Kenneth Mashinchi

It was not my intention to be your commencement speaker this morning, and you were no doubt looking forward to having California’s First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom share her wisdom with you today. I am sorry that she could not be here, but I understand and respect her decision not to attend this ceremony, as the University of California system continues important contract negotiations with one of its labor unions.

In Ms. Siebel Newsom’s stead, as your chancellor, it is my great honor to formally address the UC Merced graduating class of 2019.

The University of California Board of Regents today (May 16) voted to approve President Janet Napolitano’s appointment of systemwide Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Nathan Brostrom as interim chancellor of UC Merced.

Brostrom will succeed Chancellor Dorothy Leland, who earlier this week announced her intention to step down effective Aug. 15. He will serve until a nationwide search for a permanent successor is completed.

Graduating senior Araceli Perez was looking for a new environment when she moved from Hacienda Heights to attend UC Merced in 2015.

The shift from the high-intensity region of Los Angeles to the more relaxed atmosphere of Merced was more than a change of pace. In her four years at UC Merced, she always welcomed the chance to experience something new — whether that was cheerleading or back-packing for an archaeological project in the Sierra Nevada.

Undergraduates Victoria Arias and Cydney Caradonna entered UC Merced through different doors.

Arias was a freshman impressed with the campus and community. Caradonna was a transfer student and athlete sold on UC Merced’s championship women’s basketball team.

Dorothy Leland announced today (May 13) her intention to step down as chancellor of the University of California, Merced, effective Aug. 15, 2019.

“These have been the most gratifying eight years of my long professional career,” said Leland, who was appointed by the Board of Regents in 2011 to serve as the third Chancellor of the then 6-year-old campus. “The decision to step down is not easy, but the moment is right, both for the campus and for me.”

The Cool Campus Challenge called for UC campuses to spend the month of April pledging to reduce their carbon footprints, and UC Merced didn’t disappoint. The university finished fourth overall in the competition, but was one of three campuses specially recognized for its efforts.

The university received an award for the largest percentage of participation relative to its campus population size.

The friendly competition was an effort to help the UC system reduce its carbon emissions by 2025. UC Merced plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020.

Asmaa Mohamed’s enthusiasm for research is contagious. Her passion not only radiates through her words, but it is also evident in the research career she has built in her undergraduate years at UC Merced.

Mohamed was born in Egypt. In 2013, her father accepted a position as a senior medical physicist in the Merced Cancer Center, prompting her family to move to Merced. About four months before immigrating, she began to learn common words to prepare for full English immersion.

There’s a striking image of “San Andres” that was recently on display at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center. The illumination of the saint’s torso and visage are iconic.

But this version is different. It’s darker – and newer.

On second glance, it’s not the famed painting created by Jose de Ribera in 1631 at all.

This version of “San Andres” is only a year old, and it’s the handiwork of Richard Gomez, a visual artist in the Global Arts Studies Program.

It is one of the largest and, arguably, most complex social infrastructure projects in the nation. Now, every building in the award-winning Merced 2020 Project is completely topped off.

Chancellor Leland, UC Merced senior leadership and members of Webcor and Plenary — the project’s construction and development partners — signed the final beam that will be placed on the Student Wellness and Counseling Center building on Tuesday. The building is part of the third delivery phase of the project, set to open in fall 2020.

UC Merced welcomed more than 500 students from across the San Joaquin Valley to campus Wednesday to celebrate College Signing Day.

Every student was a high school senior who will move on to higher education in the fall. Seven colleges and universities were represented, including UC Merced, Fresno State, Stanislaus State and CSU Bakersfield.

The event at UC Merced coincided with a larger College Signing Day event at UCLA — put on by former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher foundation — and Obama gave the keynote address.