Pepperdine’s idyllic campus sits on an idyllic hill overlooking an idyllic ocean. Whatever there might be lurking under the surface we can probably ignore by staring into a gorgeous sunset or napping on the sand.
That was at least until recently when all of our collective issues forced their way to the front without our permission. We are now acutely aware of the deep rift between Pepperdine’s administration and its faculty our dismal alumni giving and a panicking athletic program with next to no student support not to mention the host of smaller student issues from staff conflicts to tolerance and diversity.
When an academic institution is faced with grave issues the student opinion is often maligned. Our four-year status as students is fleeting in the face of tenured professors and the bird’s-eye view of career administrators. With years of experience they often are judged more capable of accurately assessing the problems within their organization.
But this opinion is myopic itself. A visiting friend is often more aware of a subtle change than the person who has not noticed their gradual progression. To ignore the passionate and energetic student voice for change is to neglect a rare and powerful resource even if it is often a bit self-important.
After all we contribute more money to Pepperdine than does the average member of the Board of Regents or Board of Visitors. In our four years we spend more time on campus than any administrator living and breathing the policies and strategies born out of TAC board meetings.
As students and future alumni we definitely have the most to lose or gain based on Pepperdine’s success. Why then is our student body so complacent to allow a university we need to operate in anyway that we see unfit?
Of course the positives outweigh the negatives; that’s why we are all still here. Pepperdine boasts top international programs amazing internship programs and a great student-faculty ratio.
But it seems that the most poignant issue to move our student body in the past three years was overpriced cafeteria food. Our school is about to spend several millions of dollars on much needed campus renovations but still will not provide enough parking for all of its students nor will it address the terrible disservice that threw several of Pepperdine’s most popular majors into a temporary building that constantly vents the bathroom air into the language classrooms. Every student is required to spend at least three semesters in a building that shudders every time a door is closed.
We have digital signage but can’t update the software in our graphic design lab. At the risk of being overly pessimistic it’s clear that every major in every department has its fair share of gripes. How can all of these problems persist when the president of our university responds thoughtfully to every e-mail within a couple of hours?
We are not passionate about the progress of our school. If we were then Provost Tippen’s inbox would be full of petitions to give international studies a proper building and to be wary of professors in professional majors with no professional experience.
Maybe we can give Dean Marrs and his department chairs the benefit of the doubt for overlooking professors whose classes are consistently skipped by year after year of students or when faculty in his Fine Arts department has been known to tell their students that Great Books is a waste of their time and Songfest is beneath them.
Maybe they just don’t know that there is anything wrong. That’s our fault. If you’d like the opportunity to take ownership of your school rather than just complaining about it please take this opportunity to call or e-mail the following administrators with the problem and a proposed solution.
Provost Tippens
darryl.tippens@pepperdine.edu
(310) 506-4261
Dean Marrs
rick.marrs@pepperdine.edu
(310) 506-6843
President Benton
andrew.benton@pepperdine.edu