UC Merced

UC Merced has a virtual discussion series called "Reflecting on Anti-Racist Pedagogy" with the aim of "[exploring] the intersection between anti-racist teaching and anti-racist pedagogy."

The Inclusive Excellence Institute is a year-long, cohort-driven professional development experience centered around the tenets of equity, justice, and inclusive excellence. It draws from the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion’s Strategic Framework and seeks to "develop equity-minded practitioners" amongst UC Merced's staff and faculty.

The Division of Equity, Justice, & Inclusive Excellence offers the Diversity Awareness Certificate Program for faculty and staff in order to "ensure that employees have relevant multicultural and diversity learning opportunities to (a) increase their knowledge; (b) build their awareness; and (c) enhance their related skills and competencies."

The Office of Social Justice Initiatives & Identity Programs facilitates the 2024 Social Justice Retreat which provides "training sessions on privilege, understanding personal identities, and what all of this means in leadership."

The Human Resources Department hosts the "UC Managing Implicit Bias Series" which is "designed to increase awareness of implicit bias and reduce its impact on hiring processes at the University."

$1,000 will be given to individuals and groups who have "dedicated their time and effort in championing equity and justice initiatives through the inclusive excellence framework" to assist with the implementation of their research/initiatives.

The Critical Race and Ethnic Studies major at the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts is an "interdisciplinary field of study that seeks to understand the ways society is culturally and institutionally constituted by ideas of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and nation." Additionally, the program "aims to scrutinize cultures of power and domination as well as highlight and imagine struggles for liberation and self-determination."

On June 14, 2023, UC Merced Newsroom reported that the "Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has established a new scholarship [$1 million] endowment to ensure that many of UC Merced's underrepresented students, particularly those from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, have access to much-needed financial resources to support them during their higher-education journeys."

The UC Merced Black Alliance's mission is to "promote education and engagement with Black identified individuals on and off campus." For the 2022-23 school year, the alliance hosted several events, such as the "Race and Disability Panel."

The Division of Equity, Justice, & Inclusive Excellence provides anti-racism resources which include: "How to Be An Anti-Racist" by Ibram X. Kendi, "Stop Killing Black People: An Anti-Racist Reading List" from the English faculty at UC Merced, and "Resources to Educate Yourself on Anti-Blackness."

Following the murder of George Floyd, the VBL Task Force was created to address the UC Mercer community's petitions and demands, with representation from all stakeholder groups across its five subcommittees. UC Mercer's Valuing Black Lives Initiative (VBL) is "rooted in the acknowledgment that anti-Blackness is detrimental to our mission as a public research university, which echoes the vision of people first and anti-oppression and liberation for all in the OEDI Strategic Framework."

UC Merced's Academic Senate has a Committee for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) that acts on all matters of equality and diversity and in particular in reference to underrepresented faculty populations.

On July 1, 2022, UC Merced's Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion transitioned to the Division of Equity, Justice and Inclusive Excellence (EJIE). With regards to the name change, Vice Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer Delia Saenz said that "diversity" isn't going anywhere. Instead, the focus is shifting toward cultivating an environment where a diverse community can thrive.

On February 24-25, 2023, UC Merced hosted its first Global Africana Studies Research Conference titled “Being and Becoming: Blackness in Multiple Contexts.” The event was co-sponsored by the Academic Senate and the UC Merced Black Alliance and the subject was on Black consciousness and African freedom.

UC Merced's Diversity Statement reads in part as follows: "When we address diversity on this campus, we do so boldly, daring to look forward and backward, imagining diversity’s demand for the 21st century and the importance of diversity in addressing past wrongs, reaffirming humanity, and ensuring a reconciliatory path of redress for the future."

In 2024, as part of the Office of Social Justice Initiatives & Identity Programs, UC Merced offers optional "Cultural Graduations" for Asian and Pacific Islander, "Lavender," "Afropolitan," and "Latinx" students. The office states, "These are congratulatory celebrations of the students' achievement and the step forward it means for them, their parents, their culture, and their lives." These special graduation ceremonies take place "sometime before the Official UC Merced Commencement."