The Fresno Pacific University Center for Community Transformation (CCT) will build on hope in Fresno and beyond. The CCT is a new effort to connect the strengths of the university with the resources of the region to transform cities.

Looking into the heart of the city, some observers see statistics: high rates of poverty, crime, drug use, gang activity and violence; low levels of income, education and employment.

Ted and Joyce Smith, friends of FPU, have been honored for their generosity.

The couple received the 2012 Outstanding Philanthropist Awards from the Association of Fundraising Professionals California Valley Chapter during the organization’s annual National Philanthropy Day Luncheon, this year on November 8 in Fresno.

The AFP citation reads, in part:

The 10th annual Lessons and Carols service was among a host of great FPU music events in November and December.

FPU added faculty throughout the university during the fall semester. Here is a list of new and promoted faculty as of November 1, 2012.

Michael Allen, MBA, M.Div., is director of institutional research. He has a master’s in business administration from Keller Graduate School of Management, a master’s in divinity from Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary and a bachelor of arts from California State University, Fresno.

Fresno’s Leading Young Professionals announced its 2012 award winners—and an FPU staff member was on the list: Jill Coppler, regional center communications specialist, is FLYP’er of the Year.

Results from a recent Pew study may concern and confuse those who care about the place of faith in the community.

Giving and getting are not opposites, they are two sides of the same coin—and people who flip their focus from the “get” side to the “give” side will actually receive.

Traditional undergraduate enrollment passed a milestone in the fall of 2012, surpassing 1,200 for the first time in the school’s 68-year history.

Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary enrollment also grew, from 116 in 2011 to 143 in 2012. A total of 3,460 students study at the main FPU campus and at centers in Merced, North Fresno, Visalia and Bakersfield, down from 3,603 in the fall of 2011.

University break October 5 was a celebration of Hiebert Library’s 50th birthday.

The building opened in October 1962 as the fourth, and largest, structure on a campus that was only two years old. The library was named for Cornelius Hiebert, who gave the major gift for construction. John and Maria Lohrenz, missionaries in India, were also large contributors.

Song and praise celebrated the inauguration of Pete C. Menjares, Ph.D.

Better is one day in your courts/Better is one day in your house/Better is one day in your courts/Than thousands elsewhere

“Better is One Day”—the song and the psalm that inspired it—summed up inauguration week September 24-28.

Crosswind, a student ensemble, performed the song at College Hour chapel Wednesday and the banquet Thursday. Menjares made Psalm 84 the theme of his speech at the inauguration ceremony Friday.