10th UC Campus Welcomes First Students at Opening
The University of California, Merced — the first new UC campus in 40 years and the first ever in the San Joaquin Valley — held its grand opening on Labor Day (September 5).
“You have aimed high and worked hard to reach this glorious day,” UC President Robert C. Dynes told a cheering throng that included past UC presidents David Gardner and Richard Atkinson and former governors George Deukmejian and Gray Davis, as well as many federal and state elected officials who attended the 90-minute convocation and opening ceremony. “This is a very proud day for our system and our state.”
The opening of UC Merced comes 17 years after the UC Board of Regents first recommended adding a new campus to accommodate the state’s rapidly growing population. Merced was chosen as the site in 1995, and groundbreaking began in 2002. The scheduled opening in 2004 was pushed back a year as a result of the state’s budgetary problems.
“UC Merced will help fulfill the promise of access to qualified students from all over the state,” predicted Gerald Parsky, chairman of the UC Board of Regents. “We look forward to this new campus to help inspire the educational dreams of young people and their families throughout the Valley and the rest of the state for generations to come.”
First Class
Approximately 33 percent of UC Merced’s first class of 1,000 students, including 38 graduate students, come from the Central Valley. More than 27 percent are from the San Francisco Bay Area, about 25 percent from the greater Los Angeles region and the remainder from other regions of California and out of state. Nearly half of the freshman students are the first in their families to go to college.
Historically, college-attendance rates in the state’s interior valleys have averaged about half that of the state as a whole. The absence of a college-going culture is often cited as a root cause of the region’s higher than average unemployment and poverty rates.
In his keynote address, Merced native Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., a professor at Harvard Law School and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard University, spoke of the transforming effects the college experience will have on the lives of UC Merced’s inaugural class. He also announced that he was setting up a scholarship fund, with a $5,000 award to be presented annually to a UC Merced student.
Symbolizing the pioneering spirit of the first class, three students — a first-year student, a transfer from Merced College and a graduate student — rode to the opening ceremony in a covered wagon. They were followed by a lengthy procession of about 1,000 students, parents, founding faculty and staff, donors, trustees, UC officials and others.
“I think coming to UC Merced is the greatest opportunity ever,” said Salysia Perez, a freshman from Fresno. “What could be better than the chance to show my talents, give leadership and start traditions? Why wouldn’t I take up this opportunity?”
UC Merced students started classes on September 6 with 55 faculty members recruited from many leading universities. Nearly 600 students moved into brand-new university housing and christened the state-of-the-art dining facility the previous weekend. The remaining students will commute or live in off-campus housing.
The University expects to add approximately 800 students per year for the next 30 years, ultimately topping out at approximately 25,000 students.
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