2006

On October 7, 2006, a special concert commemorated the 25th birthday of the Rieger organ at Pacific Union College. With Del Case, professor emeritus of music, on the organ and guest musicians on the violin and harp, the concert featured a wide range of composers with music from the 17th century to the present. The Rieger organ was installed in the spring and summer of 1981, culminating over 30 years of dreaming and planning by organists Warren Becker, Lowell Smith and Del Case. Under Case’s direction and research, the college decided to have the organ constructed by Rieger Orgelbau of Austria. Case also determined the tonal design, headed the fundraising effort, and supervised the installation and voicing of the organ. With four manuals, 58 stops, 85 ranks and over 4,700 pipes, the organ remains the largest mechanical tracker action pipe organ in the Western United States. Many prestigious organists from the United States and Europe have performed on the Rieger, and three recordings have been produced. In his comments at the performance, Case explained that the organ cost $380,000 when it was installed; if we were to replace it today, it would cost at least $1.5 million....

Tim Gillespie, the campus chaplain at Loma Linda Academy, has been the speaker for this year’s first Week of Prayer at Pacific Union College. The week’s thoughts, summed up in his theme, “The Shallow End of the Pool,” are drawn from Gillespie’s life-long passion for swimming and offer humorous twists to otherwise serious topics like freedom and belonging. While morning sessions retained their typical format, Gillespie utilized an innovative format in the evening meetings in which the audience takes over the microphone and dialogues within itself about the day’s topic. PUC holds one week of prayer near the beginning of each quarter in order to infuse the student body with a sense of spirituality. Morning classes are shortened from fifty to forty minutes in order to accommodate the additional meeting time....

A sunny Sabbath morning in September found a group of Angwin residents, including several Pacific Union College faculty and staff members, holding their Sabbath school class in an unlikely location: a high school track in Calistoga. But they weren’t the only people there; a Relay for Life was in full swing, with members of about 50 teams walking or running laps in an event that celebrates survivorship and raises money to help the American Cancer Society. The TLC4 Sabbath school class, a group started and led by PUC education professor Jim Roy, signed up a team for the 24-hour event. “We felt it was a good way to spend our time and energy,” says Maggie Roy, the team captain and a social work department staff member. The team had a member on the track at all times, while holding their Sabbath school class and running an on-site fundraiser. The team’s creative fundraiser won them a “Best Use of Humor” award during the event. They had paper bras and boxer shorts pinned to a large umbrella, and when people came up to ask what they were all about, they were told that for any donation amount they could take the paper...

The first all-school colloquy of the year took place on Thursday, September 28, complete with the traditional procession faculty members in full regalia and bearing the school banners, the singing of hymn #1, and a church full of spirit as the college steps into a new academic year. College president Richard Osborn introduced the program with an emphasis on this year as PUC’s 125th anniversary. Director of public relations Julie Z. Lee and professors Cynthia Westerbeck and Bill Hemmerlin talked about their experience of PUC as a learning community, especially in light of last year’s decision to maintain our name as a college rather than changing to “university.” They reminded the assembly that that it’s about growing, learning, and finding one’s way; that a liberal arts education provides students with “freedom from single-minded servitude to your profession”; and that teachers are truly invested in their students as individuals both in and out of the classroom, before and after graduation....

School is back and the Pacific Union College Student Association kicked off the academic year with an al fresco fiesta, complete with a live mariachi band. Hundreds of students, faculty, and staff gathered at the track and field on Monday evening, September 25, to socialize and dine picnic-style on the grass. The annual event is a farewell to the summer, an opportunity for people to reconnect, and a celebration for the start of the fall quarter. “I think [the All School Party] is a good segue into the year. It starts everyone off on a good note and in a friendly atmosphere. It shows that PUC likes to have fun,” said Kristina Reiber, a sophomore English major. The majority of the college’s student body returned to campus over the weekend in preparation for classes, which began on Tuesday, September 26. The incoming freshmen, however, started moving into the residence halls last Thursday. In another campus tradition called Porter Power, campus volunteers helped the new students get settled by carrying boxes and suitcases to their rooms. “I think it’s really important to make the students feel welcome,” says Linda Cochran, assistant professor of nursing. She has been helping with Porter Power...

