What happens when you combine digital-native collegeseniors with a tech savvy White House and a dash of"si, se puede" determination?
You wind up with first lady Michelle Obama deliveringthe commencement address to the 450 members of the Universityof California, Merced's firstfour-year class.
It'squite a coup for the 2,700-student university. Obama snubbed the heavy weights,including that UC campus in Los Angeles, infavor of the Central Valley newcomer. TheNew York Times reports it will be her only stop on the collegecommencement circuit. Heronly other appearance will be at a Washington, D.C., high school.
"While we were working on this campaign, manypeople told us that it was impossible, that Michelle Obama would never come toUC Merced," student Sam Fong, one of agroup of students who spearheaded the effort to convince Obama, said in a UC Merced news release. "Butour team worked hard, believing all along that the first lady would respond toour efforts and our passion. Now, our efforts have paid off, and we are alltremendously excited for Mrs. Obama to come to UC Merced!"
But thesestudents know the Internet and know how to use it. The campaign included a635-member strong Facebook group, backing of the studentgovernment that featured a letter template on its Web page, avideo produced entirely by students and posted on YouTubeand, for an old-fashioned touch, 900 Valentines sent by snail mail.
It didn't hurt to have friends with connections. Thestudents also turned to Merced native and Harvard Law professor CharlesJ. Ogletree Jr. He's mentored both Obamas and hasnever forgotten his hometown, returning to give the keynote speech when theuniversity opened in 2005.
Not a bad marketing campaign for a university whose businessschool hasn't even opened yet.
The result: Merced will be theplace to be in CaliforniaMay 16. Obama made it official last Friday.
The speech will come just days before the beginningsof UC Merced are old enough to drink. It was May 19, 1988 that the UCRegents voted to create a Central Valleycampus. Merced was picked as the site seven years later.
The townneeded it: Nearby Castle Force Base closed that same year, taking 6,000military and civilian personnel and a $225 million contribution to the localeconomy with it.
Theuniversity still faced a battle, as local environmentalists filed severallawsuits to try to stop construction on sensitive wetlands that are home afraction of the year to the tiny but endangered fairy shrimp.
It facedpolitical battles as well, its opening delayed a year when Sacramentoscrimped on funding.
Itcontinues to battle for students, drawing lessthan half the applicants this year as the ninth-most popular UC, Riverside.
Thetown, meanwhile, is battling an unemployment rate teetering toward 20percent and median home prices that have fallen from $382,000 to $105,000 inless than three years.
Many of the almost 3,000 enrolled at UC Merced view itnot as a battle, but as a chance to be a part of creating something. The smallsize is not a drawback but anattribute, allowing them better access to professors and researchopportunities not usually afforded undergrads.
It wasthat pioneering spirit that appealed to Obama.
"The first lady is looking forward to speaking tostudents and their families who have worked so hard to achieve thismilestone," deputy press secretary Semonti Mustaphi told the MercedSun-Star.
