| University of California, Merced | |
| Motto: | Fiat lux (Latin) |
| Image Upright: | .7 |
| Established: | [1] [2] |
| Budget: | $399.4 million (2022-23)[3] |
| Endowment: | $29.64 million (2023)[4] |
| Administrative Staff: | 2,816 (April 2023) |
| Faculty: | 1,359 (April 2023)[5] |
| Provost: | Gregg Camfield[6] |
| Students: | 9,148 (Fall 2023)[7] |
| Undergrad: | 8,373 (Fall 2023) |
| Postgrad: | 775 (Fall 2023) |
| Country: | United States |
| Coordinates: | 37.366°N -120.4235°W |
| Campus: | Fringe rural[8] Core Campus: 245acres[9] Total: 8195acres[10] |
| Colors: | Bobcat Blue Bobcat Gold[11] |
| Mascot: | Rufus the Bobcat |
| Logo Upright: | .7 |
| Free Label2: | Newspaper |
| Free2: | The Prodigy |
| Free Label: | Other campuses |
The University of California, Merced (UC Merced or colloquially, UCM) is a public land-grant research university in Merced, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California (UC) system.[12] Established in 2005, UC Merced is the newest campus within the UC system. The primary campus is located around five miles north of Merced and sits adjacent to Lake Yosemite. The main campus is around 1,026 acres (415 ha) in size. Large swaths of almond orchards and natural grasslands surround the university.
The forming of UC Merced was initiated to address population growth of the Central Valley and the San Joaquin Valley, and to make higher education more accessible. UC Merced consists of three undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. The upcoming medical school is being established in partnership with UCSF and UCSF Fresno. UC Merced offers over 60 undergraduate degrees and 18 graduate and professional degrees, and roughly 8,000 undergraduates and 700 graduate students are enrolled at UCM as of Fall 2023. The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity", and had $45.9 million in research and development expenditures in 2021.[13] [14]
UC Merced is one of the largest employers in Merced County, and contributes about $1.7 billion to the economy of the San Joaquin Valley.[15] The UC Merced Golden Bobcats currently compete in the NAIA as members of the Cal Pac. From 2025, the University plans to move up to the NCAA Division II.
On May 19, 1988, the UC Regents voted to begin planning for a campus in the region in response to increasing enrollment and growth constraints at existing UC campuses.[16] [17] In 1989, they authorized UC President David P. Gardner to plan up to three new campuses to address these needs. The search quickly was narrowed to California's Central Valley, which was the state's largest and most populous region without its own UC campus.[18] On May 19, 1995, the Regents selected Merced over two other finalist sites in Madera and Fresno,[19] midway between Fresno and Modesto, as the location for the new campus.[20] Lake Yosemite is situated very close to the general campus area, and would provide a unique scenic backdrop for the University. A lake bring situated near the campus would be a differentiation factor for the Merced campus when compared to the other ten University of California campuses.
An important hurdle to the construction of UC Merced was removed with the passage of Proposition 203 (Public Education Facilities Bond Act) in March 1996. The Act allows the issuance of bonds to fund the construction of new buildings for school facilities.[21]
The university originally planned to conserve to protect sensitive vernal pool habitats[22] but later expanded it to with the creation of the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve which is now part of the University of California Natural Reserve System. A public golf course known as the Merced Hills Golf Course had been constructed at the site in the early 1990s. This course was shut down to make way for the new campus when the original site for the campus was made unavailable due to the discovery of fairy shrimp[23] – an endangered species – on the originally proposed site. Since the construction of the golf course had negated concerns about wetland and vernal pool environmental issues, building the campus at this location was easier than fighting to save the original construction site.[24]
UC Merced established a satellite campus in Bakersfield, California in 2001 in its downtown University Square. The satellite campus extended a UC education to prospective college-bound students of Kern County and the southern San Joaquin Valley before UC Merced opened its official campus in Merced. Classes and counseling were also provided at the Bakersfield center to newly admitted UC students. In 2011, the Bakersfield campus was permanently closed citing cost-cutting efforts and for the university to balance its finances.[25]
The campus groundbreaking ceremony was held October 25, 2002, and the first day of undergraduate classes was September 6, 2005 with 706 freshmen, 132 transfer students, and 37 graduate students.[26] Three years and eight months later, on May 16, 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama gave the commencement address for the university's first full graduating class.[27] In 2010, the United States Census Bureau made UC Merced its own separate census-designated place. Later that same year, the new student housing facilities, The Summits, opened to provide two additional residential halls for incoming students. The two four-story buildings, Tenaya Hall and Cathedral Hall, are reserved primarily for incoming freshmen students. Three years later, another housing facility, Half Dome, was built next to the existing Tenaya and Cathedral Halls. Half Dome houses both freshman and continuing students.[28] The university is a census-designated place (CDP)[29] that is uninhabited as of both the 2010 and 2020 census. In addition to lacking population the University covers all of it land in this census-designated place.
