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Jody Murray

¹ú²ú´«Ã½ campus photo of sign

It’s a ‘Welcome’ Party at ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ Scholars Bridge Crossing

¹ú²ú´«Ã½ said “welcome†to its 2,400 new students Tuesday as only ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ can, with a joyous and colorful Scholars Bridge Crossing ceremony that symbolizes their transformation into Bobcats at the San Joaquin Valley’s only research university.

Hundreds of those first-year or transfer students gathered in yellow T-shirts on the lawn next to the Pavilion dining hall in preparation for the crossing.

First Responders Conduct Successful Simulated Emergency at ¹ú²ú´«Ã½

First responders from across Merced County converged on ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ Thursday for what they said was a highly successful response to a simulated emergency.

Police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and medical personnel assembled at the university’s library to carry out incident duties and protocols. The ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ Police Department and Office of Emergency Management led the simulation — a yearly exercise at the university designed to enhance and evaluate the agencies’ collaboration and incident effectiveness.

Psychological Bias Links Good Deeds with Religious Belief, ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ Research Says

Experiments conducted by ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ researchers find that people who perform good deeds are far more likely to be thought of as religious believers than atheists. Moreover, the psychological bias linking kindness and helpfulness with faith appears to be global in scale.

From Bakersfield to a ‘Peaceful’ Place to Pursue Science, Medicine

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This is part of a series of profiles of new ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2024 semester.

San Joaquin Valley native Anmol Kaur is well on her way to making a splash in the worlds of science and medicine. The Bakersfield resident, coming to ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ as a first-year student, parlayed strong experiences in high school into a slot in the second SJV PRIME+ medical education cohort.

Kaur is poised to follow a path taken by her parents, who both have careers in medicine.

Study Examined How Jewish Israelis React to Human Rights Criticism. Then Oct. 7 Happened.

A ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ professor and his co-researchers set out to measure how Jewish Israelis react to different sources of criticism about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Does disapproval from internal voices move public opinion? Voices from abroad? What about reproval from the diaspora — people who live outside Israel but have religious, ethnic or national ties?

They collected data from a carefully designed survey of more than 2,000 and submitted the findings for peer review in December 2022. Months later, the paper was returned for edits.

Study Offers Steps to Speed Up Research Money to Community Partners

A study of fast-tracked government funds for relief during the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered bottlenecks at federal, university and community levels that undermined partnerships. Researchers, including ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ Professor , made several recommendations to strengthen financial partnerships that underlie community-based participatory research.

Lighting the Path: Thank You and Farewell to Charles Nies

It’s spring break 2009 and Jane Lawrence is rushing across campus, the words from the phone call still ringing in her ear. The unimaginable isÌýhappening and she mustÌýtell Charles Nies,

First Lady Michelle Obama isÌýcoming to ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ as commencement speaker.

Lawrence, the vice chancellor for student affairs, finds her associate vice chancellor in his office. With the campus quiet and students gone home, Nies had brought his two young daughters to work.

Untangling Hmong History with ¹ú²ú´«Ã½â€™s Ma Vang

Exploring sources of historical narratives can take you to places where walls seem to move and truth feels fluid and interchangeable. Ma Vang’s research has focused on how people narrate their histories, tracking the lived experiences of people pigeonholed or marginalized by dominant narratives that privilege the record and written text.

Student Production of ’26 Pebbles’ Encircles Tragedy with Healing and Hope

It is impossible to avoid — the real-life event that frames the play “26 Pebbles†is disturbing. Heartbreaking.

Which makes all the more remarkable the play’s uplifting message of human resilience and the ability to come together after an unspeakable tragedy — the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

SSHA Honors Outstanding Graduating Students

Thirteen graduating students were honored by ¹ú²ú´«Ã½â€™s School of Social Science, Humanities and Arts for outstanding academic careers.