Jody Murray

UC Merced, a beacon of academic achievement in the San Joaquin Valley, is also a powerful driver of economic growth and prosperity in the region it was created to serve. 

Should a scientist who sees signs of global catastrophe sound an early alarm or wait until more conclusive evidence is in? Does going public lead to swifter action or give naysayers more time to discredit the message?

 A beaming Jesus Cevon-Gonzalez stood on Merced’s Main Street, surrounded by his mom and dad, grandparents, sister and other loved ones. He clutched the proof of a freshly bestowed bachelor’s degree in computer science.

“I’m just trying to make my parents proud,” the Merced native said.

A husband’s optimism and confidence might play a crucial, if often unseen, role in helping babies arrive healthy and on time.

A new study from UC Merced psychology researchers found that when married fathers reported higher levels of resilience — a quality that includes traits such as optimism, self-esteem and perceived social support — their partners showed lower levels of inflammation during pregnancy and carried their babies longer.

More than six in 10 UC Merced undergraduates are the first in their families to attend a university. The national average for four-year universities is about two in 10.

Opening doors to opportunity for first-generation students is infused into UC Merced’s DNA. Young people who had little to no information at home on how to be a young scholar find solid support, a welcoming campus and kindred spirits.

Only 20 years since undergraduate instruction began, UC Merced is a recognized leader in conducting academic research, developing young minds for career success and driving economic growth, the university’s chancellor said Wednesday.

Spirits were high and futures bright while all else was soaked in a summer storm that made Tuesday morning’s Scholars Bridge Crossing, UC Merced’s traditional greeting to new students, a welcome unlike any before.

Call them Thunder ‘Cats.

The ceremony embraced about 2,000 first-year and transfer students to a campus that this fall semester marks 20 years since the first undergraduate class began at the newly built institution, bringing the power of a University of California education to the Central Valley.

On laptop screens, televisions and social media feeds across the nation, images and words fueled by a fractured political landscape spout anger, frustration and resentment. Clashing ideologies burst forth in public demonstrations, family gatherings and digital echo chambers.

Red-hot rhetoric and finger-pointing memes are open expressions of emotions generated by engaging in politics. But there is another set of emotions far less incendiary but just as damaging to democracy. These feelings can push people to the sidelines and drive them to silence.

In California’s Kern County, nearly 925,000 people live in oppressive heat 125 days per year.

Several types of relief are offered. Residents can get breaks on energy bills bloated by air conditioning costs. Triple-digit temperatures trigger the opening of public buildings labeled “cooling centers.” Schools and businesses get tips about preventing heat-related illness.

With cheers, hugs and leis, more than 1,500 UC Merced graduates received a celebratory sendoff to their bright futures as a prominent keynote speaker told them to make the most of the here and now.

Hundreds of families and friends joined the graduates in three days of commencement ceremonies at the university’s Recreation Field. White picket fences lined the processional path for graduates, faculty and campus leaders of the San Joaquin Valley’s only research institution.