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The celebration of Black History Month at Pacific Union College began with a civil rights pioneer sharing his experiences from the era. Congressional Gold Medalist Terrence Roberts, one of the iconic Little Rock Nine, spoke to the gathered PUC students, faculty, and staff on February 7. Roberts was a member of PUC's faculty in the mid 1970s.To his PUC audience, Roberts spoke about his motivation and participation in the journey toward civil rights. While still in high school in 1957, he became one of the Little Rock Nine when he and eight other African-American students put their lives on the line to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. In 1999, Roberts received the Congressional Gold Medal from President Bill Clinton for his part in this remarkable moment in U.S. history.Roberts reminisced about life in Little Rock as a teenager — noting that people had had hundreds of years to develop an expertise in discrimination: "For 335 years, it was legal and constitutional to discriminate against people based on racial group memberships," he said. "Discrimination seemed to be second nature to white people in Little Rock."For Roberts and his young friends who became "the nine," it wasn't about making...

Pacific Union College hosted Rep. Mike Thompson for the Election 2012 installment of the Colloquy Speaker Series Thursday morning, continuing a focus on civic engagement on the campus in the run up to the 2012 General Election.Quoting Dwight Eisenhower who stated that “politics should be the part-time profession of every man,” Thompson urged students to involve themselves in the civic process and the upcoming election. “What happens in politics influences your day-to-day life,” he noted.Thompson noted the many issues at stake in this election that affects students particularly access to affordable, quality education and federal college aid.“I happen to believe education is one of the most important things for the future of our country,” he said. “What you’re learning today, you’re gonna put in practice tomorrow. The future of our country—our economic well-being, our national security, the health of our environment, the sustainability of our country, our principles and our values in part are going to be formed by what you and your colleagues across the country are learning today in schools, and it is so incredibly important.”Following his talk, Thompson fielded a variety of questions from students on a wide range of topics including the Patient Protection and Affordable...

A group of Pacific Union College students and staff spent a week providing medical care and health information to villagers along the Amazon River—part of a medical service trip in conjunction with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Brazil, August 21-29. The trip continued a recent increase in focus on humanitarian service at the college. The group traveled along the Amazon River aboard a boat, the Luzeiro 26, stopping in the remote villages which line the river. The Luzeiro 26 is one of ADRA’s river boats dedicated to reaching the villagers in the interior Amazon Basin in Brazil. With the help of local professionals, the group set up medical clinics for villagers to consult with a physician or receive dental care. They also conducted medical screenings, health presentations, workshops, and expos to aid the communities in preventing future medical issues. The educational programs make a notable impact in the locals’ lives, explains Fabio Maia, service and missions coordinator at Pacific Union College. “The problems you see in these communities are the same,” says Maia. “A lot of the people are dehydrated because they don’t drink enough water and they sweat like crazy—it’s 100 degrees and 100 percent humid, so people...

The Pacific Union College Board of Trustees has approved a freeze in the cost of tuition, room, and board for the 2012-2013 academic year — holding prices at the 2011-2012 rate. It is the first time since 1984 that the college has not posted an increase in cost of attendance. “While students at private and public colleges across the country are facing significant increases in tuition and fees, Pacific Union College is continuing its commitment to making higher education affordable for our families through initiatives like the tuition freeze,” said Dave Lawrence, PUC vice president for financial administration. “This freeze is just one of many ways we seek to make attending PUC a reality for students.” The announcement contrasts with across-the-board tuition increases in the private nonprofit sector of colleges nationwide. According to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), tuition increased an average of 4.5 percent for the 2011-2012 academic year at its member institutions. The freeze marks a renewal of PUC’s efforts to make tuition more affordable, most recently with the Four-Year Guarantee Scholarship, which began last academic year. Under that program, nearly all students at the college are assured of a set amount of tuition...

Critically acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston spoke at Pacific Union College, May 31, on the “Woman Warrior's Journey to Peace” in the latest and final installment for the year of the Colloquy Speaker Series. Kingston spoke about how she became involved in anti-war activism during the Vietnam War and protested against military action before the 2003 U.S. Occupation of Iraq. Speaking on how she and her husband aided AWOL soldiers in Hawaii during the Vietnam War, Kingston noted the important role one’s conscience plays in life. “I truly believe that what protects us from harm are our values, and our conscience, and being able to know what that conscience is saying.” Kingston said that peaceful values can be traced back through the history. “These values of non-violence, we can trace them to Martin Luther King, Jr., and before him, to Ghandi, and before Ghandi, to the American Transcendentalists,” she said. Thoreau opposed the First American Intervention (Mexican-American War) and even refused to pay taxes in protest, Kingston noted, but he could not get away from the signs of war. “Even in the quiet of Walden Pond, he could hear the music coming from his neighbors, and it was Marshall Music...

An award-winning documentary filmmaker and TV journalist gave a presentation on his work and career at Pacific Union College’s Communication Honor Society Symposium, May 4. Christof Putzel, a correspondent for Current TV’s Vanguard documentary series, spoke about his motivations and experiences as a young filmmaker to over 100 attendees at his afternoon presentation in PUC’s Scales Chapel. Recounting the start of his career as a documentary filmmaker, Putzel spoke about how the summer before his senior year, he took advantage of a school program that gave students $3,000 to spend exploring career interests. He spent half the money on a camcorder and the other half on a plane ticket to Kenya. ​​The end result was Left Behind, a documentary about Kenyan AIDS orphans, which he completed while still an undergraduate in college. "I had no idea what I was doing," he said, recalling that he did not even know how to operate the camcorder before leaving on the trip. "I just knew I wanted to go do something." Putzel spoke about how he arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, and began filming without any training except what he got through a chance meeting with a National Geographic employee who sat next to...

Pacific Union College held its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance Colloquy on January 12, 2012, celebrating the legacy of this civil rights leader ahead of Monday’s federal holiday in his memory. The program featured a presentation by Norman Knight, PUC’s outreach chaplain, entitled Beyond the Red Sea and highlighted the college’s diversity and its commitment to continued progress in the area. Knight focused on the message King would have had for young people on college campuses across the country were he still living today. Knight opened his address by reading the account in Exodus 16:1-3 where the Children of Israel were grumbling to their leaders. Knight used this as a springboard to weave a puissant narrative paralleling the civil rights movement with the struggles of oppressed people everywhere and the responsibilities that come with arrival in the “promised land” or an end to oppression. Knight discussed the movements of people standing up for their civil rights as springing from an innate human force which refuses to be suppressed. “It is always true that when you have one force dedicated to denying people their freedom and dignity, you will always have another force committed to ensuring liberty and liberation. The...