Kenneth Mashinchi

Nicole Pollack is happy to be home.

After a few years in the Bay Area, the longtime Turlock resident is back in the San Joaquin Valley and diving into her new role as UC Merced’s chief human resources officer and assistant vice chancellor of Human Resources.

Since starting the job Aug. 5, Pollack met with human resources staff members to get a feel for the department’s pulse. She embarked on a cross-campus listening tour to learn how the Department of Human Resources can partner with the campus to achieve common goals.

If you are filled to the brim with Bobcat pride and eager to show your love for UC Merced, look no further than this weekend’s Homecoming celebration.

UC Merced welcomed the largest incoming class to campus over the past week, as more than 2,000 first-year and transfer students took part in Welcome Week festivities.

Throughout the weekend, families from across the state made their way to Merced to move in their new Bobcat. Among those moving in was Interim Chancellor Nathan Brostrom, who will live on campus during his time at UC Merced.

Two simple words, “Leland Legacy,” captured the significance of Wednesday’s opening event for the second phase of the Merced 2020 Project, an event that doubled as a goodbye and thank you to outgoing Chancellor Dorothy Leland.

The message graced a wall of the new Sustainability Research and Engineering Building in large white block letters, a nod to Leland’s tireless effort and motivation to lead the award-winning expansion project.

The growing UC Merced campus is nearly ready to debut the second phase of the innovative Merced 2020 Project, a multiyear plan to add 1.2 million gross square feet of classroom, office, research laboratory, dining, recreation, housing and other needed facilities.

Phase two will include the Arts and Computational Sciences Building, the Sustainability Research and Engineering Building, a Research Server Container Facility, a regional loading dock, a recreation field and outdoor basketball courts, and additional residential housing.

Dr. Art Kamangar and Calvin E. Bright have been invaluable in the development of UC Merced since before the campus opened its doors. To commemorate their philanthropy and outstanding service, this week they were awarded the prestigious Chancellor’s Medal, the highest honor for extraordinary accomplishment bestowed upon an individual by the university.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are pillars of UC Merced’s mission to serve, teach and conduct research. After years of working to find a permanent support space for students of all demographics on campus, the campus unveiled its new Multicultural Center last month.

It was not my intention to be your commencement speaker this morning, and you were no doubt looking forward to having California’s First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom share her wisdom with you today. I am sorry that she could not be here, but I understand and respect her decision not to attend this ceremony, as the University of California system continues important contract negotiations with one of its labor unions.

In Ms. Siebel Newsom’s stead, as your chancellor, it is my great honor to formally address the UC Merced graduating class of 2019.

Graduating senior Araceli Perez was looking for a new environment when she moved from Hacienda Heights to attend UC Merced in 2015.

The shift from the high-intensity region of Los Angeles to the more relaxed atmosphere of Merced was more than a change of pace. In her four years at UC Merced, she always welcomed the chance to experience something new — whether that was cheerleading or back-packing for an archaeological project in the Sierra Nevada.

Undergraduates Victoria Arias and Cydney Caradonna entered UC Merced through different doors.

Arias was a freshman impressed with the campus and community. Caradonna was a transfer student and athlete sold on UC Merced’s championship women’s basketball team.