Uc Merced

The University of California admitted 43% more out-of-state and international freshmen than last year, significantly boosting its controversial efforts to enroll those higher-paying students, according to data released Tuesday. As a result, officials said they expected the share of the upcoming freshman class from outside California to be somewhat higher than the 12.3% this school year but said the actual proportion remains uncertain because non-Californians are less likely to enroll than resident students.

The University of California admitted 43% more out-of-state and international freshmen than last year, significantly boosting its controversial efforts to enroll those higher-paying students, according to data released Tuesday. As a result, officials said they expected the share of the upcoming freshman class from outside California to be somewhat higher than the 12.3% this school year but said the actual proportion remains uncertain because non-Californians are less likely to enroll than resident students.

Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, who became the first female founding chancellor of a UC campus when she was named to head UC Merced in 1999 before the university broke ground, has died. She was 66. Tomlinson-Keasey, a distinguished developmental psychologist, died Saturday at her home in Decatur, Ga., from complications related to breast cancer, a university spokeswoman said. UC Merced Chancellor Steve Kang, who succeeded Tomlinson-Keasey in 2007, said in a statement that "UC Merced would not exist were it not for her visionary leadership, her tireless determination and her remarkable gift of persuasion."

Sharply higher numbers of students from other states and countries applied for admission to the University of California this year, following UC's controversial efforts to recruit more such students for the extra tuition they pay, according to a report released Thursday. At the same time, UC administrators said a new policy that reduced the standardized testing requirements for admission appears to have encouraged more Californians than ever to apply to the university system. The number of non-Californians seeking to become UC freshmen in fall 2012 rose 56% over last year to about 33,000, officials said.

First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday urged the first full graduating class at UC Merced to help solve society's problems with the same creativity and persistence they showed in wooing her to be their commencement speaker and in pioneering the 4-year-old campus in the San Joaquin Valley. "Why did I chose the University of California Merced to deliver my first commencement speech as first lady? Well, let me tell you something, the answer is simple. You inspired me.

Nearly 1,000 students have sent in deposits to attend the new University of California campus near Merced this fall, to the quiet relief of school officials who had worried that too few students might enroll at the campus in its first year. UC Merced officials said the figure surpasses the target for freshmen, with 867 who have now submitted statements of their intent to enroll in the fall, along with deposits of $100 each to hold a place.

They were the trailblazers, this first full class about to graduate from the University of California, Merced. And like most pioneers, they had to create their own traditions amid adversity and attrition. When they arrived as freshmen in the fall of 2005, classroom buildings weren't ready on the fledgling campus, a former golf course surrounded by cow pastures in the San Joaquin Valley.

Three environmental groups based in the San Joaquin Valley filed suit against the University of California campus planned for Merced County and others Tuesday, seeking to stop or slow the construction of a new UC campus near Merced. Last month, the university's regents approved the project's final environmental impact report and plans for its central facilities, setting the stage for a groundbreaking in May.

Taking another step toward creation of a UC campus in the San Joaquin Valley, the University of California and Merced County on Monday released documents suggesting ways to limit environmental damage to the area's sensitive lands and species. The proposed campus near Merced, the first phase of which is to open in 2004, has long been bedeviled by environmental troubles. These include concerns about fragile wetlands and the endangered fairy shrimp.

An appellate court here has denied a request by environmental groups to block construction of the new UC Merced campus. The 5th District Court of Appeal on Wednesday denied a request for a stay from the San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center, Protect Our Water and the Central Valley Safe Environment Network. The groups hoped the court would temporarily halt construction after a Merced County Superior Court judge said last month that plans for the campus met state environmental requirements.

Student protesters disrupted a University of California regents' meeting as the university board asked for more state funds to avoid a tuition increase next year and bolstered its investigation of the recent pepper-spraying of students at UC Davis. Gathering at four campuses and linked by teleconference, the regents Monday first got an earful of criticism from students about the Nov. 18 incident in which UC Davis police doused nonviolent student protesters at close range with the chemical spray.

Former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton will head a University of California-sponsored investigation into the controversial pepper-spraying of student protesters last week at UC Davis, university officials announced Tuesday. Bratton is to lead an independent review and report his findings within a month, UC President Mark G. Yudof said. Bratton is chairman of the New York-based Kroll security consulting firm, which is being hired by UC for a fee that is still under negotiation, officials said.

After much anxiety among high school seniors, relatively few applicants were offered fall freshman admission to a University of California campus this month under the UC system's first widespread use of waiting lists. About 10,700 applicants last month were offered a spot on one or more waiting lists compiled by the seven UC campuses that participated in the new, and controversial, practice. But only UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara ultimately offered entrance to anyone on the lists, officials said.

Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, who became the first female founding chancellor of a UC campus when she was named to head UC Merced in 1999 before the university broke ground, has died. She was 66. Tomlinson-Keasey, a distinguished developmental psychologist, died Saturday at her home in Decatur, Ga., from complications related to breast cancer, a university spokeswoman said. UC Merced Chancellor Steve Kang, who succeeded Tomlinson-Keasey in 2007, said in a statement that "UC Merced would not exist were it not for her visionary leadership, her tireless determination and her remarkable gift of persuasion."

Protests, rallies and scattered class cancellations roiled University of California campuses across the state Thursday, on the first day of the fall quarter for many students. But predictions by some organizers that the 10 campuses could be shut down by demonstrations against fee increases and pay cuts did not materialize. The size and intensity of the protests and related activities varied significantly across the UC system. An estimated 5,000 people demonstrated at UC Berkeley, the oldest campus; just 20 or so took part at UC Merced, the newest.

Freshman enrollment at the University of California will be 6.8% lower this fall, a drop of 2,603 students from last year that closely matches a reduction the university sought because of budget shortfalls, UC officials said Tuesday. In all, 35,435 students from California and other states have told one of UC's nine undergraduate campuses that they intend to enroll as fall freshmen, compared with 38,038 last year.

The University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday unanimously named Steve Kang, a dean of engineering at UC Santa Cruz, to become chancellor of UC Merced, the newest campus in the university system. Kang, 61, a professor of electrical engineering, has served as dean of the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz since 2001. Addressing the regents after the vote, Kang said the opportunity to build a new research university was "a dream come true for me."

Leo Kolligian, a San Joaquin Valley attorney, developer and former chairman of the University of California Board of Regents who championed the construction of the first new UC campus in 40 years, UC Merced, died March 20 of leukemia at his Fresno home. He was 90. Kolligian was appointed a UC regent by Gov. George Deukmejian and served from 1985 to 1997. He was chairman in 1988, when the Legislature authorized the Merced campus, the 10th in the UC system.

Commencement addresses are a bit like wedding toasts. A handful are memorable; the rest tend to trigger such musings as, "Why did I wear such uncomfortable shoes?" "Will anyone notice if I send a text?" and "How drunk am I likely to be by the end of the evening?" But unlike nuptial tributes, which (unless you're in Japan, where they often hire pros) are delivered by unpaid amateurs, graduation speeches are less about the message than the messenger.

First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday urged the first full graduating class at UC Merced to help solve society's problems with the same creativity and persistence they showed in wooing her to be their commencement speaker and in pioneering the 4-year-old campus in the San Joaquin Valley. "Why did I chose the University of California Merced to deliver my first commencement speech as first lady? Well, let me tell you something, the answer is simple. You inspired me.