Familiar faces are being seen in new places this fall at Fresno Pacific University.

Janita Rawls, business faculty, begins a one-year appointment as interim dean of Fresno Pacific College, the traditional undergraduate program. Stephen Varvis moves from dean of the college to director of business and civic relations for the Advancement Office.           

FresnoPacific University is expanding its presence in Visalia.

 The Fresno Pacific University Visalia Center opens August 4, 2003, for fall semester. The center allows FPU to provide more complete programs for graduate students and working adults seeking to complete their bachelor’s degree.

A Fulbright Scholarship will allow a Fresno Pacific University faculty member to impart American history while rescuing Mennonite history.

Paul Toews, history faculty and director of the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, will be in the Ukraine September 1 to June 30 on a Fulbright lecture-research award. He will teach U.S. History at Zaporizhzhia State University and visit archives throughout the former Soviet republic in search of documents relating to Mennonite history.

An association of fellow educators gave another Fresno Pacific University its highest vote of confidence, reaccrediting the university for 10 years.

Ways to support the university was one of the topics tackled by the Fresno Pacific University Board of Trustees during regular meetings June 6-7.

The board approved several methods to support FPU:

The impact of Fresno Pacific University’s Project VOICE will resound through Valley schools for years to come.

Project VOICE (Valuing Owning Identity through Collaboration and Excellence) increased the number of Spanish- and Hmong-speaking bilingual teachers. Of the 79 people served by the program, 16 have already earned credentials, 21 are in the FPU teacher education program and 42 are in the university’s undergraduate program.

Ken Isaak, sports information director at Fresno Pacific University, received the 2003 Clarence “Ike” Pearson Award from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics-Sports Information Directors Association (NAIA-SIDA). The award, given to an outstanding NAIA sports information director, will be presented June 28 during the NAIA-SIDA Annual Awards Luncheon at the Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

A dozen or so teachers gather in a computer lab at Fresno Pacific University. Working in pairs, surfing the Internet, they debate the quality of various sites: design, video, links and navigability.

This is teaching history? Where is the wall map of the westward expansion? The timeline of the Industrial Revolution? The chart of 19thcentury population growth? The portraits of Washington and Lincoln? This was the paraphernalia that for generations inspired an enlightened few to illuminate textbooks with Hi-liters and drove a drowsy multitude to deface margins with doodles.

Wendy Wakeman will serve as graduate dean at Fresno Pacific University beginning July 1, 2003. Wakeman has been dean of Fresno Pacific School of Professional Studies since coming to the university in 1997 and will also continue in that capacity.

“We are pleased Wendy has agreed to this extra assignment,” said Patricia Anderson, provost. “She brings many strengths to this position including her leadership of professional studies.”

Introducing the elderly to the Internet was among the projects that put Fresno Pacific University students on top in this year’s regional Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) competition.

The FPU team was named regional champion and member Brandon Dorman earned the Presidential Distinguished Service Award at the April 4 event in Los Angeles. Dorman works with Senior Citizens Village, located adjacent to the university, to provide computer training and equipment for residents. In all, 18 four-year schools participated in the regional contest.