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October
16, 2000 209-724-4406 UC MERCED NAMES BAKERSFIELD REGIONAL COORDINATOR Merced, CA - Lori Black of Bakersfield has been named regional coordinator of the UC Merced Bakersfield Center, it was announced today by UC Merced Director of Academic Programs Joseph Castro. Black, who taught at the high school level for 9 years, has most recently served as a training coordinator for AFSA Data Corp. in Bakersfield. She begins her duties at UC Merced today. "We are very pleased to have Lori Black join our staff," said Castro. "She will play a key role in the development of our Bakersfield Center, which will be a hub for our distributed learning and outreach programs. Her training and teaching experience will certainly boost our capabilities." Black holds a BS degree from Ohio State University in Columbus, and an MS degree in educational administration from Cal State Bakersfield. She was a teacher at Lakota High School from 1996 to 1998, then joined AFSA Data. From 1998 to 1999, she also served as an instructor at Santa Barbara Business College. The UC Merced Bakersfield Center is scheduled to open in February 2001 at 2000 K Street. The facility will be a center for distributed learning, which leverages technology such as videoconferencing, internet, and e-mail to deliver course work to students. The university already operates a distributed learning center in Fresno at 550 E. Shaw, and plans to create another center in Modesto in coming months. The university, which will open its main campus in Merced in the fall of 2004, has already begun offering some programs through its Fresno Center, including: professional development programs, K-12 teacher trainings, summer courses for UC students, and UC preparation workshops for educational counselors. UC Merced, the 10th campus of the University of California System, will be the first major research university built in the United States in the 21st century. In partnership with the people of the San Joaquin Valley and of California, UC Merced will create a multi-cultural community of scholars and students that benefit from unique new methods of leveraging technology to create and share knowledge. UC Merced will extend the benefits of California's public research university to the most populous region of the state without a UC campus, the San Joaquin Valley. The university will serve students in three ways that compliment the changing needs of today's society: 1) through a residential campus in Merced; 2) through distributed learning centers elsewhere in the San Joaquin Valley; and 3) through unique partnerships and cooperative agreements with the other two branches of California state higher education: CCC and CSU. UC Merced will open for instruction in fall 2004; at that time the university will serve 1,000 students. ### James
Grant Tel.
1-209-724-4406 james.grant@ucop.edu |