Pepperdine University - History, Page 2

MOVING INTO THE 21ST CENTURY (1987 - present)
From Ivory Tower to “Network of Light”
During his 15-year tenure (1985-2000), President Davenport intentionally shifted the operational paradigm of how the University thought of itself, away from a traditional, hierarchical structure of administration, with a central “ivory tower” and subordinate silos of educational power and influence at each of the schools. Davenport often invoked the metaphor of knowledge as light, passed in all directions through an optical network both transparent and clear. This change in thinking evolved twofold into a collaborative management model wherein both outsiders and University administrators could provide input and feedback, and into the separation of schools for the purpose of allowing them to autonomously develop innovative programs to meet the ever-changing needs of students.
Between 1988 and 1990, GSEP added master’s degree programs in educational technology, school business administration, and clinical psychology. In 1988 GSEP was the first of Pepperdine’s schools to call a female dean, Dr. Nancy Magnusson Fagan. The School of Business and Management (SBM) added master’s degrees in technology management and international business. During this period, Seaver College instituted a Great Books curriculum modeled after the University of Chicago’s, and the Institute of Dispute Resolution began offering a postgraduate certificate (to be followed with an offering of a master of dispute resolution in 1995). As the programs of GSEP and SBM grew, so did the demand throughout the Southland, and graduate campus spaces were leased in Long Beach (1990) and Westlake Village (1995).
One of the most significant academic developments of the 1990s was the founding of a new graduate school, the School of Public Policy (SPP) offering the master of public policy degree. Designed to begin first as a freestanding institute of the University in 1996, the school was formally established and admitted students in Fall 1997. Small by comparison to its sisters to this day (total enrollment slightly exceeds 100), SPP offers the master of public policy degree and has developed into the most research-oriented school at the University.
The Malibu Build-out Continues
The build-out of the Malibu campus continued to flurry throughout the early to mid-1990s, seeing the completion of many construction projects including, the Cultural Arts Center, the Towers Residences, and the Howard A. White Student Recreation Center (the HAWC), as well as expansions to the School of Law, Payson Library, and Firestone Fieldhouse. Shortly after the completion of the tennis pavilion in May 1993, Pepperdine hosted the 1995 NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Western Regional Championships.
Seaver College’s school spirit soared in 1992 when then-junior Shannon Marketic was crowned Miss USA in February, the men’s volleyball team (aka “The Malibu Roofing Company”) took the NCAA Division I Championship in March, and the baseball team won the College World Series in June. The champion spirit revisited the school a few years later when both the men’s golf and water polo teams claimed NCAA national titles in 1997.
Waves Overseas, a Growing Presence
At this time the University desired at least 50 percent of undergraduate students to participate in international education experiences by providing complete opportunity to do so, also encouraging postgraduates to study abroad. In 1990 the Prince’s Gate London facility opened as the permanent home of the London program, and the Villa DiLoreto and Residenza Tagliaferri properties combined to form the Florence campus in 1995. Short-term programs were added in Madrid and Paris in 1993, and a year later, a Latin American program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, opened its doors to students. The School of Law expanded its London offerings from summer only to a year-round program. Seaver College added an undergraduate major in international business; and in addition to the master of international business established in 1989, the business school expanded the MBA with an international study track.
The University’s growing internationalist tendencies were showcased in the cocurriculum as well. During the USSR’s collapse in the early 1990s, SBM dean Jim Wilburn’s many connections in Russia brought opportunities for him and his Pepperdine colleagues to consult and advise Russian political and business leaders in how to construct a free market economy. In addition to the delegations and panels led by Dean Wilburn, the University enjoyed many Russian cultural exchanges, hosting writers and thinkers throughout the decade. Wilburn left the business school deanship after the 1992-1993 school year and was succeeded by Otis Baskin during whose tenure the school proudly received its full name from benefactor and entrepreneur George L. Graziadio, Jr., in 1996.