In January 2015, UC Merced was nationally classified with the Carnegie Classification for community engagement, along with UC Davis and UCLA.[30]
On November 4, 2015, 18-year-old student Faisal Mohammad stabbed and injured four people with a hunting knife before being shot to death by a campus police officer.[31] [32]
In November 2015, the Regents of the University of California approved a $1.14 billion proposal, known as the 2020 Plan, to double the capacity of UC Merced, boosting its enrollment by nearly 4,000 students. The new buildings were completed in early 2021.[33] In April 2019, the school's student government, the Associated Students of UC Merced, cut off funding for UC Merced's only student-run newspaper, The Prodigy.[34]
UC Merced claims to be the only institution in the United States whose buildings are all LEED certified. Its Triple Net Zero Commitment is expected to create zero net landfill waste and zero net greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020.[35] [36]
UC Merced announced a partnership with UCSF and UCSF Fresno to create a brand new medical school program by the year 2023, garnering support from governor Gavin Newsom.[37]
Being one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system, UC Merced is governed by a 26-member Board of Regents consisting of 18 officials appointed by the Governor of California, seven ex officio members, and a single student regent. The current president of the University of California is Michael Drake, and the administrative head of UC Merced is Juan Sánchez Muñoz.[38] Academic policies are set by each of the school's Academic Senate, and a legislative body including all university faculty members.[39] Nine vice chancellors manage academic affairs, research, diversity, marine sciences, student affairs, planning, external relations, business affairs, and health sciences and report directly to the chancellor.[40] Carol Tomlinson-Keasey was the first chancellor of the University and held the position from 1999 until she resigned on August 31, 2006.[41] On September 21, 2006, the Regents named Roderic B. Park, a former interim chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, as the acting chancellor for UC Merced.[42] Park remained acting chancellor until Sung-Mo (Steve) Kang, Dean of the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, took office in early March 2007. Kang held the position until 2011.
After a nationwide search, on May 24, 2011, the Regents of the University of California named Dorothy Leland, then president of Georgia College & State University, to be the university's newest chancellor. On May 13, 2019, Leland announced that she would be stepping down from her position, effective Aug 15, 2019.[43] UC Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Nathan Brostrom served as interim chancellor until July 2020.[44] In July 2020, Juan Sánchez Muñoz, then president of University of Houston-Downtown, was appointed to the position of Chancellor.[45] UCM's Chancellors are listed below:
UC Merced gets funding from a variety of federal, state, and private sources. With the exception of some government contracts, public support is apportioned to UC Merced and the other campuses of the University of California system through the UC Office of the President and accounts for a large percentage of the University's total revenues.[46]
UC Merced has three schools offering 27 undergraduate majors and 25 minors:[47] [48]
In 2011, the campus was granted accreditation by WASC.[50] In 2014, the School of Engineering received an ABET accreditation for the Mechanical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering programs.[51]
The university is also home to the CCBM Summer Internship Program, an undergraduate research fellowship for non-UC Merced students sponsored by the NSF CREST Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines.[52] The campus takes advantage of the surrounding environment by investigating issues relating to environmental systems of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada, and of its youth by having programs in genetic research conducted in state-of-the-art research labs. It also benefits from proximity to Silicon Valley and other major universities. Research in fields like language acquisition and cultural issues is facilitated by the highly diverse ethnic makeup of the Central Valley. UC Merced operates on a semester system rather than the quarter system for its academic term. The Berkeley campus is the only other UC campus on a semester system.[53]
| Arwu Nu: | 118–144 |
| Forbes Nu: | 173 |
| Usnwr Nu: | 60 (tie) |
| Wamo Nu: | 56 |
| Wsj Nu: | 59 |
| Arwu W: | 501–600 |
| The W: | 401–500 |
| Usnwr W: | 698 (tie) |
| 2021 USNWR Best Regional Colleges West Rankings[54] | |
|---|---|
| 5 | |
| 42 | |
| Best Value Schools | 185 |
| Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs | 123 (at schools whose highest degree is a doctorate) |
| 2021 USNWR graduate school rankings[55] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 88 | |
| Computer Science | 115 | |
| 115 | ||
| Engineering | 116 | |
| 132 | ||
| Physics | 138 | |
| Biological Sciences | 144 | |
UC Merced was tied for 42nd "Top Public School" and tied for 97th in the 2022 rankings of "Best National Universities" in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report.[56] Also in the same rankings, it was ranked 5th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility", 171st in "Best Value Schools", and tied for 123th in "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs" at schools whose highest degree is a doctorate.[56]
| 2021[57] | 2020[58] | 2019[59] | 2018[60] | 2017[61] | 2016[62] | 2015[63] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applicants | 27,794 | 25,924 | 25,368 | 25,121 | 22,574 | 20,888 | 18,620 |
