Re: Welcome Back
To: All campus
Jan. 17, 2023
Dear campus community,
Welcome back to UC Merced for the spring semester of 2023. We hope to see great things happen on campus in coming months, such as the rollout of new public art and a groundbreaking for our long-awaited medical education building. Our new women’s water polo and men’s and women’s track teams will begin competition and our world-class researchers will continue to break new scientific ground.
During the semester break, we continued to monitor COVID developments, as well as the extraordinary recent storms, remaining vigilant and ready to do what we must to keep our campus community safe. Additionally, the University of California and United Auto Workers reached a bargaining agreement that ended a six-week strike and resulted in new contracts for all the parties involved.
On this point, we want to call out the extraordinary efforts of Registrar Erin Webb and her wonderful staff, who along with our faculty ensured that nearly all grades were recorded in time to avoid potential negative consequences for our students. The registrar’s staff worked through curtailment to process 5,000 grades manually, with all grades filed and processed in the first week of January. This was a herculean task and we applaud all those who put in the work to ensure our students maintained progress toward their degrees.
This effort is emblematic of the cooperative spirit of the UC Merced community — a community that pulls together in adversity and thinks foremost of the young people whom it is our mission, and indeed our passion, to serve. Thank you all for helping to create this community, and for building UC Merced into the powerful, forward-thinking and world-changing institution we have become.
Go Bobcats,
Juan Sánchez Muñoz, Ph.D.
Chancellor
