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To the UC Merced community,
The excitement is growing.
UC Merced drew thousands of prospective students and their relatives and friends to admissions events in Santa Clara, Sacramento, Anaheim and Los Angeles over the past few weeks. Families are clearly deeply invested in — and to my experience, deeply committed to — a UC Merced education for their students, and we are cautiously optimistic about once again attracting a historically large first-year class.
But that depends on these final weeks before students’ deadline of May 1 — and it depends on each one of you, telling the story of UC Merced’s growth, our world-changing research, our top-flight education and our peerless student experience.
One major opportunity will be this Saturday, at our annual Bobcat Day , when thousands more prospective students arrive with loved ones to tour this magnificent campus — with snowcapped Sierras framing the view — and hear directly from faculty, staff and student organizations why they should “Become A Bobcat.” More than 5,300 visitors have registered to attend on Saturday and our goal is that each prospective student leaves with a personal reason to join us this fall.
And of course, we are preparing for commencement weekend, when we will celebrate the accomplishments of those who joined us as students only a few short years ago. We anticipate 10,000 graduating students and their families coming to Merced over the course of the three ceremonies.
Greeting and applauding the nearly 1,500 young people who receive their diplomas or doctoral hoods on May 12, 13 and 14 will be an invigorating experience that will remind all of us yet again exactly why chose to dedicate our lives to higher education.
Staff are needed for a variety of roles, and faculty will join the procession and the stage party as they congratulate all those students whom they have guided over these past several years. Please join your colleagues in signing up for one of the many important roles during commencement weekend.
Thank you for all that you do, every day, for our students, our university and California.
Fiat Lux,
Juan Sánchez Muñoz, Ph.D.
Chancellor
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