| Admits | 24,070 | 21,982 | 18,263 | 16,624 | 15,619 | 15,492 | 11,288 |
| Admit rate | 86.6% | 84.8% | 72.0 % | 66.2% | 69.2% | 74.2% | 60.6% |
| Enrolled | 2,411 | 1,951 | 2,105 | 2,217 | 2,293 | 2,049 | 1,803 |
| SAT mid-50% range* | 1140-1390 | 950 - 1140 | 990–1180 | 1000–1190 | NA | 860–1070 | 900–1120 |
| ACT mid-50% range | 23 - 32 | 17 - 22 | 17–22 | 18–24 | 18–23 | 18–23 | 19–24 |
| Grade Point Avg (GPA) | 3.51 | 3.55 | 3.58 | 3.59 | 3.55 | 3.51 | 3.56 |
|
UC Merced received 25,368 undergraduate applications for admission for the Fall 2019 incoming freshman class; 18,263 were admitted (72.0%).[59]
Undergraduate enrollment in Fall 2019 was 51.7% women, 47.5% men and 0.8% unknown; approximately 99% were from California.[7]
UC Merced saw an increase in application for the 2021 freshman class, they received a record breaking number of applications totaling 30,105 between freshman and transfers.[64]
The graduate school application pool in 2022 consisted of 40% women and 23% minority students.[64]
In 2007, UC Merced researchers obtained nearly $7 million in funding from the National Science Foundation.[72] Grant funding for research has reached over $168.9 million in 2013.[73]
The campus is bounded by Lake Yosemite on one side, and two irrigation canals run through the campus. The campus master plan was developed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, its initial infrastructure by Arup, and its first buildings were designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Thomas Hacker and Associates, and EHDD Architecture. The library and central power plant have been classified as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold structures in terms of their high energy efficiency and low environmental impact.[74] The campus is located about seven miles (11 km) north of downtown Merced in the middle of a cattle ranch.[75]
Rather than build on of protected land east of Lake Yosemite, where endangered fairy shrimp hatch in vernal pools, the school has built on a 230acres parcel of grazing land south of campus, under a revised layout. The revised plan covers a total of 810acres rather than the original 910acres proposed in 2000.[76] The new design was expected to impact a total of of native wetlands in the region compared to the forecast in the 2000 footprint.[77]
The Science and Engineering Building 2 opened in 2014. The Classroom and Office Building 2 opened in 2016.[78]
The library was the first building to open on campus. During the Fall 2005 semester, while construction of other buildings was still underway, all academic courses were conducted in the library. Its official motto is "Not what other research libraries are, what they will be."[79]
The library contains more electronic holdings than print holdings, consisting of about 70,000 online journals and 3.965 million electronic books (including 3.15 million HathiTrust full-text books), compared to 102,000 print books. It provides access to 937 databases.[80]
Kolligian is a Green library and has Gold LEED certification.[81]
See main article: UC Merced Golden Bobcats.
The UC Merced athletic teams are called the Golden Bobcats. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the California Pacific Conference (Cal Pac) since the 2011–12 academic year.[82]
UC Merced competes in nine intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer and volleyball; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, volleyball and water polo.
In 2006, the university opened its gymnasium. The Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center features an "NCAA-sized basketball court, workout facilities, room for performances, wellness and fitness education and the Rajender Reddy Student Health Center".[83]
| Race and ethnicity[84] | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hispanic | |||
| Asian | |||
| White | |||
| Foreign national | |||
| Black | |||
| Other | |||
| Pacific Islander | |||
| Economic diversity | |||
| Low-income | |||
| Affluent | |||
Approximately 2,100 students currently live on campus in the Valley and Sierra Terraces and the Summits, which includes Tenaya and Cathedral Halls, 4.2 miles (6.8 km) away from the city of Merced. The most recent addition is Half Dome Hall which completed the UC Merced's first residential square. Many students choose to live in new housing subdivisions off campus.[85]
The university's Campus Activities Board (CAB) organizes campus-wide activities such as concerts, movies, and dances.[86]
Student publications include the newspaper The Prodigy,[87] Bobcat Radio,[88] The Undergraduate Research Journal, The Undergraduate Historical Journal, and literary journals The Kumquat and Imagination Dead Imagine. The Vernal Pool is a student publication for writing and visual art.[89]
The university operates its own public transportation system, CatTracks. The system has several routes serving off-campus housing developments and locations in central Merced, about from campus.[90]
Some among the first graduate students at UC Merced initiated the Graduate Student Association (GSA) in early 2004, before the university officially opened its doors to undergraduates in 2005. The undergraduates established their own student government.
The UC Merced Alumni Association (UCMAA) consists of more than 16,000 living members.[91]
As stated by the LA Times in 2016, "Although most UC Merced alumni are still in their 20s, 11% of them contributed to their alma mater — outstripping the giving rate of all other UC campuses except UC Santa Barbara (16%) and UC Berkeley (12%). UCLA's rate was 8%, and UC Riverside, the most comparable campus, was 4%."[92]