| Pepperdine University | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Freely ye received, freely give |
| Established | 1937 |
| Type | Private |
| Religious affiliation | Churches of Christ |
| Endowment | USD $565 million[1] |
| President | Andrew K. Benton |
| Academic staff | 636 |
| Undergraduates | 3,474 (Seaver College) |
| Postgraduates | 4,294 (Pepperdine University) |
| Location | Malibu, CA, USA |
| Campus | Suburban, 830 acres (340 ha) |
| Colors | |
| Athletics | NCAA Division I West Coast Conference |
| Nickname | Waves |
| Mascot | Willy the Wave |
| Website | www.pepperdine.edu |
Pepperdine University is an independent, private, medium-sized university affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The university's 830-acre (340 ha) campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean in unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States, near Malibu,[2][3] is the location for Seaver College, the School of Law, the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, the Graziadio School of Business and Management, and the School of Public Policy. Courses are taught in Malibu, at six graduate campuses in southern California, and at international campuses in Germany, England, Italy, China, Switzerland, and Argentina.
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In February 1937, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, George Pepperdine founded the university as a Christian liberal arts college in the city of Los Angeles. On September 21, 1937, 167 new students from 22 different states and two other countries entered classes on a newly built campus on 34 acres (14 ha) at West 79th Street and South Vermont Avenue in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles,[4] referred to later as the Vermont Avenue campus.[5][6] By April 6, 1938, George Pepperdine College was fully accredited by the Northwest Association.
Pepperdine had built a fortune founding and developing the Western Auto Supply Company, which he started with a $5 investment, but his prosperity led to his greater ambition to discover "how humanity can be helped most with the means entrusted to [his] care. [He] consider it wrong to build up a great fortune and use it selfishly." Mr. Pepperdine voiced his twofold objective for the college that bore his name, "First, we want to provide first-class, fully accredited academic training in the liberal arts ... Secondly, we are especially dedicated to a greater goal—that of building in the student a Christ-like life, a love for the church, and a passion for the souls of mankind."
By the 1960s, the young college faced serious problems. The area around the Vermont Avenue campus developed issues with crime and urban decay; tensions also arose due to the Civil Rights Movement and attempts to circumvent it such as California Proposition 14, which challenged federal fair housing laws.[6] The situation exploded in the 1965 Watts Riots.[6] In 1969 activists in the Watts area threatened to burn down the campus; however, they were talked out of it after all-night negotiations by then-President M. Norvel Young.[6] In addition, the Vermont Avenue campus was running out of room to expand.[6]
In 1967, the school put forth a multi-campus idea that would move the undergraduate campus to an alternative location; a committee formed and looked at numerous locations, including sites in Valencia, Orange County, Ventura County and Westlake Village.[6] Pepperdine favored the Westlake Village location until the Adamson-Rindge family, who owned hundreds of acres in Malibu, offered 138 acres (56 ha) of Malibu land; despite concerns over building costs on the mountainous site, the school decided to move forward based on its prime location and potential for raising donation.[6] On April 13, 1971, the university broke ground to begin construction, and in September 1972, the Malibu campus opened for student enrollment.[6]
(The old Pepperdine University campus was sold to Crenshaw Christian Center, whose pastor, Frederick K.C. Price, then oversaw construction of the "FaithDome," the largest domed-church in the United States, seating over 10,000).
Pepperdine gained university status in 1971 when the school of law was added and the business and education departments became separate schools. In the 1980s, Pepperdine rose to prominence as one of the United States' leading centers of conservative politics, attracting many conservative-leaning professors from nearby UCLA and USC. Prominent conservatives on the Pepperdine faculty have included Bruce Herschensohn, Ben Stein, Kenneth Starr, Arthur Laffer, Douglas Kmiec, and Daniel Pipes.
In 1993 and 1996, massive brushfires threatened the campus with destruction, but firefighters successfully protected almost all structures. On October 21, 2007, fast-moving wildfires forced campus residents to relocate and shelter in the Firestone Field house and Cafeteria, plus evacuations of local homes and businesses.[7] Similarly, another November 2007 fire in Corral Canyon, accidentally set off by a group of Los Angeles youths, caused an evacuation of the Drescher Campus. However, most students were off-campus for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The main campus is located among several ridges that overlook the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California. The main campus entrance road ascends a steep, well-groomed grassy slope past a huge stylized cross, known as the Phillips Theme Tower, symbolizing the university's dedication to its original Christian mission. Most buildings were constructed in a typical 1980s-style reinterpretation of classic Californian and Mediterranean architecture (red tile roofs, white stuccoed walls, large tinted windows). There are views of the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Long Beach and the westside of Los Angeles from numerous points. Graduations take place at Alumni Park, a broad expanse of lawn overlooking Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean. The main academic plaza for undergraduate programs of Seaver College lies just above Alumni Park and includes Stauffer Chapel, Tyler Campus Center, Payson Library, and the Ahmanson Fine Arts Center. Undergraduate housing and athletic facilities sit to the north/northwest of the academic complex. The Law School exists even higher above these areas. The central campus is surrounded by a loop road consisting of Seaver Drive, Huntsinger Circle, and John Tyler Drive. Banowsky Boulevard separates Alumni Park from the main academic complex and is named in honor of William S. Banowsky, the 4th president of Pepperdine.
