Community leader and Creekside Company co-owner Jay Mahil has been named to the UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees.

A fourth-generation farmer and the first in his family born in the United States, Mahil grew up in Lodi and is a longtime Fresno resident. After graduating from Lodi High School and Fresno State, he joined his family’s farming business, playing a key role in its modernization and expansion across the region.

In an unprecedented show of unity, leaders from Merced City School District, Merced Union High School District, Merced College and UC Merced came together to discuss how continued collaboration can transform education and opportunities across the region.

UC Merced Children’s Opera, a performance that delights and enlightens thousands of schoolchildren a year while giving Bobcat students experience in theater, has received support from a generous grant from the Central Valley Opportunity Fund.

UC Merced invites the public to an evening of cosmic discovery on Thursday, Oct. 23, featuring a free lecture by Bruce Macintosh, director of the University of California Observatories, followed by telescope viewing with the campus Astronomy Club.

Macintosh, a leading expert in the search for planets, will present “Beyond the Solar System: The Search for Distant Worlds and Alien Earths.” His talk will explore the groundbreaking technology behind the first images of other solar systems and the quest to find Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

UC Merced Arts has announced its 2025-26 season of performances, exhibitions and public art programs, beginning with the return of East L.A.’s electrifying band Las Cafeteras.

The band’s Día de los Muertos-themed production, “Hasta La Muerte,” comes to Merced on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at the Art Kamangar Center at The Merced Theatre. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m.

For more than 1,300 Central Valley students, this summer break wasn’t all about fun — it included strengthening their math and science skills to prepare them for the new school year and beyond.

UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships offered a wealth of summer programming led by its three offices: K-20 Regional Alliances, State College Preparatory Programs and K-14 Federal Programs.

To mark UC Merced’s entry into National Collegiate Athletics Association NCAA Division II competition, the university is launching the Bobcat Club – an initiative designed to support scholar-athletes and the campus’s elevated level of intercollegiate sports.

In California’s Kern County, nearly 925,000 people live in oppressive heat 125 days per year.

Several types of relief are offered. Residents can get breaks on energy bills bloated by air conditioning costs. Triple-digit temperatures trigger the opening of public buildings labeled “cooling centers.” Schools and businesses get tips about preventing heat-related illness.

On May 18, 1995, the University of California Board of Regents voted to select Merced as the site for its ninth undergraduate campus.

To get to that point, Merced had to beat out what started as a list of 85 potential sites drawn up in 1989, after regents announced the year before they wanted to explore opening as many as three new campuses.

UC Merced students are getting first-hand experience in providing mental health care to the most vulnerable and needful among us, thanks to a partnership between the university and Merced County.

Undergraduate psychology majors are serving as interns at the county’s Department of Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, which works with other agencies to offer a system of care for people living with mental illness or substance abuse disorders.