Life at PUC

Valentine’s Day may have come and gone but love was still in the air at Pacific Union College thanks to the latest Dramatic Arts Society production, “Love: is a Four-letter Word.” Audiences filled the Alice Holst Theater for six nights to watch actors explore how and why we fall in seven one-act plays. The production, which ran from February 16-24, featured seven one-act plays, ranging in length from three to 45 minutes. Tears and laughter filled the theater as characters felt the awkwardness of first wedding nights, the heartbreak of unrequited love and much more. Cambria Wheeler, who produced the one-act festival, says, “ I hope [the audience] leave thinking about the different facets of love. Our human forms of it are so different, and they can cause healing, but grief also. Love is so different. There isn’t only one love, but many ways in which it manifests itself.” Wheeler’s own appreciation for PUC manifested itself through this festival, which was a definite labor of love. Seven plays to costume, light, prep and set, thirteen actors working with four directors, and only six weeks to rehearse. But it all paid off. As one audience member said, “I was impressed by...

Not many of us can say we have felt the demoralizing effects of losing 20 family members in a single day. Ibrahim Musa Adam, a former farmer and volunteer teacher, was one of two survivors from the Darfur conflict region in Sudan who shared his first-hand account for Pacific Union College’s February 7 all-school colloquy program.Adam lived in northern Darfur in the village of Jadara. His village of about 3,000 was attacked in July of 2003 by the Sudanese army and members of the Janjaweed militia. Eighty villagers, including 20 of Adam’s family members, were killed. Adam still has over 100 relatives in six different refugee and internally displaced persons camps, and more than 80 villages have since been attacked. “They collected women and girls. One girl was raped over 20 times,” Adam told the student body at PUC, who listened in stunned quietness. “Some were able to escape because the Janjaweed don’t know the Darfur terrain very well.”Today Adam lives in Rockford, Illinois. He hopes to one day return to Darfur and help rebuild the region. Meanwhile, he shares his experience with the “Voices from Darfur” speaking tour and takes part in activist organizations.The second speaker at the colloquy...

For the second year, several students from Pacific Union College made a special trip to the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States, from January 23 to 28. The students were accepted into the “University Students at the Sundance Film Festival” program, a competitive program that allows a limited number of students each year to attend the festival. As part of the program, PUC students Jackson Boren, Craig Church, and Ryann Pulido and alum Annie Woods earned film credentials, had access to filmmaker-only areas at the festival, received discounted tickets and lodging, and had the opportunity to meet with other students. "The Sundance Film Festival is a unique experience because it attracts thousands of people from all over the world into a small skiing town for 10 days to experience the best in U.S. and international independent cinema,” said Stephen Eyer, a PUC film and television instructor who attended the festival with the students. “For students to be able to experience the festival first-hand is both inspirational and something they will never forget." The group saw many films, including "Bottle Shock," a film shot in the Napa Valley last summer about the 1976 French wine...

Legendary as a lecturer and beloved as a mentor, PUC history professor Walter C. Utt was mourned deeply when he died in 1985. A special endowment with its own board was established in Utt’s honor, and their most recent project to continue his legacy is the publication of two historical novels based on Utt’s work. No Peace for a Soldier and its sequel, No Sacrifice but Conscience, both published by Pacific Press, are a skillful combination of two titles by Utt published in 1966 and 1977 (Wrath of the King and Home to Our Valleys), an unfinished manuscript that he left, and the work of author and professor Helen Godfrey Pyke. Eric Anderson, one of the founders of the Utt Endowment and now president of Southwestern Adventist University, was advised that Pyke, who teaches at Southern Adventist University and has a long list of published titles, was the perfect person to complete Utt’s manuscript. “And she really was,” says Bruce Anderson, Eric Anderson’s brother and another founding member of the endowment. The endowment hired Pyke to finish the manuscript, and Southern granted her a Sabbatical. PUC president Dick Osborn talked with Dale Galusha, president of Pacific Press, about the project....

They weren’t wearing capes and they didn’t fly onto the stage, but the three local businesspersons who visited PUC for the January 17 all-school colloquy were welcomed as heroes. PUC president Richard Osborn introduced Robin Lail, Norm Manzer, and Phil Toohey by saying, “What has impressed me about you is that not only are you successful at what you do, but you seem to have a passion for helping the community.” Lail, a fourth-generation vintner of Lail Vineyards, told how she became a part of the St. Helena Hospital Foundation. “‘Should’ is my least favorite word in the language,” Lail said. “But I got involved because I thought I should.” She discovered, however, that “should” was only the beginning. “I found a passion for this institution and the community it serves that was way beyond what I’d ever imagined.” With her help, the foundation has already raised over $25 million for the first phase of a campaign to rebuild the hospital campus — an impressive sum, Osborn noted, even for much larger hospitals in big cities. Lail’s drive to make a difference is no new thing for her. “About when I was 4, I was struck by the feeling that...

