Jody Murray

The growing energy across campus is palpable as UC Merced prepares for its 21st academic year. Fall semester instruction begins Wednesday, Aug. 26, furthering the mission of one of the nation’s top public research universities to provide knowledge and opportunity to a vibrant and diverse student body.

Orientation sessions and move-in days for on-campus student residents began the week of Aug. 17, leading a slate of welcome-to-campus activities.

Digging for stories in a Gold Rush town that vanished in flames 170 years ago. Pinging brainwaves for reactions from sentences that slide between Spanish and English. Fortifying students’ skills and confidence with a practice called powerwriting.

These ventures are among nearly a dozen UC Merced research projects made possible by the Chancellor’s Catalyst Awards, an initiative designed to spur compelling inquiry in the humanities and social sciences.

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

Peyton Smith brings a love of water sports, an interest in medicine and a goal to work as a pediatrician to UC Merced. The Fresno student brings a deep resume of public service in high school to her Bobcat career.

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. 

UC Merced has established its identity as a world-class research university that welcomes learners who historically have been left out of higher education. Nearly three-quarters of its undergraduates are first-generation college students.

This distinction put the university in welcome company when it co-hosted one of a handful of institutes held nationwide that trained instructors on how to teach reading and writing effectively at access-oriented institutions: community colleges and open-enrollment universities that educate underserved students.

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.

Editor's note: This story is republished from the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of UC Merced Magazine.

Temnee Wright, ’08 has realized a successful career as legal counsel at several Silicon Valley companies. Her interest in law was forged at UC Merced, where she made the most out of being a student in the university’s first undergraduate class.

A new UC Merced major arrived just in time for Tyrese Francis.

When the student starts his third year at the university this fall, he will dive into coursework for a degree in business administration, one of two degrees debuting in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts.

“I’ve always wanted to be a leader,” said Francis, who hails from the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. “I feel this major will give me the skills I could apply to a leadership role.”

Students in a UC Merced course stepped off campus and into the real world, developing flyers, website pages and even a TikTok account for a downtown arts center.

Staff at the center became clients and the students contractors in a spring semester project that produced marketing materials, forged relationships with the community and gave students an experience that in-class exercises can’t provide.

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.