Re: Welcome Back, Bobcats
To: Faculty and staff
August 24, 2022
Dear Campus Community,
Welcome to an exciting new semester and academic year — a year promising a stronger sense of belonging on our campus and one that will usher in a litany of successes.
Despite broad challenges facing higher education — a pandemic, a demographic shift, and increasing political discourse— we have realized approximately 9,100 students again this year, and nine of our undergraduate majors report record freshman enrollment.
Our research and education missions continue to expand the bounds of knowledge and fulfill the dreams of so many thousands of young people and their families, here in the Central Valley, across California and indeed throughout the nation.
Earlier this year we held a magnificent commencement ceremony on our new athletic field, where many of those families and students celebrated their accomplishments alongside the faculty and staff who helped them complete their journeys at UC Merced.
We welcomed the Community and Labor Center as our newest organized research unit, doing outstanding work particularly with the agricultural labor community. We added several new Living Learning Communities to build community, resiliency and leadership among students.
Recently, we joined with fellow institutions to increase college-going rates among communities of color, to support a new program in which student community service helps pay college tuition, to promote degree completion, and to expand and enhance our ties to Mexican institutions of higher education for purposes of research collaboration and student exchanges.
This fall we believe we will expand our dynamic Automatic Admissions Programs to communities beyond Merced and Dinuba, gain approval for our Medical Education Building from the Board of Regents, and set new records for research funding and philanthropic support.
And while we open the semester with appropriate levels of caution around public health initiatives, we know that most students and faculty see the benefit of return to in-person teaching, learning and research in our world-class facilities.
We continue to invest in the people who make this community so attractive to successive generations of “Bobcat” scholars, and we continue to look for ways to enhance the campus experience for all.
I remain grateful for all that you do, every day, to make UC Merced a bright shining light of higher education in the heart of California.
Fiat Lux,
Juan Sánchez Muñoz, Ph.D.
Chancellor
