KELLY NOLAND
Staff Writer
What makes a school like Pepperdine the kind of place where students go to their professors’ house for dinner, where the school’s mission is connected to what is taught in the classroom, and where benefactors from around the world want to participate in making the school an even better place?
It is faculty members and administrators like John and Claudette Wilson, who have devoted countless hours in an effort to make the learning possibilities and experiences of the students at Pepperdine grow every year.
2004 marked Claudette’s last year as a Pepperdine professor and this year will be John’s last year. First visiting Pepperdine with thoughts of being a religious professor, John was instead asked to be the Dean. Twenty year’s later; both Wilson’s have certainly made an impact on the lives of all who have come in contact with them.
“I’ve always hoped that students would gain a love of learning and discovery,” John says about his mission in teaching. “We all have to fight against the thoughts of – do I have to do this to graduate; what do I have to do to get an A.” John certainly knew how to draw his students into what they were learning. For over 25 years, he took several summer trips to do archaeological digs in Israel taking anywhere from six to twenty students with him.
“It was like travel 301 for the students,” Says John of his student’s Israel trips. “It was very hard work – strange food – getting up really early in the morning – students learned about another culture but also about history and ancient people in a way that you can’t do in any other way.”
Claudette, who taught in the Teacher Education division, brought a different type of lesson to a certain group of her students. “When I first came to Pepperdine, I was going to Santa Barbara to get my PHD while I was working,” Claudette recalls. “I was a good model for my women students and my own daughters because they could see that I could hold a job, go to school and be a mother.”
Teaching has been only part of John and Claudette’s contributions to Pepperdine. Serving as Dean for 15 years, John hired 80% of the faculty that worked at Pepperdine while he was in that position. “It was like coming in as a coach and having all your players be seniors. It was a period of transition,” recalls John. “They were young then; now they are the stable core of our faculty.”
As dean, John got the best of both worlds offered at a university as an administrator and faculty member. After his 15 years of being the dean, he became a religion and archaeology professor. While John says he preferred being a teacher, he was glad he had seen the university from both sides.
“I agreed to be the dean because I had read a book that said being an administrator was a noble act. You’d rather be teaching but you’re willing to suspend that to try and create an environment where others could do that,” explains John. “It was not about being a big shot or about having power, it was creating a situation where good things can happen, students are learning and growing and the faculty is teaching well and feeling good about their career.”
As John’s wife, Claudette was heavily involved in Pepperdine’s inner workings while he was dean as well. She recalls some of her favorite and most meaningful memories as the times she spent meeting and talking to the people who make Pepperdine possible. She talks of meeting Mrs. Pepperdine, Mrs. Seaver, Mrs. Brock and countless other people vital to Pepperdine’s success.
“That level of knowing Pepperdine and how it operates is important. If we didn’t have it, we couldn’t function, we kind of make fun of that, but it’s very important,” Claudette says. “How generous these people are, that’s been a real great memory for me.”
Claudette also says one of her favorite memories of Pepperdine was her students and the connections she formed between them. Luckily for Pepperdine students, the Wilson’s plan on living on campus and continuing to have students up to their home.
Their other plans for retirement include going back to London where they were the residing faculty members for the overseas programs for several years, staying active in the campus ministry and student’s lives, and seeing their seven, soon to be eight grandchildren.
Having been at Pepperdine for over 20 years, the Wilson’s were able to witness some extraordinary changes at Pepperdine. One of the most significant changes that has occurred on campus is how the university’s mission is incorporated more in the classroom
“The mission of the university has bee so well emphasized to the faculty,” says Claudette. “The new faculty are brought into seminars and given books to read that help them understand the mission of the university and how they can implement it into their classrooms.”
Besides what is being taught in the classrooms, the actual classrooms have changed. “It used to be there weren’t enough chairs to sit in the library during finals week, there wasn’t enough room in classrooms, and students literally couldn’t get enough classes to fill their schedules. We’ve made tremendous progress in facilities,” recalls John. “We’ve also made a conscious effort to have more of the student body living on campus which really improves the campus camaraderie.”
Pepperdine stands to face another large change with both Wilson’s no longer being a part of the faculty. Even though they won’t have scheduled classes, however, both Wilson’s have promised to remain a strong part of Pepperdine’s community.
“The thing about a scholar, you don’t do it because someone pays you for it. A scholar is someone who discovers and learns and then teaches others about it. You do it because that’s who you are,” John says. “I won’t have scheduled classes to teach and I probably won’t voluntarily go to faculty meetings, but the essential part – I don’t think it changes. I’ll read, write, travel, and share that.”
A valuable asset to the Pepperdine community for over twenty years, it looks like although the Wilson’s contributions may be taking a different form, they will still be there in plenty.
05-12-2006