UC Merced Campus Community Gives Back During Holidays

From spearheading canned food drives to collecting toys for underprivileged children, UC Merced students, staff and faculty are giving back this holiday season.

A group of UC Merced students spent the week before Thanksgiving collecting canned food for local needy families. About 30 Kappa Sigma fraternity members gathered nonperishable food items as part of the organization’s community service efforts. In preparation for the food drive, the fraternity members passed out flyers throughout Merced neighborhoods the week prior to collection.

“Our group feels that doing a canned food drive is a way to give back to the community that has given us so much,” said student Jeremy Ho, who serves as the fraternity’s public relations representative. “Knowing that the holidays were right around the corner, we decided that it was a great time to give back, especially to families in need during the hard economic times.”

UC Merced’s Staff Assembly wrapped up its 2011 canned food drive, collecting more than 385 pounds of nonperishable food items from members of the campus community for the Merced County Food Bank.

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Media contact:
Brenda Ortiz

UC Merced's Ties with Community Continue to Increase

MERCED, Calif. — The bond between the San Joaquin Valley and UC Merced continues to strengthen.

This past year, UC Merced’s ongoing research endeavors produced new knowledge that serves the San Joaquin Valley’s community and economy, while the university’s burgeoning athletics program became another source of pride for the community.

Additionally, the campus’ continued development serves as major source of economic investment during a difficult economy. 

“UC Merced was built on the promise to improve lives and bring economic prosperity to the San Joaquin Valley,” Chancellor Dorothy Leland said. “Despite unprecedented economic challenges, this young and innovative campus has made substantial progress toward these goals, and it is poised to continue on this path through 2012.”

The campus’ research takes many forms and shapes, from engineering to natural sciences to literature. In some cases, the research directly involves issues confronting the San Joaquin Valley. 

With nearly 5,200 students, the campus’ footprint is growing to accommodate more students and provide additional services. The campus has three construction projects underway and another major one set to begin next year.

Near the entrance to campus, two new student housing buildings are under construction. Set to open in fall of 2013, they’ll have 364 built-in beds and will be part of The Summits complex. Also, a second building is being added to the Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation and Wellness Center. The addition will provide much-needed recreation space and meeting rooms for students. Both buildings are being constructed with non-state dollars.

In 2012, construction is scheduled to begin on Science and Engineering Building 2, which will add important laboratory space for innovative research and more classrooms. Also, a student services building will be built to provide space for staff members who help students in their academic career. 

UC Merced Fulfilling Mission to Give Back

From spearheading canned food drives to collecting toys for underprivileged children, UC Merced students, staff and faculty are giving back this holiday season.

A group of UC Merced students spent the week before Thanksgiving collecting canned food for local needy families. About 30 Kappa Sigma fraternity members gathered nonperishable food items as part of the organization’s community service efforts. In preparation for the food drive, the fraternity members passed out flyers throughout Merced neighborhoods the week prior to collection.

“Our group feels that doing a canned food drive is a way to give back to the community that has given us so much,” said student Jeremy Ho, who serves as the fraternity’s public relations representative. “Knowing that the holidays were right around the corner, we decided that it was a great time to give back, especially to families in need during the hard economic times.”

In all, the Kappa Sigma collected and donated more than 2,000 pounds of canned food to the Merced Food Bank.

Another student club that is giving back is American Women Making a Difference. The student club raised almost $300 during a yard sale and donated it to the United Way to feed the needy in the area. Members of the club joined community members and assembled meal baskets at the United Way last month.

UC Merced’s Staff Assembly wrapped up its 2011 canned food drive, collecting more than 385 pounds of nonperishable food items from members of the campus community for the Merced County Food Bank.

“Every year this event is even more successful than the last,” said Laura Butler, chair of programs, events and outreach for Staff Assembly. “We couldn’t do it without generous donations from the UC Merced community and the Staff Assembly community service subcommittee and our partnership with the Merced County Food Bank staff and volunteers. We aspire to contribute even more to the Merced community and families in need during holiday seasons to come.”

In conjunction with the canned food drive, Lending a Hand — a student program hosted by the Office of Student Life’s Leadership Programs — tabled on campus in an effort to encourage students to think about how they spend resources and challenged them to sign a promise to spend one day without modern luxuries. Students were provided ways they can contribute to their community and were asked to donate nonperishable food items.

The Office of Student Life is also collecting unopened toys during its sixth annual toy drive to benefit children in the local community.

Study: Sugarcane Ethanol Production Causes Air Pollution

The burning of sugarcane fields prior to harvest for ethanol production can create air pollution that detracts from the biofuel’s overall sustainability, according to research published recently by a team of researchers led by UC Merced scientists.

UC Merced graduate student Chi-Chung Tsao was the lead author on the paper and was aided in the study by UC Merced professors Elliott Campbell and Yihsu Chen. The study — published online this week in the Nature Climate Change journal — focused on Brazil, the world’s top producer of sugarcane ethanol and a possible source for U.S. imports of the alternative fuel.

“There is a big strategic decision our country and others are making, in whether to develop a domestic biofuels industry or import relatively inexpensive biofuels from developing countries,” Campbell said. “Our study shows that importing biofuels could result in human health and environmental problems in the regions where they are cultivated.”

Ethanol is seen as an alternative to fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gasses when used and are a major contributor to air pollution and climate change. But despite some governments encouraging farmers to reduce field burning — which is done in part to protect farmworkers by removing sharp leaves and harmful animals — more than half of sugarcane croplands in Brazil continue to be burned.

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UC Merced Teach-In to Discuss Occupy Movement

UC Merced students, faculty and staff will hold a teach-in on campus from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 7 in an effort to assist the campus community to better understand the nature of social movements and the many issues raised by the Occupy movements that have spread across the nation.

The teach-in — which be held in the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium — will provide diverse perspectives from students, faculty and staff on the economic, political and social factors that have led to the emergence of occupations as well as California’s ongoing public education crisis.

Members of the campus community are invited to drop in at any time during the event. At the conclusion, the discussion will be opened to audience members for comments or questions. Faculty members will share their views and research as it relates to this and other movements.

Sociology Professor Nella Van Dyke said she is participating in the event because like everyone at UC Merced, she cares about the future of education in California. Van Dyke studies social movements and will discuss the factors that make movements successful and how they relate to the Occupy movement.

“I think it’s positive to see students and other parts of the campus community engaging in dialogue and making their voices heard,” Van Dyke said. “A teach-in is a means of focusing on a topic, engaging in dialogue and providing information to the broader campus community in a way that can bring people together who might otherwise not have the opportunity to interact in the classroom.”

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Family Provides Inspiration for UC Merced Engineering Student

Growing up in the village of Juchipila in central Mexico, Jesus Luna knew exactly what he would do some day.

“When I was 3 or 4 years old, I told my mom I would be a scientist,” Luna said. “I told her I would discover something to cure disease.”

With several aunts and uncles succumbing to heart disease, Luna knew where he wanted to focus his studies. Today, he is pushing the boundaries of tissue engineering as a graduate student at UC Merced.

Luna’s parents came to California’s Central Valley, where they picked grapes and tended vineyards. Jesus stayed in Mexico, where he excelled in school. As his parents sacrificed, Luna advanced, eventually earning admission to the University of Guadalajara.

“It was really hard for them to support me in college,” he said. “They were sending about half of their salary so I could go to school in Mexico.”

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Media contact:

James Leonard