Spur roads to the east of the central part of campus lead to faculty housing. To the northwest, Via Pacifica winds uphill to the Drescher Graduate Campus, completed in 2003 and home to the School of Public Policy, the Villa Graziadio conference center, as well as the fulltime programs of the Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology. Housing for graduate students, undergraduate honors students, and faculty are also located here.
Recent noteworthy exhibitions in the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art include:
Roy Lichtenstein: January - March, 2011
David Gallup: Channel Islands: May 2011
The Graziadio School of Business and Management, School of Public Policy, and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology are headquartered in West Los Angeles at the Howard Hughes Center next to Interstate 405. These two schools also offer programs at graduate campuses in Encino, Irvine, Santa Clara, and Westlake Village. International programs of the University's various schools have taken place in London, Heidelberg, Florence, Buenos Aires, Paris, Madrid, Lausanne, Johannesburg, Tegucigalpa, Brisbane, Chiang Mai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
| University rankings (overall) | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Forbes[8] | 104 |
| U.S. News & World Report[9] | 53 |
| Washington Monthly[10] | 137 |
Seaver College is named for Mr. and Mrs. Frank R. Seaver, the principal benefactors of Pepperdine's Malibu Campus. The college offers undergraduates a liberal arts education, and each candidate for a Bachelor's Degree must complete a series of general education courses crossing disciplinary lines. Seaver College students attend classes at the Malibu main campus and study abroad courses are offered at the University's permanent international campuses in Germany, England, China, Italy, Switzerland, and Buenos Aires. Rick Marrs is the current dean.
Seaver College comprises 8 divisions and offers 40 majors (listed below), as well as 37 minors:
Business Division: Accounting Business Administration International Business
Communication Division: Advertising Integrated Marketing Communication Journalism Public Relations Media Production Communication
Fine Arts Division: Art, Art History, Music, Theatre Arts, Theatre & Music, Theatre & Media Production
Humanities and Teacher Education Division: Creative Writing English Film Studies History Liberal Arts Philosophy
International Studies and Languages Division: French German Hispanic Studies International Studies Italian
Natural Science Division: Biology Chemistry Computer Science/Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics Education Nutritional Science Physics Sports Medicine Natural Science- Engineering 3/2 Program
Religion Division: Religion
The Religion Division offers undergraduate and graduate education in ministry, administers a Center for Faith and Learning and an Office of Church Relations, and publishes Leaven: A Journal of Christian Ministry.[11]
Social Science Division: Economics Political Science Psychology Sociology
In addition, the college offers the following graduate degrees: Master of Arts in American studies, Master of Arts in Communication, Master of Science in Communication, Master of Arts in Religion, Master of Divinity, and Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Screen & Television. Seaver students can also earn both single-subject and multiple-subject teaching credentials.
Pepperdine has six international branch campuses located in Heidelberg, Germany; London, England; Florence, Italy; Lausanne, Switzerland; Shanghai, China; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Pepperdine University's George L. Graziadio School of Business and Management enrolls approximately 2,000 students in its full-time and part-time degree programs. The school was founded in 1969, and has since graduated over 30,000 alumni. Dr. Linda Livingstone has served as dean since 2002. In 2011, US News ranked Pepperdine 75th out of 437 business programs in the United States.[12]
The Pepperdine University School of Law is located adjacent to the Seaver College Campus, and enrolls about 670 students who come from all parts of the country. It is fully approved by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. The school of law recently has attained membership in the prestigious Order of the Coif.[13][14] Pepperdine's Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution is consistently ranked as the number one dispute resolution program in the country, offering LL.M., master's and certificate programs. Some of its other newer degree offerings include the juris doctor/master of divinity in conjunction with Pepperdine's Seaver College. Other joint degree programs include the JD/MBA, JD/MPP, and JD/MDR. The school offers both a summer session and a fall semester in London, England. Thomas G. Bost is the interim dean.
