University of California, Merced - Organization and Governance

Organization and Governance

UC Merced is headed by a chancellor. After a nation-wide search, on May 24, 2011, the Regents of the University of California named Dorothy Leland, President of Georgia College & State University, to be the university's newest chancellor. Sung-Mo (Steve) Kang, Dean of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Baskin School of Engineering held the position immediately prior, from 2006 to 2011, and stepped down so he could return to research and teaching. Carol Tomlinson-Keasey held the position from 1999 until she resigned on August 31, 2006. She returned to teaching and research in psychology in 2007 and later died of breast cancer in 2009. On September 21, 2006, the Regents named Roderic B. Park, a former interim chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, as the acting chancellor for UC Merced. Park remained acting chancellor until Kang took office in early March 2007.

Although UC Merced is located in a rural area associated with agriculture, it emphasizes cutting edge interdisciplinary research grounded in natural science, math, engineering and social sciences. The campus takes advantage of the surrounding environment by investigating issues relating to environmental systems of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada, and of its youth by having programs in genetic research conducted in state-of-the-art research labs. It also benefits from proximity to Silicon Valley and other major universities. Research in fields like language acquisition and cultural issues is facilitated by the highly diverse ethnic makeup of the Central Valley.

UC Merced operates on a semester basis rather than the quarter system for its academic term. The Berkeley campus is the only other UC campus on a semester system.