Fresno Pacific University was established in 1944 as Pacific Bible Institute (PBI). It was founded by the Pacific District Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, which included all Mennonite Brethren congregations in California, Oregon, and Washington. In 1935 the Pacific District created a School and Education Committee, and in 1941 voted to establish a Bible institute. The conference chose the name Pacific Bible Institute for its new school in 1943. In February 1944 a large residence on Van Ness Avenue was purchased as the first campus, and classes met there for the first time in the fall of 1944.

By 1946, the Bible institute had already outgrown its original facilities and moved into a former YWCA building in downtown Fresno. Enrollment continued to rise during the first several years, but by the early 1950s had reached a plateau and soon began to decline. In response to this downward enrollment trend, PBI developed a broader liberal arts junior college curriculum in 1956, moved to a new campus near the corner of Butler and Chestnut Avenues in 1959, and changed its name to Pacific College in 1960. In 1963 a four-year liberal arts program with biblical studies at its core was added. In 1965 the college earned full accreditation as a four-year liberal arts institution. Enrollment increased rapidly in this context, from 58 in 1960 to 257 by 1966 and 430 by 1971. In the midst of these changes, the faculty embarked on a project to rethink and clarify institutional mission and identity. The outcome of the process was the “Pacific College Idea,” a statement of vision adopted in 1966. This document was subsequently revised in 1982 and 1995 and continues to shape the university’s identity and character.

In the 1970s the college added graduate classes in education, and in 1975 it received accreditation to offer master’s degrees in education. At about the same time, the college developed a program to offer professional development training to teachers in central California.

Pacific College changed its name to Fresno Pacific College in 1976, at least in part to better differentiate itself from other colleges on the West Coast that used the word “Pacific” in their name. During this time the college also enlarged its campus for the first time, purchasing land to the southeast primarily for use as athletics facilities. From 1954 until 1979 the college had been part of a unified system of Mennonite Brethren higher education in the United States, in which a single board of directors oversaw Fresno Pacific, Tabor College, and the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary. In 1979 this system was dissolved, and the Pacific District Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches once again assumed full oversight of Fresno Pacific College.

In the early 1980s, the board recognized the need to increase the number of students and faculty and expand its financial base. In response to this need, the board encouraged President Edmund Janzen to formulate a plan to extend the mission of the college beyond its denominational boundaries. This plan came to be known as “Broadening the Base.” It included expanding campus facilities, enlarging the curriculum, developing new strategies for public relations and fund development, and making a more deliberate effort to relate to non-Mennonite Brethren churches.

In 1992 the college established a “degree completion program,” through which adult learners who had previously completed some college units could complete their B.A. degree in evening classes that also accommodated their work and family commitments. These classes met at first mostly in rented facilities in various parts of Fresno and other nearby cities.

In acknowledgment of its growing institutional complexity the college changed its name to Fresno Pacific University in 1997 with three schools: Fresno Pacific College, Fresno Pacific Graduate School, and Fresno Pacific School of Professional Studies. In July of 2005, the university restructured into four schools: the School of Business; the School of Education; the School of Humanities, Religion and Social Sciences; and the School of Natural Sciences.

One of the most dramatic changes for the new university during this period was the development of “regional campuses” in Visalia (2003), Bakersfield (2004), North Fresno (2005), and Merced (2011). These regional campuses primarily served the degree completion program as well as graduate instruction.

In 2010 the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary became a part of Fresno Pacific University. The seminary was originally founded in 1955 at the downtown PBI campus. In 1956 it moved to the new Chestnut Avenue campus. The seminary and college were separated in 1960 and functioned independently on adjacent campuses for the next fifty years. With its merger into the university as a fifth school, the seminary changed its name to Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary.

In its transformation from a Bible institute to university, FPU has experienced a significant demographic change. During its early years almost the entire student body was Mennonite Brethren, but that percentage had already dropped below 50 percent by 1969. By 2010 Mennonite Brethren students represented less than 10 percent of the total enrollment, and that percentage has continued to drop since that time. The original student body was almost entirely white, but by 2018 more than half of all students were Latino and over 60 percent were from racial minority groups. Fresno Pacific University was the first Mennonite institution of higher education to be designated a Hispanic Serving Institution by the federal government. -- Kevin Enns-Rempel

Bibliography

Author(s)	Kevin Enns-Rempel
Date Published	July 2023

Enns-Rempel, Kevin. “Fresno Pacific University: An Historical Overview of 75 Years.” Pacific Journal 14 (2009): 11-80.