The school placed 54th among the nation's "Top 100" law schools by the 2011 U.S. News and World Report rankings[15] and is the third highest ranked law school in Southern California. It is known for its entertainment law,[16] and also its dispute resolution program, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation.[17]
With a focus on collaborative learning, leadership and academic excellence, the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) offers both masters and doctorate programs in education, educational technology, education administration, leadership, organizational change, organizational leadership, social entrepreneurship and change, school counseling, psychology, clinical psychology, and clinical psychology with emphasis marriage and family therapy. Dr. Margaret Weber is the current dean.
Approximately 120 graduate students are enrolled in the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, which offers a two-year masters of public policy degree. Not simply the study of government, public policy is the study of how governments, non-profits, and even individuals and businesses address problems of public concern. Students specialize in economics, international relations, American politics, or local/regional policy in addition to their core studies and are required to complete a policy-related internship.
Joint degree programs include the MPP/Juris Doctor degree in conjunction with the School of Law, the MPP/Masters of Dispute Resolution degree in conjunction with the School of Law's number one ranked Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution [18] and the MPP/MBA degree in conjunction with the Graziadio School of Business and Management.
Notable faculty at the School of Public Policy include: Ted McAllister, James Q. Wilson, James Prieger (Senior Economic Advisor, FCC), Joel Fox, Angela Hawken, Gordon Lloyd and Robert Kaufman.
Notable graduates include at least one former member of the Bush Administration: Eryn Witcher, Director of Television.[19]
The current dean of the Public Policy School is James R. Wilburn.
Pepperdine University participates in the West Coast Conference, a conference made up exclusively of religiously affiliated schools. Appropriate for its location adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, Pepperdine's teams are known as the Waves.
Pepperdine University was recently ranked by the Sears Cup as having the most successful athletic program for non-football Division I schools. (Stanford was ranked the most successful Division I athletic program with football.) Pepperdine University sponsors fourteen NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics teams: baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, tennis, volleyball and water polo teams for men; and basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis and volleyball for women. There are also several intercollegiate sports clubs such as men's soccer, men's and women's lacrosse, surf team, Ultimate Frisbee and men's rugby.
Despite the small size of the school, Pepperdine's Men's Rugby Team has enjoyed great success since it was initiated in 1955. The recently storied 2010-2011 season is one their best seasons. Under the helm of Robert Joseph Ahola, the team went undefeated in the fall pre-season and established itself as a contender for the national tournament. During the spring cup season, The Waves lost only one controversial match to Cal State Fullerton, whom they had beaten earlier to become the 2011 Southern California Division 2 Champions. The team qualified for the national championships tournament in San Diego where they beat the top D2 school from Texas and nationally 9th ranked Rice University in the sweet 16. Despite not winning the national championship, The Waves finished among the top 8 at nationals--a first for the historic Rugby club. [20]
NCAA Division I Team Championships:
NCAA Division I Individual Titles:
The Princeton Review ranked Pepperdine on the list of colleges with "Dorms Like Palaces" in 2004 and 2007 and #1 under "Most Beautiful Campus" in 2006 and 2007. Pepperdine also appeared on other lists including "Students Pray on a Regular Basis," and "High Quality of Life." Because of its Christian affiliation, some contend that the student body breeds a religious and politically conservative atmosphere.[33] Princeton Review also ranked Pepperdine University #13 in its list "Alternative Lifestyles not an Alternative".[34] In 2007 Pepperdine was named as "One of the Top Producing Colleges and Universities" by the Peace Corps of America. The 2005 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges has also noted Pepperdine as being one of the nation's largest conservative colleges. U.S. News & World Report (see “Pepperdine at Glance” in the external links section) has ranked Pepperdine as the 53rd best national university for undergraduate education. It is also ranked one of the 10 worst party schools in the country. [35]
The School of Law placed 52nd among the nation's "Top 100" law schools by the 2011 U.S. News and World Report rankings[15] and is the third highest ranked law school in Southern California. It is known for its entertainment law,[16] and also its dispute resolution program, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation.[17]
In 2010, US News ranked Pepperdine's business school tied with Santa Clara University at 82 in America.[12] It ranked its part-time program 9th best in California.[36] Forbes magazine has ranked the Graziadio School's Fully Employed MBA programs in the world's Top 20 based on ROI.[37]
In 2008, the magazine In Tune for music educators named Pepperdine one of the 38 best music schools in the United States. In 2009, the Sustainable Endowments Institute awarded Pepperdine a "C" for its sustainability efforts in the annual College Sustainability Report Card.[38]
The Nickelodeon series, Zoey 101 was shot on Pepperdine's Malibu campus. Pepperdine signs were covered with trendy, purple signs reading "Pacific Coast Academy", the name of the boarding school attended by the students on the show.
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