On March 17, 1965, students Paul Cobb, Will Battles, Fernando Canales and Milton Hare crammed into a two-seater Karmann Ghia with the goal of driving 2,300 miles from Oakland, California, to Selma, Alabama. The objective was to join the third attempt at a march for voting rights. It was a risk; not only did the Seventh-day Adventist Church, at the time, shun the notion of political activism, but the bloodshed during the second Selma to Montgomery march served as an ominous reminder of what might await. In the face of physical, verbal, and emotional threats, the men, three of whom were Pacific Union College students, moved forward in hopes that by doing so the nation would move forward also. Bill Knott, editor of the Adventist Review, the flagship journal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, shared this little-known story at PUC’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Colloquy program on January 10, 2008. Knott was joined by Milton Hare, now an Oakland, California resident and social activist. Hare, who attended PUC before transferring to UC Berkeley, received a standing ovation from the audience, which packed the large PUC Church sanctuary. The morning program also included an official apology, by the college administration,...

Jody Barbuta, assistant professor of art at Pacific Union College, will showcase her recent works in "A Present Figure" at PUC's Rasmussen Art Gallery from January 10 through February 5. An opening reception will be held at the gallery from 7-9 p.m. on January 10. Barbuta's exhibit will feature work from the past three years to the present. "During this period I have been interested in notions of time and human design," said Barbuta. "In these pieces, I've endeavored to look at the poetry of design, the nature of the creative act and the paradox embedded in these." The materials she chooses for her sculptures are often simple, such as wood, wool fibers and clay. "They are directly related to my motives of considering the beautiful mystery of 'created' and 'Creator'," said Barbuta. Barbuta graduated from CSU Stanislaus in 1994 and received her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 1996. She joined the PUC art department faculty earlier this year. ...

Pacific Union College's Rasmussen Art Gallery presents the "New Work" exhibition from February 14 to March 14. This annual show features PUC's art department faculty and will include a wide variety of media and styles representing the assorted artistic directions of the faculty members. In addition to instructing young artists, the art department faculty continue to develop their own styles and techniques of art, finding a variety of venues through which they can share their work with others. "New Work" will exhibit the recent artworks of instructors Jody Barbuta, Robert Buller, Vicki Long, Milbert Mariano, John McDowell, Thomas Morphis, Cliff Rusch, Lote Thistlethwaite and Tom Turner. Media presented will include watercolor, encaustic, metal sculpture, acrylic, photography, assemblage, sculptures in assorted media, figure drawings and scrimshaw. The opening reception for "New Work" takes place in the Rasmussen Art Gallery on Saturday, February 14, from 7-9 p.m. The gallery is also open regularly on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 1 - 5 p.m. There is no charge for admission. ...

We helped them strap on their leashes and they were off, paddling for their lives into the head-high, white water. Despite getting flipped, tossed and pounded back to shore, the group kept pushing forward and finally punched through the gnarly shore break. Thus began the adventures of the new Pacific Union College Surf Club as described by their club president, Joby Oft. Of the 30 student clubs represented at PUC, three stand truly apart: the Surf Club, the Outdoors Club and the Angwin Flyers. The newest of these is the Surf Club, which welcomes beginners, teaching them to surf within a friendly and supportive atmosphere. The Surf Club also enjoys activities such as evening gatherings on the beach, a week-long camping and surfing trip during spring break, and a trash clean-up on one of the county beaches. Jermain Joseph, a beginner surfer, sees the club as an opportunity to "experience nature in the ocean, bond with new friends and get closer to God." The Outdoors Club thrives on land, including rock climbing, skiing and snowboarding. They have already been challenged on five climbing expeditions this year. Each event is like a small journey where members experience unknown and challenging feats...

Come and hear the reality of medical and scientific blunders as Dr. David Rasnick presents "But-What about Africa?" at Pacific Union College on Monday, February 9, at 7 p.m. in Dauphinee Chapel. This presentation is part of PUC's All-Science Seminar series, an on-going program designed to inform students and faculty on recent scientific discoveries. The series is open to the public. Rasnick is a visiting scholar to the department of molecular & cell biology at UC Berkeley, and the chief science officer of Boveran in San Ramon, California. In his presentation, Rasnick will discuss medical errors in history such as the refusal of the medical community in the mid 1800s to accept the theory that disinfection of doctors' hands could save the lives of women in the obstetrics wards. Another medical rejection Rasnick will discuss involves Dr. Joseph Goldberger's definitive evidence in the 1900s that pellagra was not infectious, but caused by a poor diet. Rasnick also believes that "the contagious, HIV hypothesis of AIDS" is another example of a medical blunder - in fact, that it is "the biggest scientific, medical blunder of the 20th Century." Upcoming presentations in the All-Science Seminar series include Dr. Peter Duesberg, member of...