Enns-Rempel, Kevin & Hannah Keeney. Fresno Pacific University: The First 75 Years. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2020.

Wikipedia. "Fresno Pacific University." Web. 2 July 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresno_Pacific_University.

Additional Information

Presidents of Fresno Pacific

Presidents	Years
Sam W. Goosen (dean of the institute)	1944-1946
George B. Huebert (administrator)	1946-1947
George W. Peters	1947-1953
Reuben M. Baerg (interim)	1953-1954
Reuben M. Baerg / George W. Peters (interim)	1954-1955
Bernhard J. Braun	1955-1960
Arthur J. Wiebe / Joel A. Wiebe (interim)	1960-1961
Arthur J. Wiebe	1961-1975
Edmund Janzen	1975-1982
Silas Bartsch (interim)	1982-1983
Edmund Janzen	1983-1985
Richard A. Kriegbaum	1985-1997
Allen Carden	1997-2000
Harold A. Haak	2000-2002
D. Merrill Ewert	2002-2012
Pete C. Menjares	2012-2014
Richard A. Kriegbaum	2014-2017
Joseph Jones	2017-2022
André Stephens	2022-present

Original Article from Mennonite Encyclopedia

Pacific Bible Institute of Fresno came into being in response to a long-felt need on the part of the Mennonite Brethren Church on the Pacific Coast to have a Bible School where the young people might avail themselves of a sound Biblical training in an institution organically related to their own conference. On 18 September 1944, the Pacific Bible Institute of Fresno was formally opened with an enrollment of 27 students in Fresno, California in a large residence at 1095 N. Van Ness. Six faculty members, four full-time and two part-time, had been engaged by the Board of Directors. The enrollment increased to 35 students during the second semester of the school year. Toward the close of the first year another building, a former YMCA building, was purchased at 2149 Tuolumne, a three-story structure. In 1954 the Mennonite Brethren Conference of North America initiated a program of unification in its various educational endeavors and the Institute became a General Conference school. In 1958 a 20-acre site was purchased for a new campus.

The aims of the school in 1959 were as follows: (1) To give young people a thorough knowledge of the Bible; (2) To train them in the highest type of Christian living in whatever walk of life they may find themselves; (3) To prepare them for Christian service, at home or abroad; (4) To fortify them against the various unscriptural philosophies of life; (5) To send forth sanctified Christlike personalities, yielded and obedient to the Master.

In keeping with its purpose the Institute made the study of the Bible the very center of its curriculum. For some time the Institute offered four- and five-year programs granting the Bible College Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees. In keeping, however, with the program of unification and co-ordination a three-year course was offered, leading to a diploma in Bible and a two-year course granting the Associate in Arts degree in liberal arts or sacred music.

The Bachelor of Theology was transferred to the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, which was established on the same campus in 1956, and there expanded to a Bachelor of Divinity and later a Master of Divinity program. -- George W. Peters, 1956

2008 Update

The Bible Institute became an accredited junior college in 1961 and decided to develop a four-year program two years later in 1963. In 1964, Pacific Bible Institute changed its name to Pacific College, and became accredited with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) the next year. By 1967, the decision was made to add graduate courses, and the accreditation for the first Master of Arts program was received from WASC in 1975. The college changed its name to Fresno Pacific College in 1976 and to Fresno Pacific University in 1997.

In 2008 the university was organized into four schools: The School of Business; the School of Education; the School of Humanities, Religion and Social Sciences; and the School of Natural Sciences. The university offered bachelors degrees in 28 fields with 45 areas of study, and also offered advanced degrees or credentials in education, leadership and organizational studies, and peacemaking and conflict studies. The university had a faculty of 200, 1007 undergraduates, and 900 graduate students.

-- Richard D. Thiessen, 2008

Cite This Article

MLA style

Enns-Rempel, Kevin. "Fresno Pacific University (Fresno, California, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. July 2023. Web. 3 Dec 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Fresno_Pacific_University_(Fresno,_California,_USA)&oldid=176329.

APA style

Enns-Rempel, Kevin. (July 2023). Fresno Pacific University (Fresno, California, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 3 December 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Fresno_Pacific_University_(Fresno,_California,_USA)&oldid=176329.

Fresno Pacific University (Fresno, California, USA)

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