On May 18, 1995, the University of California Board of Regents voted to select Merced as the site for its ninth undergraduate campus.
To get to that point, Merced had to beat out what started as a list of 85 potential sites drawn up in 1989, after regents announced the year before they wanted to explore opening as many as three new campuses.
Ahead of the final selection, the regents had winnowed the list down to two: a site near the banks of Lake Yosemite outside Merced and one on Table Mountain in Madera County. The Central Valley was targeted because it was the largest population area of the state not directly served by a UC campus.
Merced's bid boasted the winning combination of donated property by a single landowner, the ready availability of water and passionate community support that included postcards from thousands of local schoolchildren.
Regent Roy T. Brophy seemed to speak for many on the board when he described the Madera County site as simply "too iffy."
"The real issue here today is which site has the best chance in the long run of becoming a reality," Brophy said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I think without question it's (Merced)."
Community members who had lobbied for Merced for years returned from the vote to a celebratory lunch, according to the Merced Sun-Star, whose headline the next day of "It's Ours!" leaped from the page in the size of type reserved for heralding major news.
It was the culmination of several years of work by a citizens' committee led by Bob Carpenter that included Tim Razzari, Judy Campbell, and numerous other elected officials and community members.
"I don't think I've ever been prouder of this community, the way we pulled together and stuck together," said then-City Councilman Dennis Cardoza, who later would serve in the state Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives.
The city of Merced had already eyed the Lake Yosemite area for expansion, so the campus location fit right into its plans.
"We had planned on growing to the north and wrapping around the northern part of the lake before UC was even a possibility," planning director Phil Block said, according to the Merced Sun-Star. "So we really don't have to alter what we have been planning for the next eight or 10 years."
Getting the vote from the Regents was a tremendous accomplishment, but there would be more hurdles to overcome. Even as they voted for the new campus, officials warned that there was no money to build it.
"We have neither the resources nor the plan to start a campus," then-UC President Jack Peltason said after the vote, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "If I had to guess, we are 10 years away from confronting the problem of starting to build the new campus."
Peltason's prediction was a bit off: Administrators began work in leased offices at the former Castle Air Force Base in 2002, and two years later, faculty welcomed UC Merced's first graduate students. Ten years after the vote, UC Merced welcomed undergraduates to its North Lake Road campus.
Since then, UC Merced has stayed true to its founding mission: expanding access to a University of California education. The campus has grown from its modest beginnings into a premier research institution and is now consistently among the highest-ranked universities for social mobility. Its student population is mainly from California, the first in their families to attend college and reflects the state's diverse population.
"For far too long, lower-income students, including those from our region, were told that a UC education was unattainable," said Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz. "But thanks to the tireless work of our faculty and staff, as well as our partners and supporters, that is no longer the case."
The university serves more than 9,000 students, with more than 60 undergraduate academic programs and 18 graduate programs. Researchers are tackling real-world issues such as climate change and artificial intelligence, and students get a world-class education in the heart of the Central Valley.
UC Merced has become a major economic driver for the local community and the Northern San Joaquin Valley, infusing an estimated $372.9 million into Merced County and $514.6 million into the San Joaquin Valley each year.
Thirty years after it was made official, UC Merced continues to grow. Construction is underway on the Medical Education Building, which will house the SJV Prime+ B.S. to M.D. program, and soon will begin on a new housing facility and classroom building. Next year, UC Merced will start competing in NCAA Division II sports. The campus was annexed into the city of Merced last year, and officials are planning the community that will grow around the site.
At a time when public universities face mounting challenges, UC Merced symbolizes what can be achieved when access, equity and excellence are pursued together - with the backing of a tenacious community. And a few hundred postcards.
