Let’s talk about “community.” Because lately it seems it’s been on everyone’s mind. The administration is doing its best to foster it. The Student Government Association is talking about it. The Inter-Club Council is talking about it and so is the Student Programming Board. And rightly so— because it’s important. Finding ways to share a sense of common identity is just as important to the college experience as anything we learn in the classroom. And this quest to build community could be greatly aided by expanding our community-building efforts to the off-campus homes of so many that choose to live away.
The beauty of college campuses is that they are— or at least have the potential to be— exciting melting pots of backgrounds and lifestyles. Anyone can take a course online or read the textbook alone at home. The value of a University experience lies in the fact that thousands of people who don’t know each other are all thrown onto the same few acres and told to learn and grow from each other. But members of that community can’t expect to learn and grow from one another if there is no value in the “us” that unites them. The question of course is how to make that “us” a label to be proud of.
To be clear we’ve seen some great steps in the right direction. International Programs’ Movie in the Park night seems to be gaining momentum as an event that people look forward to. Rock the Brock was a great way to pull the senior class back onto campus on a Thursday night reminding everyone of three years ago when they stood on that same lawn for My Tie. And we certainly hope to see the Christmas tree lighting happen again.
But these praiseworthy steps on the way to achieving that golden idea of “community” haven’t quite gotten us there yet. Pepperdine still faces tough challenges to its group solidarity.
Many students live off-campus and community is certainly difficult when community members are absent. Of course the more people that live on campus the better. But that’s not going to be the magic bullet that gives us our sense of community and there are a lot more reasons than the dry-campus policy that people choose to live away. Why choose to live on Drescher when you still have to hop in your car to commute down to main campus anyway? Why not just go off-campus away from the watchful eye of the RA and the Department of Public Safety? Chances are it’s cheaper anyway.
People are going to live off campus. This is a fact that must be embraced not fought. We still know we want to bolster this sense of Pepperdine community so let’s start building some community wherever students live. Just as many profess that the word “church” refers not to the building of worship but the body of worshippers we suggest that the “university community” not be narrowly pinned to the confines of the campus but to extend to the off-campus homes of so many community members. Sure this could be helped along with some official Pepperdine-sanctioned support but the responsibility lies much more with the students than with the Pepperdine administration.
Many places where students live such as the Point Dume Club Malibu Villas or Malibu Canyon Apartments have a shared public pool and barbecue. What better way to get to know that mysterious other Pepperdine house you’ve heard of in your neighborhood than by inviting them down to a poolside barbecue? Go ahead and think of some other ways to get to know your fellow off-campus Pepperdinian neighbors.
We aren’t encouraging little islands of Pepperdine culture to evolve by themselves away from the whole. Rather we’re advocating a bridge-building campaign. Let’s forge the link between the home lives of off-campus students and the Pepperdine community.