A few days ago, Pacific Union College installed Dr. Heather Knight as its new president. It was the kind of celebration that the academic world loves, a grand processional of gowned scholars, the swelling voice of the organ, and a line of speakers applauding the advancement of one of their own.

A grand welcome to a woman who brings her administrative skills to this little college on Howell Mountain. The fleeting pomp and ceremony of an inaugural will be gone tomorrow. From now on, it will be all hard work and difficult decisions.

We wish her well.

We see in a new administration, the hope of new beginnings in the relationship of the college and the Angwin community. We share in so many common causes that it became a shock to residents when the college decided several years ago to sell much of its large land holdings for residential development. The shock was followed by a wave of outrage against the conversion of this rural community into a small city. Residents organized themselves into Save Rural Angwin to oppose the proposed subdivisions and to advocate a better plan for the future of Angwin.

Coming up against the slow-growth land use philosophy of Napa County, the college's proposal has suffered one set-back after another. The Save Rural Angwin cause won the support of the powerful Napa County Farm Bureau and the Sierra Club, and its list of individual supporters has climbed steadily to more than 1,000. Its Advisory Council is composed of highly regarded civic leaders who believe that no single large property owner should be allowed to convert Angwin from "a rural community" into a city.

SRA and its slow-growth allies have succeeded in bursting the Angwin Urban Bubble, taking more than 200 acres of PUC land out of the "urban" category and protecting them as agricultural land. They have succeeded in seeing the new Napa County General Plan adopt policies which would discourage massive development here. It remains for the PUC Board of Trustees to realize that it has launched a battle it cannot win.

It is time for Plan B.

It is time for Dr. Heather Knight.

A new administration represents an opportunity for a new beginning for Pacific Union College.

There are retired Adventist administrators in the Angwin community who have been phenomenally successful in other church institutions. They could counsel Dr. Knight in better use of her hundreds of acres of prime agricultural land than paving them over. Better use of her hundreds of acres of woodlands and meadows deer, coyote, cougars, birdsong and a million different shades of green.

We are on a massive wave of environmentalism in America. PUC could become an educational center of that movement.

Yes, it could.

At the inauguration ceremony for Dr. Knight, Diane Dillon, chair of the Napa County Board of Supervisors, said:

"PUC is a unique institution - a small college which inherited 1900 acres of wonderful land - a magnificent place in which to inform bright young adult minds, and help them to grow and develop as they plan for their futures

"PUC graduates should leave here having not just been well-educated in the liberal arts - but having acquired a unique environmental education. And having learned that it takes wise planning to protect places like this for future generations."

PUC's own governing slogan "where revelation and nature unite in education" is in perfect pitch with the Napa Valley philosophy which Supervisor Dillon expressed so well.

The Angwin community and the leadership of Napa County want PUC to succeed, to flourish, to grow, to become, as Dr. Knight has declared, "Not just good, but great."

That could happen. And PUC's "Plan B" could turn out to be what has been for 100 years its Plan A. In the new world of 2010, that idealistic educational mission could begin to become the new reality.

Mike Cline, manager of the College Market, has ordered another press run of the Angwin Telephone Book, which he will offer at just the production cost of $6.40. The regular price is $8.00.

"It's a community service," he explained. "Every family should have one."

So if you are a newcomer or need another copy for your extension or your office, this is the time.

Thanks, Mike.

An estimated 1000 bicyle riders in ones and twos pushed their way up the hill from Pope Valley a few days ago, adding patches of color to woodsy Howell Mountain Road.

They were riding from Davis to Santa Rosa, a long journey of 114 miles. The climb up Howell Mountain from Pope Valley was one of the most tiring stretches. But a team of volunteers recruited by PUC Professor Monte Butler - were ready at the Angwin Plaza to give them cool water and platters of snacks.