Toward the Digital University
Striving toward the President Davenport’s ideal of free and unfettered communication, effective actions were taken to digitize data systems at this time. The library card catalog was converted to a mainframe system in 1992; new dormitories were built with Ethernet connections; a 24-hour computer lab was designed for the HAWC; GSEP offered its first distance-learning degree; and the faculty began compiling their course databases on digital media to ease student access. When Davenport ended his tenure, the construction of the University’s 21st-century data infrastructure and its inevitable progression toward wireless campuses was well underway.
Into the First Years of the 21st Century
When Andrew K. Benton was named the seventh president of Pepperdine University in 2000, he celebrated the successful $313 million conclusion to the University’s second capital campaign, “Challenged to Lead,” but he then issued five more challenges to meet: challenges to expand resources, enhance diversity, strengthen connection to heritage, create a sense of community, and emphasize scholarship and culture. The project of the University at the turn of the 21st century has thus been to strengthen these areas, proving to be no small task in the turbulent times of the century’s first decade.
The fundraising successes of the Challenged to Lead campaign left the University equipped to continue the Malibu build-out. Work soon began to carve out the bluff on the campus’ northwest sector to clear space for the construction of the Drescher Graduate Campus. This campus was completed in record time, and classrooms opened in August 2003, providing a home base for the School of Public Policy and the full-time, residential programs of GSEP and the Graziadio School. This campus boasts a full-service hotel and conference center (the Villa Graziadio Executive Center), as well as a library and data center. Significant additions to the lower campus included the Keck Science Center (2001) and the Center for Communication and Business (2002). Outside of Malibu, the headquarters of the Graziadio School and GSEP and their West L.A. academic programs relocated from Pepperdine Plaza in Culver City to new facilities in the Howard Hughes Center in West Los Angeles.
Growing into Its Own Reputation
During the 1990s Pepperdine regularly broke into 1st-tier and 1st-quartile rankings offered up in the media, such as U.S. News & World Report. By the early 2000s it had gained a fairly permanent berth among other highly ranked institutions. Coupled with its occasional appearances in the national sports championship spotlight (winning the NCAA Division I 2005 Men’s Volleyball Championship and the Men’s Tennis Championship) and its picture-perfect Malibu location, the University started to occupy a place in the national consciousness that it was ready to accept and shape for itself.
During the 2000s, several high-profile teachers, administrators, and practitioners at the top of their respective fields chose to bring their careers to Pepperdine, where they could cultivate authentic relationships with students and shelter and honor their faith. Recent Pepperdine students have been mentored by such minds as Edward Larson, Bruce Herschensohn, Christopher Parkening, and recent School of Law dean Ken Starr.
The University began providing students with more short-term encounters with leading scholars and thinkers through many new visiting professorships and distinguished lectures series toward the latter half of the decade. During this time, the University became a regular stop for several U.S. Supreme Court justices visiting as speakers and lecturers, including Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and chief justice John Roberts, as well as retired justice Sandra Day O’Connor. At other times noted California historian and author Victor David Hanson served as visiting professor at the School of Public Policy; Nobel Peace Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus addressed the University (he has also taken Pepperdine student interns); and the University has received inspiration and spiritual challenge from such leading lights in Christian thought as N. T. Wright, Martin Marty, Dallas Willard, and Os Guinness.
The early 21st century saw faculty encouraged to fully develop their areas of research expertise and pedagogical passion, allowing them to engage in the formation and development of research centers and institutes. The School of Law was especially active in this pursuit with the creation of the Palmer Center for Entrepreneurship and the Law; the Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics; and the Wm. Byrne, Jr., Judicial Clerkship Institute. The Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies, the Pat Lucas Center for Teacher Preparation, the Center for Applied Research, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Center for Entertainment, Media, and Culture, all recently formed, are sources of cocurricular education for students and faculty alike.
