The San Joaquin Valley, a region stretching from Stockton to Bakersfield, has starved for a major research university of its own until UC Merced was founded in 2005. The Valley, more than any other area in the state, is economically and educationally depressed. The wealth a world-class research university typically brings would help reverse that trend that for decades has diminished the Valley's influence in the state. When the world thinks about economic and cultural powers in California, Silicon Valley and Hollywood -- not the Valley -- are what usually come up.

But UC Merced could do to the Valley's agricultural-based economy what Stanford did to Silicon Valley's high-tech culture. The UC system, known for its high-power research universities, has a slew of award-winning professors who spend billions of dollars of research money annually and lure the world's most talented graduate students. Those students and professors in turn could help spin off companies, injecting vitality into an agricultural-based economy that typically pays low wages and offers few benefits. Millions of dollars of paid wages could come as a result of companies founded by UC Merced alumni and faculty. Hundreds of inventions that would help the Valley's economy spring alive could emerge in the coming decades.

"The research conducted at UC Merced will spur economic interest for start-up companies that may have not been as likely without a research institution in the Valley," said Jorge Aguilar, associate vice chancellor for educational and community partnerships at UC Merced.

UC Regent Odessa Johnson agreed: "Companies generally locate around a UC campus. Look at UC Berkeley and the companies all around it because of the school's research and the quality of its professors and students. Look around the campuses of UC San Diego and UCLA. When this economic crises is over, UC Merced will be an economic engine of the Valley."

UC Merced's role is more important than ever because there's a shortage of top-flight universities in the Valley. There're no top-50 ranked colleges in the Valley, according to the U.S. News and World Report. And there're no nationally approved law schools and medical schools in the Valley, helping to create a shortage of lawyers and doctors in the region.

UC Merced, fortunately, is in the works to create a new medical school by 2013 that hopefully will train much of the region's doctors. That could help bring up the level of doctors in the Valley equal to that of Southern and Northern California. A business school is also planned for the near future. Both professional schools could lure grant money and star professors that would in turn catapult UC Merced's academic ranks into the top-tier in the coming decades.

The depressed Valley

The Valley has some of the nation's lowest college-going rates, thanks to a variety of factors including the flood of farmers who toil in the region's fields that supply over half of the nation's produce and fruits. Only areas in California bordering Mexico have college-going rates as low as the Valley. Only 12.8 percent of adults in Kings County have a bachelor's degree. Many struggle to eke out a living in the fields and in retail, helping to produce a sky-high poverty rate that until last year consistently hovered around 21 percent. Educational and poverty levels are similar in both Kern and Fresno counties, the most heavily populated counties in the region.

"The Measure of America," a high-profile study released this year by Columbia University Press, said the 20th Congressional District that includes parts of Fresno and Kern counties, as well as all of Kings County, ranked dead last in a national scorecard that ranks the overall well-being of residents. The assessment of education, income and health ranks the district 436th out of 436 districts nationwide. The median worker in the district earned $16,767 a year, the lowest in the nation. And the study said only 6.5 percent of adults in the district have a bachelor's degree, the second lowest in the nation.

Experts say income and education are linked. A worker with a bachelor's degree earns roughly 100 percent more than someone with only a high school diploma. That means the college graduate can earn about $1 million more than a high school graduate over a lifetime.

"If you look at statistically in the nation, where you have a better educational level, you have higher-paying jobs," said Dan Chin, a city councilman from Hanford in a September interview.

Incubator of wealth

World-class research universities typically spread wealth throughout the region they serve. UC San Diego, which expended $799 million for research and development last year, is a magnet for grant-rich faculty who are leaders in their field. The result is the seaside campus, home to 16 faculty who've won the Nobel Prize and ranked 14th internationally by Shanghai Jiao Tong University researchers, has transformed San Diego from a military outpost to a world-class high-tech engine. After the implosion of its aerospace industry in the early 1990s, San Diego saw its economy take a nose-dive. Droves of jobs vanished.

But a decade later a biotech power emerged in what is now the third largest in the nation, behind the San Francisco Bay Area and Boston. UC San Diego faculty and alumni have spun off more than a third of the region's biotech companies, helping to make San Diego an economic power envied by the world. Indeed, the median annual household income in San Diego County is among the highest of all metropolitan areas in the nation, at $61,794 a year.

