News

Campus Conferring its Highest Number of Doctorates at Commencement

May 8, 2018

This weekend, 1,250 UC Merced undergraduate and graduate students, including 52 doctoral candidates — the most in the campus’s 12-year history — are expected to cross the commencement stage and embark on the next chapter of their lives. “Commencement is the culmination of years of determination and...

QSB’s Portia Mira Places Third at GradSlam Finals

May 4, 2018

Portia Mira scored $1,000 for winning third place in the University of California’s 2018 Grad Slam competition , marking UC Merced’s first appearance as a top-three finalist during the systemwide contest. In three minutes, Mira -- a doctoral candidate in the quantitative systems and biology...

Grad’s Ambition Continues to Motivate Her Success

May 4, 2018

The odds of Tomanik’e Banks graduating from college were slim — only slightly lower than the odds she’d go to college at all. But Banks had one thing going for her that many others don’t. Determination. When Banks crosses the commencement stage May 12, she’ll be one of only about 3 percent of...

Professor’s Fellowship Allows Renewed Focus on Sociology of Race in South Africa

May 3, 2018

Professor Whitney Pirtle recently became the first researcher to win the prestigious Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship while employed at UC Merced — a grant that will help her finish writing a book and move her closer to gaining tenure. “It’s a really big honor,” Pirtle said. “It comes at a...

Prestigious University Press Signs Professor as Book Series Editor

May 3, 2018

Interdisciplinary Humanities Professor Arturo Arias was recently selected to edit a series of indigenous-studies books for the State University of New York (SUNY) Press. That makes him the first UC Merced professor to be named editor of a book series for a major university press. He said it is an...

I2G Alumni Return as Event Expands, Enters Seventh Year

May 2, 2018

The idea for a year-end event showcasing School of Engineering students’ original designs started as a scribble on the back of a cocktail napkin and culminated in the exhibition of 12 teams’ work. Now, six years later, Innovate to Grow (I2G) has become a premier event on campus highlighting dozens...

Beattie and Graduate Student Awarded Research Grant to Study Teacher Retention

May 1, 2018

Professor Irenee Beattie and graduate student Melissa Quesada have been awarded a $40,000 research grant from the California Teacher Education and Research Improvement Network (CTERIN) to study the factors associated with teacher retention in underserved schools. The interdisciplinary grant, which...

'Red Carpet' Event Honors Exceptional Leadership

May 1, 2018

At the 14th annual UC Merced Leadership Awards, undergraduate and graduate students, faculty advisors and student organizations were celebrated Hollywood style — complete with cameras, lights and a “red carpet” entrance — for their service to the campus community and beyond...

Campus’ Spring Open House Draws Record Attendance

April 26, 2018

More than 3,700 individuals visited UC Merced last Saturday during the campus’s annual Bobcat Day — a 26 percent increase over 2017 and more than any previous year. About 1,200 admitted students and twice as many family members and other guests sampled all the campus has to offer, learning about...

Shakespeare’s ‘Dream’ Delights Yosemite Visitors for Earth Day Weekend

April 24, 2018

“April ... hath put a spirit of youth in everything,” Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 98. He might as well have been writing about this year’s Shakespeare in Yosemite production. With Friday’s premiere — attended by high school students from Mariposa and several children of park employees and El Portal...