Another measure of University growth in academic reputation can be seen in the example of one particularly prominent competitive fellowship. The 2005 Annual Report noted as particularly exceptional that Pepperdine graduate Kari Filerman had been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study the Mexican banking system. Thereafter Pepperdine’s number of Fulbright Scholars grew: two in 2006; five in 2008; five in 2009; and seven in 2010. The undergraduate climate created by Seaver College dean David Baird challenged students more and more to apply for prestigious fellowships, all the while ensuring students received proper support and preparation to succeed in their endeavors to be selected.
The Nimble Academy
The international emphasis in Pepperdine undergraduate curriculum continued to expand throughout the 2000s. A French culture program was introduced in Lyon, France, in 2003, and then relocated to permanent facilities in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2007. Asian study opportunities were in turn arranged: first in Japan, later in Hong Kong and Thailand, and currently with a permanent facility in Shanghai, China. Numerous other study abroad opportunities were created, allowing the international studies program to expand and contract around the shifting requirements of logistics and support in host countries.
The graduate professional programs in business, education, and psychology followed suit during this time, exhibiting their abilities to turn on a dime and change with the regional demands of the market. The Pasadena Graduate Campus opened for a time; the Irvine Graduate Campus and the Silicon Valley Graduate Center in San Jose both opened and are still in existence; and the Long Beach campus briefly operated mid-decade. The University responded to the depressed 21st –century jobs market by developing several new graduate-level degrees for professionals updating their skill. In 2003 the School law offered the University’s first master of laws (LLM) degree in dispute resolution. In 2007 the Graziadio School rolled out three master of science degrees in the disciplines of applied finance, global business, and management and leadership. Seaver College introduced the MFA in screen and television writing in 2009. In 2010 GSEP introduced MA degrees in school counseling and social entrepreneurship and change, and the Graziadio likewise brought out an MS in entrepreneurship.
A Pepperdine Postmodern Aesthetic: Beauty and Beautiful Living
The five challenges laid down by President Benton in 2000 were picked up in earnest, and in doing so the University readdressed what it meant to be a Christian school within the historical context of 9/11, natural catastrophes, public corporate malfeasance, and the Great Recession. The University responded by asserting hope and moral order while moving counterintuitively toward an institutional aesthetic to create beauty. Using order and serenity as a refuge for the mind and the soul drove many of the University’s decisions to form fresh places on campus and establish new artistic endeavors to be sure.
In 2002 the Military Honor Garden was constructed in Stauffer Chapel plaza, followed in 2003 by Heroes Garden on the Drescher Graduate Campus, a lovely place to contemplate modern heroes like alumnus Tom Burnett, passenger on UAL Flight 93, who was called to confront suicide bombers—giving his own life to save countless others on September 11, 2001. In emotional contrast, the primary outdoor space on the Malibu campus was reimagined and dedicated as Mullin Town Square, a festive central piazza offering a focal point for community engagement and student life.
Mirroring the external changes with the internal, the University made an exerted effort to call its students, faculty, staff, and supporters to lead beautiful lives of service through curriculum taught and by administrators’ leadership, urging all to utilize their resources and excellent education to assist and instruct those who have less. While sectors within the Pepperdine community have always been active in public service from the school’s very beginning, within the latter half of the last decade the University has framed the role of higher education as the best means to call people to fulfill their greatest potential for creating lives of significance by applying their knowledge to human need.
Constantly Changing, Yet Unchanging
Many changes in school location, personnel, policy, and curriculum have come and gone over its eight decades, but today Pepperdine remains distinct and committed to its founder’s belief that there must exist an alternative in American higher education that improves the intellect and brings the heart of the student under the influence of Christ. Each September on Founder’s Day, the entire University community gathers to recall and renew the dedicatory address of George Pepperdine, in which he states the school’s raison d’etre:
“I am endowing this institution to help young men and women to prepare for a life of usefulness in this competitive world and help them build a foundation of Christian character and faith which will survive the storms of life.”
As long as young men and women continue to seek livelihood and spiritual calling in their lives, the mission of Pepperdine University will seek to provide both.