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Pacific Union College is unveiling two new academic programs available for students in the 2012-2013 school year. In the fall, the department of visual arts will begin offering aspiring artists a new bachelor of fine arts while the department of mathematics is spearheading a new interdisciplinary biomathematics major for students interested in both mathematics and biology. PUC’s new bachelor of fine arts (BFA) program offers a professional degree with a unique combination of graphic design, fine art, photography, and film and television production in a comprehensive BFA degree. “We’re all really excited about the program,” says Milbert Mariano, chair of the department of visual arts. “It’s a more professional degree that prepares students to either go on to graduate school or be a professional in those areas due to the intensity of the program.” The BFA curriculum will be more focused on core visual arts classes than those of the BA and BS programs offered by the department. To facilitate the larger focus on departmental classes, students in the program will have a reduced general education requirement. BFA-track students will focus about 20 percent of their classes on art history or art criticism to gain a greater depth of knowledge...

Award winning TV journalist Christof Putzel will speak at Pacific Union College’s Communication Honor Society Symposium on Friday, May 4, at 12 p.m. in Scales Chapel. Putzel will discuss his journey as a reporter, share some of the most intriguing stories from the front lines, and field questions during a Q & A segment. Admission is free. The symposium will begin with an episode screening of Vanguard, a documentary series highlighting global and social issues. Vanguard is one of the top shows on Current TV—a progressive television network co-founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in 2005. Putzel, one of the show’s three correspondents, serves as a guide who takes viewers on a journey into some of the most dangerous parts of the world. Vanguard’s current season features Putzel investigating drug cartels in Mexico, the Occupy Wall Street movement in Zuccotti Park, and the famous “Smoking Baby” in Indonesia. A third-generation news reporter, Putzel has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and won an Alfred I. duPont Award, a Livingston Award, a National Headliner Awards and two Webby Awards. His work has appeared on ABC’s Nightline, Good Morning America, CBC, and the Sundance Channel. “We’re thrilled about the opportunity to...

Vola Andrianarijaona, a professor of physics at Pacific Union College and a winner of a grant from the National Science Foundation, recently returned from a research trip to Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of the world’s top experimental physics laboratories. His subject: charge transfer of astroparticles, a largely unexplored area of physics with a broad range of both theoretical and practical applications. “I chose to focus on these particles because no one else is doing them, because they’re too difficult,” says Andrianarijaona. That’s no idle boast. The particles within the scope of Vola’s research—specifically ion-neutral molecular hydrogen—simply do not exist in Earth’s normal environment, and only occur naturally in the near-vacuum of space and the extreme upper atmosphere. The resources to simulate the conditions required in Andrianarijaona’s research exist in only a handful of facilities in the world—including Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee; and the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. The physicist has spent much of the last few months gravitating between those facilities, pushing forward on cutting edge experiments. Several of the techniques he is using are so revolutionary that they don’t even have a name, including one apparatus in Belgium that he himself designed and...

Sister Helen Prejean, social activist and author, will speak about her ministry at Pacific Union College’s Colloquy Speaker Series May 3. Prejean’s ministry focuses on the moral dilemma of the death penalty and her proactive efforts to abolish the death penalty in the United States. Prejean began her work in prison ministry in 1981 when she became pen pals with Louisiana death row inmate Patrick Sonnier. She became Sonnier’s spiritual advisor, while at the same time learning more about the execution process. Prejean witnessed Sonnier’s execution in the electric chair April 5, 1984. Her resulting book—Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States—became a New York Times bestseller, was nominated for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, and was subsequently made into a major motion picture nominated for four Academy Awards and ultimately winning Susan Sarandon the 1995 Oscar for Best Actress. Prejean will give her presentation May 3 at 10 a.m. in the PUC Church Sanctuary. Admission is free. ...

Since 2008, the Green Club has been active on the PUC campus promoting environmentally friendly practices and working to educate students about what it means to “be green.” The rise of the club has been accompanied by several other green movements—a major in environmental studies and the club’s annual hosting of Green Week. “The mission for Green Club is primarily to promote environmental awareness among the students, faculty, and staff at PUC,” says Darlene Teddy, Green Club president. “We try to promote choosing the environmentally friendly option and educate them about the ways that they can be green in their everyday life.” The club has already been active this year on campus with several events. In February, they ran a film series about important environmental issues. “The movies that we've chosen are what we thought would be most relevant to college students or things that the average college student deals with,” says Teddy. Food, Inc., Tapped, Fuel, and The Cove played in the Campus Center, and the viewings were open to all students. The club has also been involved with the student body by putting up flyers around campus with facts and suggestions to help students be more environmentally conscious....