Merced College honors former president Duran, wife with award, renaming of business center

Merced College honored former longtime president Ben Duran and his wife RoseMary Parga Duran during MC’s 10th annual “State of the College” event in downtown Merced on Thursday afternoon.

A crowd of more than 500 community leaders, local school administrators, Merced College staff and local dignitaries were on hand as Merced College President Chris Vitelli delivered his State of the College address and awarded Ben and RoseMary Parga Duran the President’s Medallion Award, which recognizes the college’s greatest supporters.

A brief ceremony followed in which the the Business Resource Center, which Duran played an instrumental role in getting built — was renamed the Dr. Benjamin T. Duran Business Resource Center.

Duran called the recognition a huge honor for him and his family and also everyone who helped him during his tenure at Merced College.

“It really was a culmination of a lot of people working together and that’s really what today was,” Duran said. “It really was a mutual honor of them and ourselves. We’re just delighted that this was able to happen today.”

Duran grew up in Le Grand as the son of migrant farm workers. As he grew up he fell in love with teaching, eventually becoming principal at Le Grand High School before moving on to Merced College.

“I absolutely loved my teachers,” Duran said. “I can go back to elementary school, to kindergarten, I still remember them with fondness and to this day the time I spent in the classroom is the greatest time in my life.”

Merced College saw it’s enrollment almost double during Duran’s 14-year tenure as the school’s president from 1998 through 2012. Merced College went from an enrollment around 6,000 students to over 12,000 students with Duran as president.

“We were providing access to student populations that typically wouldn’t have thought about coming to the college,” Duran said. “The proudest thing that I have are the people who have gone through and been successful.”

Duran spent his speech on Thursday talking about a couple of those success stories, about students who struggled in high school and eventually went on to U.C. Berkeley or an immigrant who had to learn to read and write English when they came to the U.S and was able to eventually make their way through the Merced College nursing program.

Merced College also saw new and renovated buildings during Duran’s leadership, including the Business Resource Center and the Los Banos Campus, that were funded by multiple bond measures that passed.

One success story Duran shared was his wife’s journey from Planada to Merced College to becoming an educator for 35 years, including becoming the first female superintendent for the Merced City School District, a role she served for 11 years.

“We teach in our leadership classes that the highest level of leadership is those that have a legacy of leadership, where others go out and continue to pursue their passions,” Vitelli said. “That’s what these two individuals — these trailblazers that represent our community is so many different ways — have done for education and higher education.”

During his “State of the College” speech Vitelli highlighted some of recent news surrounding Merced College.

The first topic Vitelli broached was the college’s goal to focus on the whole student and not just their academic pursuits.

“It’s no longer just our job to educate students inside of the classroom,” Vitelli said. “We’re also focus on their well-being.”

Merced College students have access to a Timely Care app that is a virtual health and well-being provider.

“I’m proud that Board of Trustees adopted an agreement with Timely Care just last year,” Vitelli said. “Timely Care now provides 24-hour service to all of our students...they will now have full-covered medical care, as well as mental health services just by being a student at Merced College.”

Vitelli expressed his excitement about the beginning of the construction of a new Career/Transfer Center on campus.

“We intend for this to be a place K-12 partners, our four-year partners, many of which are here, as well as all of our employers within our service area, can come and meet the high quality students that we have for internships and job placement,” Vitelli said.

Vitelli also revealed the Merced College nursing program has doubled its capacity in the past year. Merced College was originally approved for a maximum of 35 students per semester in the RN program and that has increased to 80 students.

Currently Merced College has 147 nursing students enrolled.

Vitelli also mentioned the $100 million housing facility for community college and transfer students that Merced College and UC Merced teamed up to address a housing shortage that affects low-income residents in Merced County.

The California Legislature approved the funding of the project in August of 2023.

Vitelli also highlighted Merced College’s partnership with Dreamscape Learn to bring immersive, VR-enabled learning experiences to students.

The new courses will be offered in Merced’s new Virtual Reality Center, which will open this fall.

“This is the most advance immersive technology that education can invest in and we are so excited to be on the cutting edges and our students get to see the world right here in Merced through this immersive virtual learning classroom,” Vitelli said.

Vitelli says Merced College has its eyes on the future and will continue to find better ways to serve its students.

“We’re laser-focused on being one of the most innovative community colleges in the country,” Vitelli said. “What that means is we’re going to embrace the best technology, the most innovative practices, we’re going to embrace things like artificial intelligence, knowing that is the future as we train your students and our community members here.”