Leader of Texas university named UC Merced’s fourth chancellor
UC Merced officials announced Wednesday that Juan Sánchez Muñoz has been chosen by the UC Board of Regents as the university’s new chancellor.
Over a year has passed since UC Merced’s former chancellor Dorothy Leland announced she would step down after eight years in the role. Nathan Brostrom served as interim chancellor since.
Muñoz will be UCM’s fourth chancellor since it opened in 2005. He will begin his role in early July, according to a UC Merced press release.
To smooth the transition, Brostrom will split his time and work with Muñoz through July before returning to the UC Office of the President full time on Aug. 1.
Muñoz previously served as president at the University of Houston-Downtown since 2017.
“It is an honor and a privilege to lead UC Merced, a campus that distinguished itself in just 15 years as an exemplar of educational opportunity,” said Muñoz, a first-generation college graduate, in the release.
“Having dedicated my career to student success and creating access to the transformational power of higher education across racial and social lines, I’m excited to continue that work at the University of California, a world-renowned public institution.”
In his first year at UHD, Muñoz led the university’s largest capital campaign and its recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey. He presided over increases in enrollment, retention and graduation, as well as launching new degree programs including a bachelor’s of science in nursing and data science, the release said.
“Dr. Muñoz’s accomplishments are a testament to the power and opportunities created by public higher education,” said UC President Janet Napolitano in the release. “I am certain he will build on his valuable experiences to lead Merced, UC’s newest campus, so that it continues to grow and thrive.”
UC Merced educates the highest percentage of first-generation and low-income students in the UC system and will accommodate 10,000 more students after the completion of Merced 2020 — a public-private partnership that will double the campus’s size.
Muñoz’s move to the UC system is a return to his California upbringing and academic roots, the release said. He earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from UC Santa Barbara and a master of arts in Mexican-American Studies from California State University, Los Angeles. Muñoz then received a doctorate of philosophy from UCLA.
Early in his career, Muñoz was a secondary school teacher, a community college adviser and an instructor in California. He was honorably discharged as a sergeant from the U.S. Marine Corps as well.
He later worked as an assistant professor at California State University, Fullerton in the department of secondary education.
“Dr. Muñoz’s career and accomplishments demonstrate his strong commitment to higher education, to social mobility, and — most important — to student progress and achievement,” said Erik Flores, who was the undergraduate student representative on the chancellor search committee, in the release.
“His leadership and values will be a tremendous asset to the UC Merced community.”
The Board of Regents approved Muñoz’s salary at $425,000.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 12:33 PM with the headline "Leader of Texas university named UC Merced’s fourth chancellor."
