Campus

If tree growth and seed production can’t compensate for the impacts of climate change, California’s trees will face difficulty filling in gaps left by wildfire and reaching areas that are becoming climatically suitable, studies now show. 

As part of the 2021-22 Governor’s California Comeback Plan, UC Merced students will get the opportunity to serve their community while receiving financial support for college through the new program #CaliforniaForAll College Fellowship.

A team from UC Merced comprising eight undergraduate and graduate students has won the inaugural CITRIS Aviation Prize. For engineering the winning proposal, they will receive a $2,000 cash award, as well as a $25,000 budget to support a live demonstration of their flight in spring 2022.  

UC Merced will delay the start of in-person instruction in light of the highly contagious omicron coronavirus variant sweeping the nation, but otherwise is moving forward with plans for on-site courses and carefully coordinated campus operations for spring semester.

Resident students are scheduled to start returning to campus Jan. 14. Instruction for spring semester is set to begin Jan. 18, but courses will be delivered remotely until Jan. 31 to give students, faculty and staff more time to be tested for coronavirus and take appropriate steps depending on results.

UC Merced will briefly delay the start of in-person instruction in light of the highly contagious omicron coronavirus variant sweeping the nation, but otherwise is moving forward with plans for on-site courses and carefully coordinated campus operations for spring semester.

Resident students are scheduled to start returning to campus Jan. 14. Instruction for spring semester is set to begin Jan. 18, but the first week of courses will be delivered remotely to give students, faculty and staff more time to be tested for coronavirus and take appropriate steps depending on results.

Na’ilah Suad Nasir has adjusted to Chicago winters as much as a native Californian can. She owns a snow shovel and knows how to use it. She purchased a big, warm coat.

“They say there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing,” Nasir said, speaking from her office at The Spencer Foundation, a Chicago-based organization that invests in nationwide research into education with an eye toward improving equity and diversity.

After two years of virtual celebrations, UC Merced will honor the accomplishments of the fall 2021 graduates with a traditional in-person commencement this Saturday.

In addition, the campus is also inviting summer 2021 graduates who had their commencement affected by the pandemic to join the celebration Dec. 18, at The Art Kamangar Center at The Merced Theatre in downtown Merced.

UC Merced has earned the distinction of ranking No. 20 among the world's Rising Young Universities, according to the just-released Nature Index 2021 Young Universities — the only U.S. institution to place in the top 25.

Among the leading 150 Young Universities, UC Merced ranks No. 80, and for Leading 50 Young Universities in Life Sciences, it ranks No. 43. These rankings are a jump from 2019, when the campus placed No. 92 among Top 175 Young Universities.

A generous gift from UC Merced alumnus Eric Chen, Ph.D., ’11, and his wife, Joanne Hsu, to establish a new scholarship is advancing the university’s efforts to encourage and support students pursuing medical studies and training in the Central Valley.

Scholarship funding — which includes contributions from the Chen Family Foundation and Chen’s employer, Megaforce International Corporation — will benefit promising UC Merced undergraduates enrolled in the campus’s Bachelor of Science to Medical Degree (BS to MD) program, which is scheduled to launch in Fall 2023.

After a monthslong collaboration between dozens of UC Merced students, professional artists, National Park Service staff and Merced community members, Shakespeare in Yosemite's first feature-length film, "Imogen in the Wild," celebrated its premiere in November on YouTube.