Progress Being Made Toward Intercollegiate Sports

UC Merced continues to make progress toward an intercollegiate athletics program, with a student interest survey beginning soon in advance of the campus’ application to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in January.

The campus remains on track to begin intercollegiate competition in at least two sports in Fall 2011, according to Director of Recreation and Athletics David Dunham.

The survey will begin going out by e-mail to students this weekend. Its questions are designed to gauge the students’ interest in having an intercollegiate athletics program on campus, their preferences as to which sports should be included, and their openness to the possibility of a student fee to finance the athletics program.

Dunham said the campus expects to submit its membership application to the NAIA in January, with a decision expected to come at the NAIA National Convention in April. Dunham said he’s confident that UC Merced’s application will be accepted.

If it is, the Golden Bobcats are expected to begin varsity competition in Fall 2011, with sports to be determined in part by the results of the survey. The timing is in line with the April 2009 recommendations from the Chancellor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, though with a slower pace in terms of how many sports are to be added each year, Dunham said.

UC Merced Study: Republicans, Democrats Viewed as Polar Opposites

People view Democrats and Republicans, and liberals and conservatives as exact opposites, according to a recently published interdisciplinary study conducted by two UC Merced professors.

The findings, authors Evan Heit and Stephen Nicholson wrote, suggest that the American political system is highly coherent and organized. Elected officials — as members of political parties or ideological backgrounds — offer a distinct choice since a candidate running for office is not typical of both.

"It seems like it's lonely to be in the middle, politically speaking," said Heit, a cognitive scientist. "Politicians can be typical Democrats or typical Republicans, but they can’t be typical of both."

The article, "The Opposite of Republican: Polarization and Political Categorization," was published recently online by "Cognitive Science," the official journal of the Cognitive Science Society. The article will also be included in the upcoming printed edition.

The findings, Heit and Nicholson note, have implications for governance, which often requires compromise and consensus. A Republican proposal could be opposed by Democrats simply because it is viewed as being opposite of what Democrats would do, the paper notes.

"It's really a new era of politics," said Nicholson, a political scientist. "It's the loss of bipartisan governance. We're living it today so it's hard to appreciate how politics were once very different. If we could go back in time to do this study, I wouldn’t expect to see such extreme polarization."

UC Merced Part of New Climate Science Center

UC Merced was recently named as a partner in the new Southwest Climate Science Center, the fourth of eight planned regional climate centers established by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The center will be based at the University of Arizona and led by a consortium that includes Arizona; UC Davis; UCLA; Desert Research Institute, Reno; the University of Colorado, Boulder; and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The CSC will also include six partners: UC Merced; Arizona State University; Northern Arizona University; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field; and the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution in Tucson, Ariz.

According to the Department of the Interior, the CSCs will serve as regional “hubs” of the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center, located at the headquarters of the U.S. Geological Survey. USGS is taking the lead on establishing the CSCs and providing initial staffing. Funds and staff from multiple bureaus will be pooled to support these centers and ensure collaborative sharing of research results and data.

Together, the CSCs and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives will assess the impacts of climate change that typically extend beyond the borders of any single national wildlife refuge, national park or Bureau of Land Management unit and identify strategies to ensure that resources across landscapes are resilient.

Campus’ Economic Impact on Valley Continues to Grow

The struggling economy continues to be boosted regionally by UC Merced. The campus announced today that its economic contribution to the San Joaquin Valley since operations began in July 2000 has surpassed the $500 million mark. Statewide, the university’s total economic contribution now exceeds $1.1 billion.

UC Merced has paid more than $333 million in local wages, awarded $107 million in construction contracts to local businesses and purchased $111 million in goods and services from local suppliers. That’s a total Valley investment of $551 million — an increase of nearly $100 million in the past year alone.

And as that money is circulated throughout the economy, a “multiplier effect” increases the actual value of UC Merced’s local investments by as much two to four times, per varying economists’ estimates.

Within the Valley, Fresno and Merced counties have been the largest beneficiaries of university investments. Fresno County businesses have been awarded nearly $100 million in construction and business-service contracts over the 10-year period. Merced County businesses have been awarded approximately $52 million in contracts.

Statewide, the university’s investments include another $550 million in goods and services purchased and contracts awarded. The total investment of $1.1 billion represents an increase of approximately $150 million since August 2009.

Video: Monica Medina on Coral Larvae Research

UC Merced Professor Monica Medina talks about her research into the impact of thermal stress, exacerbated by climate change, on coral larvae.

UC Merced will Bring President of Leading Hospital System to Speak at 2011 Commencement

Lloyd H. Dean has been selected to address UC Merced’s Class of 2011 at commencement in May.

Dean is president and CEO of Catholic Healthcare West, the eighth largest hospital system in the nation. He has repeatedly been chosen as one of Modern Healthcare magazine’s 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare and one of the Top 25 Minority Leaders in Healthcare.

UC Merced a Partner in New iHub

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development has announced the Central San Joaquin Valley Innovation Hub (iHub), in which UC Merced is a partner, has received the state’s new iHub designation.

In the iHub, UC Merced will partner with regional nonprofit and government agencies in a multifaceted project aimed at stimulating economic development and job creation through research and innovation.

The Central Valley Business Incubator and Merced County Department of Commerce, Aviation and Economic Development are the lead agencies in the Central San Joaquin Valley iHub — one of 12 total projects to have now received the state’s designation — with UC Merced, California State University, Fresno, and the Small Business Development Center as partners.

The iHub designation is designed to encourage regional collaboration between research institutions, start-up technology companies, local governments, venture capitalists and economic development organizations. These organizations will leverage their various resources with the common goal of creating jobs and harnessing the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of the state.

“The iHub represents an ideal opportunity to combine our campus’ strengths in scientific innovation and entrepreneurialism,” said Chancellor Steve Kang, “with the resources provided by our partners in the region to help improve the economic landscape of the San Joaquin Valley.”

Chancellor Praises Support of UC Merced in State Budget

California's state budget, approved Friday by the Legislature, includes more than $100 million for UC Merced's continued development and growth.

"We are very pleased that the approved state budget reflects the critical importance of higher education to the people of California," Chancellor Steve Kang said. "We expressly thank Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has enthusiastically supported UC Merced since before the campus opening in 2005. His readiness — along with the Legislature's — to include these funds this year attests to their commitment to UC Merced and to the growing contribution this campus is making to the San Joaquin Valley and the state."

The 2010-11 budget, awaiting the governor's signature, includes $81 million for construction of the Science and Engineering II building, $10 million in base funding for operations, $6.5 million for continued site development and infrastructure at UC Merced and $5 million in supplemental operating funds.

Kang said the campus is grateful to those legislators whose support has been invaluable in the months leading to the approval of the state budget. In particular, he said, Assemblywoman Connie Conway (R-Tulare), as a member of the Joint Budget Conference Committee, played a key role in securing funding for the science building. She was supported by our local legislators, Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani (D-Livingston) and state Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater), as well as by Assembly budget committee member Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield).

"We applaud their collective efforts to support UC Merced students, one-third of whom hail from the Valley, and to advance the university's mission in research, teaching and public service," Kang said.