Commitment to Sustainability

Though the land area was ample, SOM discovered that 750 acres were untouched wetlands specific to the Central Valley. These wetlands, called Vernal Pools, are the breeding ground for the Fairy Shrimp, an endangered crustacean about the size of the white crescent on a human fingernail.

But the threatened Fairy Shrimp is just one item on a long list of environmental challenges Merced still faces today. Though Merced is rich with ecologically precious resources, the San Joaquin Valley is nevertheless the second worst air shed in the United States; three of the country's most polluted cities are in the Central Valley.

"Some of it's the cows, some of it's the agricultural burning, some of it's the truck traffic, but it all contributes to that," said Tom Lollini, Associate Vice Chancellor of Design and Construction at UC Merced. "And the patterns of development—in which agricultural lands are subsumed for urban development—are really detracting from the air quality."

 It was within this context that the University of California made an early commitment to sustainability, both in terms of the construction of the new Merced campus as well as the pedagogical vision for the university.

The Chancellor set the following goals for environmental and social sustainability at UC Merced:

  • "An interdisciplinary/collaborative basis for academic and scholarly life"
  • "A 50% high-tech enrollment, the highest in the UC system"
  • "A paradigm of sustainable development and environmental stewardship"
  • "Outreach to its San Joaquin Valley student population"

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