Chancellor

The University of California Board of Regents approved today Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz’s appointment as UC Merced’s fourth chancellor. Muñoz comes to UC from the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD), where he has served as president since 2017.

The Class of 2020 has officially graduated and while students didn’t cross the stage in typical commencement fashion, the celebration was memorable.

In the first virtual commencement for a University of California campus, UC Merced honored its more than 1,500 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral graduates with traditional commencement festivities.

Merced Mayor Michael Murphy and cardiologist Hanimireddy Lakireddy will be awarded the prestigious UC Merced Chancellor’s Medal.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has altered many things this spring on the UC Merced campus — from classes and research to events — UC Merced is making sure the Class of 2020 has a forum to commemorate students’ achievements and successes.

UC Merced will host the University of California’s first-ever virtual commencement ceremony Saturday, May 16, to recognize the more than 1,500 candidates who have registered to participate.

UC Merced is taking the necessary steps to ensure the health and safety of the campus community with the least amount of disruption to its mission of education, research and public service.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led the campus to implement social distancing by moving all classes to fully remote delivery. Classes are not cancelled. They will be delivered through online and remote platforms through the remainder of the spring semester.

Antonio Villaraigosa is no stranger to partisanship. The former mayor of Los Angeles and a former state legislator visited UC Merced on Tuesday as part of the Chancellor’s Speaker Series and spent more than an hour answering questions from the audience and from interim Chancellor Nathan Brostrom.

Villaraigosa said he learned from his time in the Legislature — which included two years as Democratic leader and two years as speaker — the pitfalls of that partisanship.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will give a speech on the future of civic engagement as part of UC Merced interim Chancellor Nathan Brostrom’s speaker series.

Villaraigosa was the first Mexican American in more than 130 years to serve as mayor of Los Angeles. Formerly speaker of the California State Assembly, he advocated for working families, the environment, health care and funding for public schools. Villaraigosa has also been featured in Time magazine as one of the country’s 25 most influential Latinos.

Before a packed crowd at the Dr. Lakireddy Auditorium, bestselling author Michael Lewis conversed with interim Chancellor Nathan Brostrom about the future of financial markets, the Oakland A’s, college athletics and the housing bubble, in the Jan. 31 installment of the Chancellor’s Speaker Series.

Nearly 200 students took part in the campus’s Fall Commencement exercise Sunday at the Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center as friends and family cheered them on.

Jessica Anderson ’10 served as the commencement speaker, continuing the tradition of having alumni speak at fall commencement. Shavone Charles ’12 and David Do ’09 were the speakers at the previous two fall commencement ceremonies.

Anderson encouraged students to discover what they are passionate about and to take their pioneering spirit with them as they enter the workforce.

UC Merced’s iconic Beginnings sculpture represents arms reaching out to embrace students as they embark on a higher education journey filled with wonder, excitement and joy.

Those same feelings embody the holiday season, and students, faculty and staff gathered last week for the ceremonial lighting of the sculpture. The annual tradition, now in its third year, helps ring in the holiday season with cookies and hot chocolate and a DJ playing popular holiday tunes.