Dear faculty and staff,
Welcome to a new academic year, one in which we celebrate the university’s many accomplishments while also sharpening our focus on what lies ahead.
Ten years ago—on Sept. 5, 2005—UC Merced opened its doors with 875 students, a blank sheet of paper and high hopes for the first new University of California campus in 40 years — and the first ever in the San Joaquin Valley. Nobody really knew what UC Merced could become, or how the journey would unfold, but the prospect of building something new was exhilarating. Today, we enter our second decade of operation with record student enrollment, a $1 billion expansion proposal under consideration by the UC Board of Regents and a freshly minted strategic academic plan that will accelerate the university’s quest for academic and research distinction.
UC Merced has put down strong roots and built one of the most environmentally sustainable campus in the country during one of the most fiscally challenging decades in state history. Along the way, we have worked diligently to bring the many benefits of a major research university to the San Joaquin Valley and beyond. We’ve made $1.3 billion in regional economic investment to date ($2.5 billion statewide) and created thousands of permanent new jobs. We’ve attracted research grants and made research expenditures in excess of $180 million. We’ve stimulated a sharp increase in regional college-going rates, with applications to the UC system from Valley students doubling since 2004. And we’ve produced more than 4,000 new graduates, many of whom have gone on to further their education, start local businesses or begin careers in fields that are vital to the region’s long-term health.
Unmeasured in dollars and cents, but perhaps even more important in the long run, are the efforts of our faculty and student researchers to address many of the region’s chronic health, environmental, economic and cultural challenges, which are often encountered in many parts of the world.
We should be energized every day by the mounting evidence that our mission here in the Valley is making a positive difference. We begin the new year with excellent momentum, an exceptional team of faculty and staff, an outstanding student body eager to learn and grow, and an optimistic outlook for the next major phase of campus development.
Student Enrollment
Total enrollment this fall is expected to reach approximately 6,600 students, including 450 graduate students, compared with 6,268 last fall. As you may recall, we received record numbers of applications for admission last November, up 14 percent (double the UC system average) versus the prior year, but we were forced to limit admissions because of ongoing space constraints.
New Faculty
Faculty members are securing major grants, winning impressive academic awards and conducting cutting-edge research on issues of vital importance to the San Joaquin Valley, state and society as a whole. Their efforts are bringing distinction to UC Merced while clearly demonstrating our viability and showcasing our contributions.
I’m delighted to announce that 12 tenure-track professors have chosen UC Merced as their professional home.
The new faculty members on campus this fall are:
School of Engineering
Marc Beutel — associate professor, engineering
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
Heather Bortfeld — professor, developmental psychology
Nancy Burke — associate professor, public health
Maria DePrano — assistant professor, art history
Humberto Garcia — associate professor, literature
Jason Lee — Lecturer with Potential for Security of Employment (LPSOE), economics
Yang Liu — assistant professor, quantitative psychology
Jesus Sandoval-Hernandez — LPSOE, economics
School of Natural Sciences
Danielle Edwards — assistant professor, life and environmental sciences
Dustin Kleckner — assistant professor, physics
Mark Sistrom — assistant professor, life and environmental sciences
Assistant Professor Justin Yeakel will join the School of Natural Sciences in the spring. His area of expertise is life and environmental sciences.
2020 Project
This fall, we will be seeking preliminary approval from the UC Board of Regents for our major expansion plan—known as the 2020 Project—that would add nearly 1 million assignable square feet over the next five years, doubling the current total. The plan would create 10,800 new construction jobs and generate an estimated $1.9 billion in direct or indirect economic investment in the region.
If the plan is approved as proposed, construction could begin as early as the second half of 2016, with first deliveries of new facilities in 2018. By 2020, the campus hopes to have the capacity to accommodate 10,000 students while retaining one of the lowest student-to-faculty ratios in the UC system.
The UC Board of Regents will hear more details and begin the approval process for our proposed plan at their meeting in November. We will make sure to keep you apprised of related developments.
Strategic Academic Focusing
To sharpen the campus’s academic focus, our faculty members recently completed a two-year Strategic Academic Focusing Initiative that identified a core set of thematic areas for strategic emphasis in the coming years. The multidisciplinary themes build on UC Merced’s disciplinary strengths and represent promising paths to distinction for our campus.
The themes are as follows:
- Toward a Sustainable Planet
- Computational Science and Data Analytics
- Adaptive and Functional Matter
- Entrepreneurship and Management
- Human Health Science
- Inequality, Power and Social Justice
We’ve come a long way in just 10 years. And while significant challenges remain for us, I am confident that the campus is up to the task. I commend each of you for the hard work, dedication and commitment you've shown to this young research university campus, placed intentionally in a region of the state that has suffered far too long from poverty and poor levels of education attainment. In particular, I want to extend a special word of gratitude to the faculty and staff members who’ve been part of the journey from the outset, when our campus was just dirt and a dream. We simply could not have succeeded without your vision and belief in each other, and in the mission we’re pursuing.
Wishing you a rewarding and productive school year!
Dorothy Leland
Chancellor
