There’s no better time to pick up a new book! Check out what’s on Pacific University's reading list right now for Fall 2020.
News, Media and Stories | Magazine
The earliest contact lenses were made of glass and could be worn only for a few hours at a time. Today’s contact lenses are engineering marvels, and Pacific’s College of Optometry is at the vanguard of contact lens research and design.
The optometry program launched at Pacific in 1945 as a result of a combination of postwar challenges and unexpected opportunities. The needs of a small, temporarily shuttered optometry college in Northeast Portland helped meet the demands of a university that had limped through the war years. The outcome was the beginning of Pacific’s focus on the health professions.
The university ranked in the top half of all its peers nationwide and also was named among the country's Best Value Schools and Best Colleges for Veterans.
Willard “Wid” Bleything ’51, OD ’52, MS ’54 earned three degrees from Pacific University on his way to becoming an optometrist. He served in the Air Force and Air Reserves, retiring as a colonel, and he also worked in private practice for many years before eventually returning to Pacific, where he became the dean of the College of Optometry.
Pacific University undergraduates now have the opportunity to broaden their understanding of the world through the new Global Scholars Program. Starting with a first-year seminar and companion travel experience, participating students will complete a set of requirements focused on international and diverse perspectives, mastering a second language, studying or interning abroad, and finally integrating global learning into the senior capstone.
Pacific University is embarking on a coordinated program to increase support for undergraduate students under a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Pacific University recently completed its most successful year of giving in school history, with donors contributing gifts and pledges totaling more than $14.4 million between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020.
While Pacific University students were scattered this spring by the spread of COVID-19, many campus events were canceled, including the popular spring concert by the Pacific Dance Ensemble. Yet the dancing went on. Pacific Director of Dance Jennifer Camp, switching to virtual instruction, asked dancers to make videos of themselves performing aspects of choreography they’d learned.
When Savannah Tran PA ‘22 started her studies in Pacific University’s physician assistant program back in May, it was under unusual circumstances, to say the least.