A younger set of students than usual occupied the classrooms and labs of Fisher Hall, PUC’s hub of visual arts action, on September 6 and 7. The 16th annual Publication Workshop brought nearly 200 Pacific Union Conference academy students and their sponsors a solid stretch of classes and workshops providing practical, hands-on training in the specific media of yearbooks, newspapers, video yearbooks, and this year’s new unit on radio podcasts. This year’s theme was “Making Your Own History.” Elegant signs reclining on easels in the halls directed participants to the gauntlet of classes, which were divided into “learning pods” in order for the students to focus on their specific roles as writers, editors, designers, photographers, video editors, podcasters or sponsors. This year’s increased enrollment meant that some classes had to be offered several times or presented in large-capacity lecture halls. The Mac lab, video editing lab, and PUC Radio studio provided real-life working locations for many workshops, and a lineup of 21 talented and experienced presenters brought their personal experience to the classrooms for the 40-plus sessions on vital publication skills. Leticia Russell, coordinator of the workshop and a member of PUC’s Student Success Center team, has been working with...

The Pioneers sports teams of Pacific Union College have received the “California Pacific Conference Team Sportsmanship Award” for the 2005-2006 season. The award was presented to Robert Castillo, director of athletics, at the annual Cal Pac Conference convention at Dominican University of California on August 27, 2006. The sportsmanship award is presented to the member institution that displays outstanding sportsmanship and exemplifies the true spirit of the “Champions of Character” program set forth by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Since it was first presented after the 1999-2000 season, coaches from the member institutions have determined the award through a voting system and presented the award at the Cal Pac convention each fall. This is the Pioneers’ second time to receive the award; it was also presented to PUC for the 2002-2003 season. Other recipients have been Simpson College (now Simpson University, Redding, Calif.) and Menlo College (Atherton, Calif.). PUC is one of 10 institutions that make up the Cal Pac Conference. As a member of the NAIA, the Pioneers compete in the conference in women’s volleyball, men’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, and men’s and women’s basketball....

In the annual “America’s Best Colleges” report of U.S. News & World Report, Pacific Union College is once again ranked in the top tier of the Best Comprehensive Colleges–Bachelor’s, western region. The category is for institutions that focus on undergraduate education and offer a range of degree programs, and high scores are based on peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving. Aspects of PUC that contribute to its high score include its proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students, a high percent of faculty who are full time, alumni giving, and solid freshman retention rates. Pacific Union College is a four-year liberal arts college in Angwin. PUC focuses on undergraduate education and offers a full lineup of bachelor’s degrees. For over ten years, the college has consistently ranked in the top tier for its category in U.S. News & World Report....

Summer always finds a collection of PUC students scattered around the world for mission projects. This year was no exception, with students working at a day camp in Thailand and a moving summer camp in Micronesia, teaching English in Korea, and preaching in Mexico. PUC junior Elben Capule, who was in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand, for two months, found his experience of the culture very positive. “It's very respectful and kind. I like it so much and have gotten quite used to it.” In addition to his main tasks of teaching English, music, and tennis in the summer day camp and specialty camps, Elben helped start a youth ministry. The student missionaries invited high school students—many of whom have never been to church—to “Thursday Night Live,” where the students spent time playing games, eating, and having topic discussions with the student missionaries. “Just the fact that the students were weekly was fulfilling for me,” says Elben. “We’re hoping this program will last all year round.” Student Jonathan Fox wasn’t planning on going on a summer mission trip, but made a last-minute decision to join the group in Micronesia—and, he says, it “ended up to be exactly where I was...

There were 29 smart, youthful individuals at PUC July 23–28 for the annual PacificQuest program, a summer event for gifted and talented students entering grades 8-10. Designed to challenge students in ways not always possible in typical high school and junior high classrooms, PacificQuest gives these students a chance to learn from PUC professors, earn an hour of college credit, and enjoy recreation and activities with each other. This year’s theme was “Communicating with Style and Purpose,” and all the students took the core Communication Skills for Young Leaders class, which focused on key communication skills such as decoding nonverbal gestures, being a powerful listener and speaker, and understanding persuasion principles. Each student also chose an area of emphasis, either “The Physics of Communications” or “Italian Culture and Language.” In the communication physics class, students explored and experimented with various communication techniques from smoke signals to fiber optics, learning historical and physical aspects of how communications are accomplished. The Italian students enjoyed speaking, singing, and eating for their experience of Italian culture. They also had a chance to admire the work of a local Venetian artist, explore local suppliers of olio d’oliva, and learn about soccer, opera, fashion, art and...