UC Merced chancellor, who brought big ambitions to the small campus, to step down

MERCED, Calif. - Eight years ago, Dorothy Leland was getting ready to retire from the presidency of Georgia College & State University when she received an intriguing headhunter's call.

Are you interested in potentially heading UC Merced - the University of California's newest, smallest and most diverse campus?

Leland was familiar with the Central Valley's rural geography, having grown up in Fillmore, a Southern California agricultural town famous for its orange groves. She felt a kinship with the students, many of whom shared her background as the child of a Mexican immigrant and the first in her family to attend college. And she would get to lead efforts to build the university, then just 6 years old, essentially