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Is the University of California system still the great equalizer it was designed to be? That question has been vexing the state for much of the last decade, with enormous budget cuts to higher education and increasingly high tuition.

And while Latinos make up more than half of the state’s high school students, the same is true at only one University of California campus: Merced.

Merced is the newest addition to the system and has yet to attain the kind of prestige as other campuses. It is easier to get into than any other U.C. school and is the campus students are funneled to if they qualify for admission to the system but are rejected from the campuses where they apply.

At the same time, Merced has attracted students from all over California, with roughly a third from the state’s northern, southern and central regions. It is in the midst of a $1.1 billion expansion that will double the size of the campus and increase student enrollment by more than 50 percent.