Dear faculty and staff:
Welcome to the new academic year! I hope you were able to catch up on rest and relaxation during the summer months, even as many folks continued conducting research, teaching and performing important administrative duties while school was officially out.
I’m excited to welcome our newest cadre of ladder-rank faculty who will be joining the campus this year. Ranging in expertise from watershed science to quantum chemistry and Spanish linguistics to health psychology, 20 new professors will contribute to our research and teaching mission along with another 170 faculty members. Lecturers, who play such an important role in our classrooms, now total 170. When one combines academic staff with administrative staff, we now have close to 1,300 employees.
We also welcome many new students from a wide variety of backgrounds and geographic origins. Our largest freshman class ever, at 1,600 students, will boost total enrollment this fall to close to 6,200 students. This includes 385 graduate students, a 17 percent increase over last year, from five states and 13 countries. The large increase in graduate-student enrollment supports the university’s ambition to rank among the top public research universities in the country. Top-quality graduate programs attract significant research funding from a variety of government and private sources and bring distinction to the institution and the researchers whose breakthrough discoveries and inventions enable societal progress.
Considering space is often at the forefront of many campus community members’ minds, I think you’ll welcome the news of two new buildings opening this fall – the pavilion section of the Student Services Building (the three-story section will come online early next semester) and Half Dome Housing, the fourth phase of student housing. Construction of the Science and Engineering Building 2 continues at a swift pace with projected opening for fall of next year. In addition, thanks to the dedicated efforts of our colleagues at UCOP and support from the state Legislature, funding for the Classroom and Office Building 2 (formerly known as the Classroom Academic and Office Building) is now secure. The building will provide 51,000 square feet of flexible classroom, academic support, research and office space. On-campus classroom space will increase by 34 percent and tutorial space by 56 percent with the addition of the new building. Construction will begin this fall with the goal of opening the building by spring of 2016. Lastly, construction of the Little Lake Amphitheatre will begin late next month and finish by December.
While these projects won’t accommodate all of our space demands, I am pleased with the progress we’re making to ensure the campus will continue to grow. Additionally, as outlined in the recent campus-wide message from Dan Feitelberg, vice chancellor for Planning and Budget, we are making significant progress on the 2020 Project and expect to begin stakeholder meetings to gather input and discuss development priorities next month. Please see Dan’s detailed message for more information on opportunities for campus participation as this process plays out.
In other news, not yet announced publicly, I thought you’d be interested in learning that the campus experienced a 26 percent increase in private support in 2012-13 compared with the prior year. As UC Merced continues to pursue its tri-fold mission of research, teaching and service, we are increasingly attracting attention – and more importantly the support – of generous individuals and organizations who believe in the work we do with our students and in our research labs. Their support, expressed as gifts to the campus, is a testament of the extraordinary work each of you does on behalf of the university.
For more information about the new school year, see the press release on the start of UC Merced’s ninth year, distributed earlier this week. Also, a feature on our new faculty and other new faces and places will appear tomorrow (Aug. 30) in Panorama, the bi-weekly e-newsletter for faculty and staff.
Wishing you a superbly rewarding and productive school year!
Sincerely,
Dorothy Leland
Chancellor
