Juan Sánchez Muñoz won’t begin his tenure as UC Merced’s fourth chancellor until July 1, but leaders in the University of California and across campus are already expressing excitement and optimism about his selection.
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.
It’s before dawn on a Saturday morning in mid-May — not a time anyone would expect the UC Merced campus to be busy. But it is.
This is Spring Commencement, and there is much work to do.
Parking and transportation staff are placing signage and temporary fencing. In the kitchens, dozens of dining and catering workers are preparing breakfast for thousands of people, including the police officers and transportation employees who will spend the morning guiding traffic, answering questions and maintaining order.
The next lecture in the Chancellor’s Dialogue on Diversity and Interdisciplinarity series will be from Beth Mitchneck, Vice Provost for Faculty Success at UMass Lowell. The dialogue is designed to bring notable scholars to campus to present current issues within higher education. On Monday, March 11, Mitchneck will present “Institutional Change for Equality: A Recipe for Change.”
A new effort is underway to lay the groundwork for the next major development at UC Merced — a fourth school, this one with the Gallo family name on it.
The planning initiative is a faculty-led effort to create a new, transdisciplinary school that draws upon the expertise of scientists, researchers and practitioners from broad backgrounds to instill the next generations of leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to understand, design and manage complex systems.
The Merced Sun-Star announced its 20 Under 40 honorees in 2018 and for the second consecutive year, numerous UC Merced alumni, staff and faculty members were chosen for their efforts to make the community a great place to live, work and learn.
UC Merced is uniquely positioned to be a change agent in how the academy addresses diversity in STEM, said Professor Donna Riley, the Kamyar Haghighi Head of Purdue’s School of Engineering Education.
If the University of California, Merced, is indeed the future of the UC, that future is looking brighter than ever.
Less than two years after breaking ground on its unprecedented campus expansion, the University of California, Merced, last week celebrated the opening of the first three buildings of the Merced 2020 Project.
More than 400 people were on hand for an opening celebration Thursday, including UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland and UC President Janet Napolitano. Leland and Napolitano also met with students Friday, and visited with more students and their families during move-in.
Fred Ruiz’s support of UC Merced goes back decades and includes substantial contributions through philanthropy, advocacy and service.
For his commitment to UC Merced and to education in the San Joaquin Valley, Ruiz has been named this year’s winner of the James L. Fisher Award for Distinguished Service to Education.
