2023

Pacific Union College is embarking on a new three-school model for the upcoming year and announced Tuesday the appointments of the deans who will help lead the efforts to maintain and grow the college’s academic excellence.PUC is committed to high-quality academic programs while maintaining the cultural, spiritual, and lifestyle base that gives students a rich, full Seventh-day Adventist campus experience.As part of this new plan, PUC is launching the three-school model, a recommendation initiated and developed by the college’s academic leadership. The three schools are Nursing & Health Sciences; Arts, Humanities, & Professions; and Sciences. To lead each school, the PUC administration announced the following leadership appointments:Kimberly Dunker, current chair of the Nursing and Health Sciences Department and a professor of nursing, will serve as dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences.Milbert Mariano, PUC’s vice president for academic administration and academic dean, will transition to dean of the School of Arts, Humanities & Professions.Aimee Wyrick, an associate professor of biology, will become the dean of the School of Sciences. “Each of these leaders is committed to PUC and its Christ-centered mission and will help us better serve our students and build a bright future,” President Ralph Trecartin said....

Lindsay Morton, an experienced educator with a heart for Christ and the college’s mission and vision, will become vice president for academic administration and academic dean in July, Pacific Union College announced Tuesday.Prior to her current role as associate academic dean, Morton served two years as an English professor at PUC. Before coming to the United States, she taught in Australia at Avondale College of Higher Education for seven years. She was also the assistant dean for the Faculty of Arts, Nursing, and Theology. “Lindsay is a strong leader with insight and wisdom,” President Ralph Trecartin said. “She is innovative, pragmatic, and a consensus builder.”Trecartin said he admires Morton’s leadership skills and her ability to be idealistic but realistic when making critical administrative decisions. Among her duties, Morton will serve on the president's cabinet, drive accreditation, oversee academic support areas, and create additional pathways for students through new strategic partnerships. She will continue to evaluate and reinvigorate the student experience, manage student requests and issues, and work to deepen the integration of faith and learning. All this fits into PUC's vision of offering students a modernized, simplified, Christ-centered college experience on campus and beyond.“In the future, I want PUC to...

The Department of Chemistry at Pacific Union College has added high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to their department and is also getting new balances for their labs.Specifically, the HPLC is an Agilent 1260 with a diode array detector (DAD). This allows their department to analyze non-volatile mixtures of compounds that absorb light in the UV or visible spectrum. The HPLC does this by pumping a solvent at high pressure through a column; that separates the mixture of compounds. Then the compounds are measured by the DAD one at a time. They can use the information from the detector to determine the identity of the compound and its concentration. This is often used for pharmaceuticals, foods and beverages, biological samples, research mixtures of compounds, and many more. Due to the versatility of the instrument, many laboratories use this equipment, thus allowing PUC chemistry students to gain hands-on experience with the technique.Professor of Chemistry Robert Wilson shared that he has already had a student work on a method to separate acetaminophen, caffeine, and aspirin, which are often found in over the counter headache medicine as a mixture. “The method is quick, allowing students to become familiar with the instrumentation and processing data before...

Pacific Union College’s School of Nursing has received a $540,000 grant from California’s Department of Healthcare Access and Information (HCAI), funding that will help address the statewide nursing shortage by expanding training opportunities. Chair of Nursing and Health Sciences Kimberly Dunker said PUC will use the grant to ensure nursing student success by funding scholarships and providing support through tutoring. It will also be used to purchase high-fidelity simulation technology along with faculty support, development, and simulation training.“Expanding our simulation program allows us to meet mandatory clinical requirements while still meeting student outcomes. This ensures compliance with minimum clinical hours in the case of a pandemic, fire evacuation or other disaster,” Dunker said. “It also may allow us to expand our RN enrollment in the future.”On March 7, HCAI awarded $16.9 million in grants to 32 registered nurse training programs, including PUC, to help expand programs and improve access to high-quality health care in California. The funding supports 565 new student slots across the state, an increase of more than 150 since the previous application cycle. The awards were made possible through the Song-Brown Healthcare Workforce Training Act, which helps organizations establish and expand primary care training programs. One of...

Pacific Union College is proud to share that Bob Paulson, chair and professor of kinesiology, was selected by the SDA-HPERA award selection team for the organization’s “Service Award”. Those considered for this award must have a minimum of 30 years of service in the SDA education in the area of health, physical education, recreation, or related professions; contribute to church and community and their institution through campus leadership activities; and consistent active support of the Seventh-day Adventist Health, Physical Education, Recreation Association. Serving PUC students as a professor has been, and continues to be, an honor for Paulson. “We have fantastic, creative, and intelligent students at PUC,” shares Paulson. “Teaching is much more than the time spent in the classroom. When we care we try to interact in places like the Grind, Cafeteria, and of course Intramurals. I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to serve our students in this community-building environment.” The students are what makes teaching at PUC so enjoyable for Paulson. “Playing a part in their growth and development is not only an honor, but it is clearly a lot of fun.”The SDA-HPERA is hosting an award presentation at their national convention on Monday, March 27,...

