Brenda Ortiz

Through a series of black-and-white photographic portraits taken 10 years apart, photographer Roger J. Wyan’s “Transitions” exhibit explores the journeys of some of UC Merced’s first students during an influential period of growth in their lives.

In 2005-06, Wyan photographed 220 students, mostly first-year undergraduates who were among the first to attend the newest UC campus. Ten years later, Wyan connected with 38 of the original students to capture in photos their physical changes and discover through interviews where life has taken them.

UC Merced students had the chance to gain knowledge and leadership skills for their personal and academic careers at the 2017 Leadership Conference, hosted by the campus’s Margo F. Souza Student Leadership Center on Sept. 23.

Now in its 11th year, the annual conference was redesigned to help facilitate deep transformational learning to increasing student leadership on campus and beyond.

Beginning this year, UC Merced’s fall graduates will have an earlier occasion to celebrate their outstanding accomplishments.

UC Merced is launching a new tradition with its first Fall Commencement. The intimate ceremony, which will be held at 11 a.m. Dec. 16 in the Art Kamangar Center at the historic Merced Theatre downtown, will include all the pomp and circumstance at spring commencement — caps and gowns, full regalia and crossing the stage in front of friends and family.

More than 2,200 students — many entering their first year at UC Merced — arrived last weekend in cars, trucks and minivans packed to the gills with living essentials from clothing and toiletries to laptops and microwaves.

Move-in weekend is always a bustling time on campus as parents, families and friends help their Bobcats get settled in and spend some time on the campus with them before heading home.

Food, fun and prizes drew more than 100 UC Merced students and others to downtown Merced on Aug. 25, for the inaugural CatCrawl.

Degree Attainment for Returning and Transfer Scholars (DARTS), Office of Student Life and Alumni Relations hosted the event to showcase the food and entertainment offered in Merced.  

Saturday’s annual Journey 5K Fund Run has special meaning for the UC Merced community.

Last November, the campus lost Ryan Nunez — head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country teams — in a tragic motorcycle accident.

The third annual UC Merced Journey 5K Fund Run drew a record 475 participants Saturday and raised more than $6,000, exceeding the event’s stated goal. 

Proceeds and donations from this year’s 5K will support cross country athletes through the Ryan Nunez Cross Country Memorial Scholarship, in honor of the UC Merced coach who died last year in a motorcycle accident.

When Chigoziri Ibechem attended her first planning commission meeting in downtown Merced last November, she had no idea where it might lead.

After the meeting, the psychology major from Los Angeles was greeted by the city of Merced’s principal planner, who noticed her enthusiasm for the city’s Local Transportation project. He invited her to apply for an internship program UC Merced’s sustainability office launched earlier this year to give students education and applied learning opportunities in sustainability-related careers.

The University of California, Merced, received the largest incoming class of students in its 13-year history this semester, as total enrollment neared 8,000 for the first time.

The fastest-growing university in the nation, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, UC Merced now enrolls 7,375 undergraduate and 592 graduate students for a total of 7,967 students — an 8.6 percent increase from 7,336 in 2016, as reported in the university’s fall census.

Members of the UC Merced Police Department visited several campus locations last week to play a new question-and-answer game called “Your Campus, Your Police.”