Arts and Culture

Give to UC Merced, the university’s annual year-end fundraising campaign, was the most successful of its 11-year history, garnering nearly $1.43 million from 647 donors. The tremendous show of generosity far exceeded the original goal of $250,000 from 500 donors.

Each year, the UC Merced campaign launches on Giving Tuesday, the worldwide day of charitable giving on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. In 2020, the university’s fundraising effort was extended to encompass the month of December.

Shakespeare wrote “the play’s the thing.” Of course, he was referring to using a play to catch a murderer, but in Shakespeare’s day, people believed the theater had the power to elicit deep emotion — even move the guilty to give themselves away.

Bobcats are catching on to the power of theater in Merced.

Through a series of black-and-white photographic portraits taken 10 years apart, photographer Roger J. Wyan’s “Transitions” exhibit explores the journeys of some of UC Merced’s first students during an influential period of growth in their lives.

In 2005-06, Wyan photographed 220 students, mostly first-year undergraduates who were among the first to attend the newest UC campus. Ten years later, Wyan connected with 38 of the original students to capture in photos their physical changes and discover through interviews where life has taken them.