He started with just 10 minutes. Midway through his junior year, Beven Delos Reyes found himself the sole RA on the fourth floor of Newton Hall. It kept him busier than usual six days a week, particularly during late-night room checks.But Reyes took his role seriously. For him, it was more than a job—he wanted to spiritually connect more closely with the people in his hallway. He began a nightly open-invitation dorm worship time called “10@10.” A small group of young men would gather for music, a devotional, discussion, and prayer.The “10@10” was short. But it was a success, and that spark ignited something even more significant—completely revitalizing Newton Hall’s entire dorm worship. First, they met in the residence hall lobby, but soon there was such a large gathering they moved into the Newton Hall chapel, where it became an even greater success.Reyes said the atmosphere of dorm worship is meaningful to him. “I love the intimate setting where you can hear everyone singing and engaging through worship,” he said. “As a result, the room fills with life, and you can really see, hear and feel a sense of community.”After the isolation of the pandemic, so many were in dire...

PUC senior Gil Fayard recently spoke to the preschool class at Sacramento Adventist Academy about how to behave in an emergency and his experience as a firefighter and EMT. The students were eager to hear what he had to say as they sat on a mat in the middle of the classroom. In his presentation, Fayard described how to call 911, stop, drop and roll, and escape a burning building. The students asked many questions as they were excited to learn about being a firefighter.Their preschool teacher Natalie, Fayard’s sister, informed him that the kids were interested in the fire trucks he rides, so he showed them pictures of their units stationed in Angwin. At the end of his presentation, he showed the students how he rapidly donned his structured fire gear. They counted each second as he put his pants, suspenders, jacket, helmet, and gloves put on. “I told them that even though we look big and scary in our fire gear, we are here to help!” Fayard shared. “I was grateful for the opportunity to present to the preschoolers at SAA. They were attentive, bright, and excited to learn new things. I am not used to presenting to...

The psychology students at Pacific Union College, with the support of their faculty mentors, have received 10 Psi Chi Regional Research Awards over the past 10 years. During this time, PUC earned the 2nd highest number of awards of all schools in the western region and the seventh highest number of awards across all regions in the United States!There are about 10 PUC students who are a part of Psi Chi. “These awards are a true testament to the hard work our faculty and students do every day,” said Damaris Perez, chair of psychology and social work. “We are committed to teaching and supporting our students and their pursuit of research endeavors. We take great pride in their accomplishments and hope to continue reaching these milestones.” Psi Chi is an International Honor Society committed to recognizing and promoting excellence in the science and application of psychology. These awards are earned by Psi Chi student members whose empirical research has been evaluated as outstanding by faculty judges and who personally present their research at one of the regional conferences. The awards are highly competitive as the regional conferences draw a large number of the best student researchers each year. The psychology...

The Pacific Union College Board of Trustees met for its annual winter meeting on Feb. 26. After an extensive review, the Board voted to pass recommendations that will produce a balanced budget and create a strong future for the college.“We are grateful to the Board for its support and teamwork as we worked to create a strong foundation for Pacific Union College,” President Ralph Trecartin said. “Although there will be changes, our plans set PUC up for growth and future success. We look forward to where God is leading us.”Like many colleges and universities nationwide, PUC has been navigating issues regarding enrollment, mounting student debt, and the changing landscape of higher education.For several months, the PUC administration and Board members have worked together diligently alongside their respective subcommittees to present a balanced budget plan. This year was particularly complex because the college is losing two, one-time, major revenue sources which helped to balance the budget in the current fiscal year.In the next fiscal year, PUC will no longer receive checks related to its property easement and government-issued COVID relief funding. Though the college has stabilized enrollment and, in fact, increased its economic full-time equivalent (EFTE) over fall and winter, more...

Seventh-day Adventist higher education is facing many challenges. Lack of affordability. Mounting student debt. Emerging college alternatives. These are just some of the unprecedented difficulties colleges and universities nationwide—not just Adventist ones—have been grappling with in the last few years.“Then the pandemic hit,” said Tony Yang, vice president for strategy, marketing, and enrollment and chief communication officer at Andrews University. But leaders at Adventist colleges and universities are working to change that, setting aside their competitive differences to further the mission of Seventh-day Adventist education.The Adventist Enrollment Association (AEA) is a group of enrollment administration officers and representatives from all 13 Adventist colleges and universities in North America. It was created to centrally brand and position institutions together, create awareness and visibility of college options, and expand access to Adventist young people.Yang, also the president of the AEA, said he sees hope for the future of Adventist higher education because of its shared mission. “Now, perhaps more than ever, we have an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with a world that’s facing increasingly challenging times.”Recently, on Jan. 24-25, the AEA met at Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, Texas, to discuss, evaluate and plan joint marketing and enrollment efforts...