University plans to seek permits, funds to finance future construction and renovations.
CURRY CHANDLER
Assistant News Editor
Pepperdine University administrators are preparing a fundraising campaign to finance future additions and renovations to the Malibu campus.
Jerry Derloshon, director of Public Relations and News, issued a statement to the Graphic last week in response to inquiries about the proposed developments. In it, he said the university is in the “earliest steps” toward realizing the plans.
“Among the dreams are a new arena/athletics and events center, parking, a new student recreation center, additional and much enhanced student housing, remodeling of Appleby Center and Elkins Auditorium and a soccer stadium,” Derloshon said.
The university has not confirmed any more specifics on the projects.
Before any foundations can be laid, the cornerstone issues of permits and funding must be resolved.
Keith Hinkle, who was appointed in August as the university’s vice president for Advancement and Public Affairs, issued comment through Derloshon regarding plans for fundraising. Hinkle said every university in the country is at any given time in one of three phases: planning for a fundraising campaign, in a campaign or coming out of one.
“Pepperdine is planning for a campaign,” Derloshon said. “We’re certainly not in a public campaign.”
Hinkle stressed that securing all appropriate building permits is a crucial step in pre-campaign planning, but Derloshon confirmed that finances were already being amassed.
“Is money being raised now? Of course it is,” he said. “Private fundraising for institutions, and Pepperdine is no exception, is an on-going daily thing, but we treat them as not public campaigns.”
Derloshon hesitated to attach a timeframe to the question of when the campaign would move into the public arena, but said he is sure the moment of transition will not go unnoticed.
“As Pepperdine moves away from what would be called ‘the planning stage’ and into the public stage, it will be such a big announcement and such a loud announcement that no one will be able to miss it if we do our job right,” he said.
The process of physical growth, which Derloshon described as slow, deliberate and “years in the making,” has been continual at Pepperdine since the founding of George Pepperdine College in 1937. The 1970s saw the opening of the school’s Malibu campus, and more recently the grounds were expanded with the addition of the Drescher Graduate Campus.
Derloshon cited the recently completed graduate complex as an example of how the university approaches new construction. Seven years elapsed between the approval of Drescher’s conceptual designs and the commencement of construction.
“Pepperdine students attending classes today may one day return to campus and enjoy the very dreams we’re speaking about,” Derloshon said. “Will the freshmen of today see much of what we’re dreaming about? I don’t think that the timetable would allow for much of a chance of that.”
President Andrew K. Benton’s refined his vision for Pepperdine’s future in 2004’s Founder’s Day Address. As part of his vision, Benton proposed a reconstruction of the Seaver central campus to transform it into a more welcoming gathering place for the university community.
“Within the Malibu campus community, we need our own ‘Main Street,’” Benton said in the address. “In this community called Pepperdine, we want to purposefully perpetuate something like a town square, a gathering place to which the community can go to interact.”
It remains to be seen what role these new projects will play in Benton’s vision of a campus community drawing together in spirit as well as practice. The proposed athletic projects also seem to help fulfill Benton’s commitment to the university’s athletic programs in that same Founder’s Day address.
Derloshon said that as funding is accrued all desired developments will receive equal attention, with no particular sector being moved to the front of the line.
“Pepperdine’s DNA is one of progress and enhancement,” he said. “It’s not just progress for the sake of it, it’s ‘how does it enhance the whole thing?’ And that’s kind of the stewardship of people like Andy Benton and now Keith Hinkle, and I think I reflect their views pretty accurately.”
09-07-2006