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Updated: 05/16/2009 07:37:08 AM PDT
"Live video of speech, starts 1:25 p.m. Saturday
MERCED — Since it opened four years ago, the scrappy University of California-Merced has battled for recognition and respect. It's been hard to attract students and faculty to the fledgling Central Valley campus; students who are rejected from other UCs are referred to Merced. The sparsely built school of 2,700 doesn't have ranked sports teams, and there are no "Bobcat" alumni to raise money on its behalf.
Until now.
Thanks to an ultra-atomic campaign by a group of graduating students, First Lady Michelle Obama arrives on campus today as commencement speaker for the pioneering Class of 2009. That feat has vastly elevated the school's status, lit the dusky region with pride, and is filling hotels and restaurants with out-of-towners who usually confuse Merced with the region's other "M" towns, like Modesto and Manteca.
"This is the first step in UC-Merced becoming a prestigious university," said senior Efferman Ezell, a key organizer of "Operation Lady Bird," the code name students used as they waged their successful campaign earlier this spring to land Obama for their commencement speaker. "We have really upped the ante."
Now Ezell and other student leaders squeeze media interviews in between final exams, and the campus is giddy with anticipation. It took contractors three days to set up 12,000 rented white folding chairs and grounds keepers are mulching freshly planted trees. Even expectant jack rabbits are hopping among.." http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12381543?source=most_emailed
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