Community

UC Merced students, alumni, leaders and supporters were in Sacramento today to advocate for full state funding for the University of California and to promote the unique opportunities and challenges that face the rapidly growing campus.

Chancellor Dorothy Leland led the group through the first “UC Merced Day” in Sacramento, a new biennial counterpoint to the traditional UC Day.

UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland welcomed downtown business owners and members of the Merced Main Street Association for coffee and a chat at the new Downtown Campus Center on Friday.

“We are committed to decreasing the distance between the campus on the lake and the downtown,” Leland told the group. “Thank you for welcoming us.”

UC Merced has a new Sustainability Strategic Plan to help the campus further advance its sustainability goals.

California’s recent legalization of recreational marijuana and the nation’s ongoing opioid crisis have many parents worried that their own teenagers might succumb to the temptations of drugs and alcohol.

If you love California’s great outdoors and are interested in learning about the state’s natural history and ecology, unleash your inner John Muir by becoming a certified naturalist through a state program that’s offered at UC Merced.

UC Merced has infused nearly $3 billion into California’s economy since its inception — including more than $1.6 billion in the San Joaquin Valley — in salaries, goods and construction awards.  

Decades ago, attorney Leo Kolligian was one of the early champions of a new University of California campus in the San Joaquin Valley.

A unique collaboration between UC Merced students and inmates from the Sierra Conservation Center is helping Tuolumne County attract new businesses.

Gustine’s Veterans Day parade has a been a Westside tradition for as long as most people in the area can remember. It’s also been a tradition for the brothers of Omega Delta Phi for as long as the UC Merced chapter has been chartered. Eight years might not seem like a lot in the grand history of a 50-year-old annual event, but for founding member Ivan Prado, it’s a big deal.

When it came time to apply for college, so many of us scrambled to compile those lists of community service hours to bolster our resumes. Was there enough? Could I explain in my personal statement what this service meant to me? 

From the time we’re young, this idea is engrained in our heads that volunteering is important. There’s probably thousands of variations that we have heard at one time or another of why you have to give back to your community and the impact that service has, but the question remained, why?