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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...