Pete Menjares has accepted his appointment as president of Fresno Pacific University. | Job Ang/THE CHIMES

Pete Menjares has accepted the position as the 11th president of Fresno Pacific University. The Fresno Pacific board of trustees officially announced the unanimous decision to appoint Menjares during the board meetings March 2-3.

“When the school year started for Biola I had no idea that presidency was going to become open or available,” Menjares said. “It wasn’t anything I was looking for but somewhere back in September I was contacted by the person in charge of the search and asked to consider this possibility, so I started looking into it and reading more about it. That began a long process of spiritual discernment.”

Menjares has been a part of the Biola family for the last 16 years, serving as a professor in the School of Education, associate provost of diversity leadership and vice provost for faculty development and academic effectiveness. Prior to his time at Biola, Menjares was involved in education as a middle school English-language arts teacher and served as a conference presenter on intercultural diversity with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

“It became a prayerful process and I was really encouraged to find out that the search committee in Fresno was engaged in the very same kind of process,” Menjares said. “They had committed from the beginning to prayer and just seeking God for their next president.”

Sense of peace with decision

In February, Menjares and his wife Virgie were invited to the Fresno Pacific campus to meet with the student body. The university community then reported feedback to the committee.

“It’s going to be a whole new life for us. … We’re not just leaving Biola, we’re leaving our church family, we’re leaving our literal family and we’re going to start over brand new. But I think the reality is now that it has been announced that I will be the next president, the reality and emotion has started to set in,” Menjares said. “Also, 16 years is a long time, so it’s not going to be easy for me to uproot, but the folks I work with here have been so supportive and encouraging to me.”

Menjares will step into his new position on July 31, when D. Merrill Ewert will retire after 10 years as president of Fresno Pacific University.

“When there is a sense that this is God, there’s peace, and we had peace throughout the entire process,” Menjares said. “It wasn’t anything we coveted, it wasn’t anything we were striving to achieve, we never had a timeline. … So, when it happened it was just a wonderful witness and a sense that God had led us to his will.”