Remarks and Writings

UC Merced's First Rhodes Scholar

March 10, 2021
Re: UC Merced's First Rhodes Scholar To: All faculty and staff March 10, 2021   Dear Campus Community,   It gives me great pleasure to announce to our community the naming of UC Merced’s first Rhodes Scholar — Selina Brinkmann, a mechanical engineering master's student who will go on to study... Read More

Spring 2021 Commencement

March 2, 2021
Re: Spring 2021 Commencement To: All students, staff and faculty March 2, 2021   Dear Campus Community,   While our COVID Response Center has been working hard to stem the spread of COVID-19 on our campus and readying us for a return to in-person operations as soon as possible through regular asymptomatic testing and... Read More

Seeing the Light

February 11, 2021
Re: Seeing the Light To: All faculty and staff Feb. 11, 2021   Dear Campus Colleagues,   When UC Merced, like most higher education institutions, made the decision to move to remote learning back in April 2020, not many could have predicted how long it would take to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This pandemic... Read More

Chief Campus Counsel Search

February 8, 2021
Re: Chief Campus Counsel Search To: All faculty and staff Feb. 8, 2021   Members of the Campus Community,   Chief Campus Counsel and Associate General Counsel Elisabeth R. Günther is retiring and will be leaving her role at UC Merced on April 30, 2021.   Elisabeth joined the UC Office of General Counsel in... Read More

Black History Month

January 28, 2021
Re: Black History Month To: All Campus January 28, 2021   As we prepare to celebrate Black History Month, I am reflecting on the commitment we share to realizing justice for the Black community by continuing to encourage inclusive excellence at UC Merced.   While we have miles to go in our journey toward a truly... Read More

A New Year of Hope

January 19, 2021
Re: A New Year of Hope To: All campus Jan. 19, 2021   Dear Campus Colleagues,   Welcome to 2021, to the start of the spring semester, and to a new season of hope.   We have lived through and adapted to troubling times in 2020 — personal, national and global — and learned yet again how important it... Read More

A Time for Unity

January 7, 2021
Re: A Time for Unity To: All Campus January 7, 2021   To the UC Merced Community,   Yesterday’s tumult in Washington, D.C. has shaken many, but it also provides a valuable lesson for those of us at UC Merced working for a better future.   Now more than ever, we see the significance of higher education... Read More

Regarding Social Media Posts

December 29, 2020
Re: Social Media Posts To: All campus Dec. 29, 2020   Dear UC Merced community, A Twitter account associated with a faculty member included messages that crossed the line established by the Board of Regents in their 2016 Statement of Principles Against Intolerance condemning anti-Semitism and “anti-Semitic forms of anti-... Read More

Search for Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer

December 16, 2020
Re: Search for Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer To: All campus Dec. 16, 2020   Dear Campus Community,   As I shared in early fall , the university has begun a search for a new vice chancellor and chief financial officer, with the help of search firm Isaacson Miller.   A search advisory committee... Read More

Light and Hope

December 16, 2020
Re: Light and Hope To: All campus Dec. 16, 2020   To the Campus Community... Read More

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