Pacific Union College

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pacific Union College

Image:PUC-med.jpg
Motto Where Nature and Revelation Unite in Education
Established 1882
Type Private
President Richard Osborn, Ph.D.
Location Angwin, California, United States
Campus Rural, 200 acres, (809,371 m²)
Nickname Pioneers
Website PUC Home Page

Pacific Union College (PUC) is a private, Seventh-day Adventist, residential, co-educational four-year liberal arts college located in Angwin, a small town in the hills above northern California's Napa Valley, 70 miles from the Pacific Ocean. PUC offers a variety of bachelor's degrees from biology to religion, english to business administration, and a master's degree in education.

Contents

[edit] History

Founded in 1881 the new college opened its doors on April 11, 1882[1] as Healdsburg Academy under the direction of Sidney Brownsberger. The name was soon changed to Healdsburg College. Brownsberger directed the college until 1886 when W. C. Grainger took over. The name changed again, from Healdsburg College to Pacific Union College, in 1906. The college purchased land on Howell Mountain in Napa County previously owned as the Angwin Resort and dedicated the site in 1909. Many of the dorms and classrooms were converted from resort buildings or built by students and faculty.

[edit] Academics

Pacific Union College has been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of their "Top Schools" in the Comprehensive College cateory (Western Region) for at least the last fourteen years. The ranking for 2007 was 14.[2] PUC has a particular strength in pre-medical and health related programs, and the percentage of its students accepted into medical school each year is typically among the top ten nation-wide.[3],[4] Pacific Union College operates on the Quarter based academic calendar.

In 2006 the faculty, administration and Board of Trustees made a formal decision that PUC remain a college and not change its name to university, as many other small private colleges did in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The decision to remain a college was based on the institution's deep commitment to high quality liberal arts undergraduate teaching.

[edit] Accreditation

Pacific Union College is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)[5] The following programs and departments also have been recognized by their national accrediting bodies: Business Administration, Education, Music, Nursing, and Social Work.

[edit] General

Students number approximately 1,500[6] with a student/teacher ratio of 13:1.[7] The most popular departments are Business, Nursing, Biology, and Psychology & Social Work. As a denominationally affiliated residential college, weekly attendance at community meetings with a religious focus are required, and religion courses are part of the required general education program. A residential college, the majority of students reside in campus dorms, all single-sex. The dining commons serves vegetarian fare.

[edit] Endowment

Like other small private colleges of its type, PUC has come under increasing financial pressure. In the summer of 2006 the PUC board and administration embarked on an aggressive campaign to enlarge the college endowment, and reduce dependence on student tuition, through the development and sale of a significant portion of its large land holdings.[8]

The possible development of land caused quite a stir[9] both in the college and in the surrounding Angwin community. The initial proposed development included over 500 new homes and various other enterprises. This extensive project could potentially increase the college endowment by over $100 million dollars over the next ten years, and promises to be an "ecovillage", based on "green" and environmentally sustainable values and principles. However the proposal may result in building housing on hundreds of acres of valuable land that has historically been defined as agricultural, and threatens to dramatically increase the population and threaten the town's capacity to handle increased traffic and other new demands.[10]. The proposal specifies master planned development, conservation easements and lot sales affecting approximately 885 acres out of PUC's current holdings of over 1800 acres. Just under 600 housing units are proposed,[11] The 2000 census shows 884 existing units in Angwin[12] On April 3, 2007, PUC announced that in response to community input it had decided to reduce the planned number of housing units by 200, from 591 to 391. Allen Spence, spokesman for the opposition group Save Rural Angwin, was quoted in the Napa Register as saying that his group would continue to actively oppose the project "unless the college brings its proposal down to 191 units". [13]. As of the Spring of 2007 the proposed development continues to be the subject of passionate and extensive local debate, but no final decision had yet been made.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Schwarz, Richard W.; Greenleaf, Floyd [1979] (2000). Light Bearers: A History of the Seventh-day Adventist church, Revised Edition, Silver Spring, Maryland: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Department of Education. ISBN 0-8163-1795-X. 
  • Walter Utt [1968] (1996). A Mountain, A Pickax, A College: Walter Utt's history of Pacific Union College, Third Edition, Boise, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association. ISBN 0965078906. 
  1. ^ http://www.puc.edu/PUC/aboutpuc/history.shtml
  2. ^ http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_1258_brief.php
  3. ^ http://www.gocollege.com/articles/faq/c66.shtml,
  4. ^ http://www.xap.com/gotocollege/campustour/undergraduate/481/Pacific_Union_College/Pacific_Union_College3.html
  5. ^ http://www.wascsenior.org/wasc/
  6. ^ http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_1258_brief.php
  7. ^ http://napachamber.com/company_profile.html?ID=2185
  8. ^ http://www.puc.edu/PUC/puclife/public_relations/press/triad/endowment.shtml
  9. ^ http://www.saveruralangwin.org/letters.html
  10. ^ http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/02/07/opinion/commentary/doc45c9e1d47d9ab700243803.txt
  11. ^ http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/01/22/news/local_top_story/doc45b4c09781695483683870.txt
  12. ^ http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=angwin&_cityTown=angwin&_state=04000US06&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&show_2003_tab=&redirect=Y
  13. ^ http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/04/05/news/local/doc461494a5703c3252995869.txt

[edit] External links

California Pacific Conference
Bethany University • CSU East Bay • CSU Maritime • Dominican University • Holy Names University • Menlo College • Mills College • Notre Dame de Namur • Pacific Union College • Simpson University • William Jessup University
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/a/c/Pacific_Union_College_40c1.html"