Charles' interest in technology started during a summer internship with Google, where she served as a student ambassador liaison between the technology company and UC Merced students.

Alumna Shavone Charles Continues to Blaze a Path in Music and Tech

It’s been five years since Shavone Charles walked across the stage at commencement. On Saturday (Dec. 16), she will return as UC Merced’s first alumni keynote speaker at Fall Commencement...

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...