Companies started by UC San Diego faculty and alumni create a powerful impact. The total statewide economic contribution from UC San Diego start-up companies is more than $37 billion annually and nearly 130,000 jobs. In San Diego County alone, these start-ups inject $32 billion in direct and indirect spending and personal income to the economy. These companies create nearly 115,000 jobs.

"UC San Diego changes the lives of San Diegans and Californians every day, through job creation, advanced patient care, disease and drug therapies, service in the local community, and world-renowned research and education," said UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox in a statement.

Faculty and alumni of UC San Diego have started 67 currently active companies in California that generate more than $10 billion in annual sales, of which $8.8 billion comes from Qualcomm Inc., founded in San Diego by former UC San Diego professor Irwin Jacobs.

"UC San Diego has a very positive impact on local businesses. Our region's diversified, highly technological economy owes much of its success to the influence of this advanced 21st century research institution in our midst," said Bob Akins, UC San Diego alumnus and co-founder of San Diego-based Cymer Inc., the world's leading supplier of excimer light sources, in a statement. "The highly skilled graduates of UC San Diego are one of the university's most significant contributions to the economy."

World-class institution

UC Merced, the newest UC campus, is no walk-in-the-park institution. The typical undergraduate works hard to earn an A, which is reflective of the top-notch standards the UC system imposes on all its students and faculty. Professors are hand-picked from the world's pre-eminent universities.

Nearly all UC Merced professors have earned their doctorates at world-famous institutions like Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first 100 faculty at UC Merced were selected out of a pool of 10,000 applicants, nearly all of whom hold doctorates.

"It's statistically easier to be an astronaut than a UC Merced faculty member," said Kevin Browne, assistant vice chancellor of enrollment management at UC Merced. "UC Merced faculty are the cream of the crop."

The result is UC Merced expended $13.1 million for research this year, more than double that of California State University, Fresno, an institution with about eight times the number of students and nine times the number of faculty.

UC Merced undergraduates are just as promising, having been sifted through an admissions system that only selects the top 12.5 percent of the state's high school graduates. They typically aspire to go on to graduate school. They dream to be doctors, lawyers, dentists, optometrists, pharmacists, teachers, engineers and executives.

"We're setting the bar really high," said Kimi Asato, 21, of La Habra, an undergraduate majoring in human biology who aspires to attend graduate school studying physical therapy at Columbia. "The people I study with are ridiculously driven."

Most UC Merced students see a bachelor's degree as a stepping stone to something bigger.

"A bachelor's isn't enough," said Evelyn DaMate-Senga, 20, of Los Feliz, an undergraduate majoring in molecular cell biology who aspires to not only earn a master's degree at UC Merced but also become a physician assistant. "You can't settle for a bachelor's degree. That's the bare minimum. Lots of students here want more education. The faculty here push us to do more."

Drive isn't the only element in the typical UC Merced student.

"All you see at UC Merced is bright people," said Encarnacion Ruiz, director of admissions at UC Merced. "A 3.54 GPA -- the average GPA for those admitted -- is nothing to sneeze at. We have an exceptional group of students. We have leaders."

As a result of the top-notch faculty and students, the academic environment at UC Merced is typically rigorous, like any UC campus.

"Classes are getting harder semester by semester," said Catherine Quicho, 18, an undergraduate majoring in biology who graduated from a high school with a 4.1 GPA. "At UC Merced, if I get a good grade, it's because I work hard. There're a lot of smart people here."

UC Merced officials agree.

"There's zero difference between UC Merced and the other UC schools," said Browne, who worked at UC Santa Cruz for years before moving to the UC Merced campus. "Our faculty and students are selected in the same way as in other UC campuses."

Robin Maria DeLugan, an assistant professor of anthropology at UC Merced, is one of the UC Merced faculty members whose resume would land her in many top-tier universities. But she chose her first full-time teaching job at UC Merced because "starting a career in the UC system is a prestigious position," DeLugan said. "A lot of people work their way up to get into the UC system, which is in the top-tier in higher education," she said.

Asked why a slew of applicants vie to obtain a precious spot as a UC Merced professor, DeLugan said: "UC Merced is part of the prestigious UC system, and you get to be in California -- to be part of the warmth and to be in close proximity to Yosemite and the San Francisco Bay Area. Merced is also more affordable, and you get the chance to build a new university."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2423.

(Oct. 13, 2008)