Jody Murray

How do you take a university further?

For UC Merced’s chancellor, the answer starts with record-setting enrollment and extends to student opportunities, strong community connections, and new homes for students, academics and research, along with an ever-growing national reputation.

Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz pointed to the future and celebrated the university’s people and achievements in his annual State of the University address Oct. 21 before a gathering of UC Merced Foundation trustees, elected officials and members of the campus community.

Seven hand-chosen, whip-smart UC Merced students descend on Austin, Texas, this week to pit their teamwork and business skills against representatives of other Hispanic-serving institutions in a high-pressure — and potentially highly rewarding — competition.

First, there’s the contest. Every team in the HSI Battle of the Brains gets the same brief about something a company needs. Squads then have 24 hours to assemble an imaginative, airtight and technically sound solution.

UCLA was a huge change for Jose León. The college transfer student from a small town and a tight-knit extended family struggled to relate to classmates from bigger cities.

Then, at a student resource fair, León met Robin Bueno, the coordinator of a UCLA-based program that helped Native American college students stay on course in their studies. She invited him and other students to a family barbecue.

A smiling throng of new faces took part Tuesday in one of UC Merced’s oldest traditions, the Scholars Bridge Crossing.

Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz and other campus leaders led the march over the bridge. Blue and gold balloons arced over the span, which was lined with cheering staff, faculty and current students. “Let’s go, Bobcats!” they chanted.

The procession then passed through the Beginnings sculpture, signifying the start of the students’ academic journeys at UC Merced. During commencement ceremonies, graduates go through Beginnings again, in the other direction.

This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2026 semester.

Tayven Tipler won’t travel far from his hometown when he starts at UC Merced and he is already well along on his higher education journey. Tipler completed several courses at Merced College as a high school student.

Where I come from: I live in Atwater, where I was born and raised. I graduated this spring from Buhach Colony High School. 

Key points:

• Researchers successfully tested a technique that uses human sewage to measure the use of nicotine products such as cigarettes and vaping pens in a selected community.

• The project, led by scientists at UC Merced, can strengthen public health efforts by supplementing surveys about nicotine use with scientific data.

• The research targeted a handful of Central Valley communities. Scientists hope to expand it to other California locations.

An all-faculty rock band formed in a professor’s garage a decade ago has released the first album produced at UC Merced’s digitally advanced recording studio.

The album showcases the eight members of G Street Revolution. Their day jobs cross a spectrum of academics: engineering, sociology, mathematics, music and writing. The album, their first, is called “Dumpster Fire.”

Five UC Merced faculty members are among the first awardees of a UC-wide honor given for exemplary research in budding academic careers.

The Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards, launched last fall, support commitment to scholarship and creative activity across the 10-campus system. The awards build on a range of programs and initiatives across the system designed to support thriving faculty careers at UC. 

A throng of people came to UC Merced on a crisp, blue-sky Saturday for Bobcat Day. More than 7,000 were registered to attend the April 18 event for admitted and prospective first-year and transfer students, along with their families.

A highly customizable degree that rewards curiosity, reaches out to a diverse set of learners and prepares scholars for people-centered careers has arrived at UC Merced.

Liberal studies, a bachelor’s program that taps into disciplines in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, debuts in the fall 2026 semester. Students can parlay the degree’s flexibility with core UC Merced attributes such as undergraduate research and easy access to professors and advisers.