Third Pepp benefactor dies in a month
Pepperdine University mourns the passing away of another benefactor the third in the month. On Sunday Elinor Nootbaar wife of Herb Nootbaar and long time benefactor of Pepperdine’s school of law passed away at the age 87.
Nootbar’s relationship with Pepperdine dates back to the 1950s when Nootbaar joined the Associated Women for Pepperdine. That eventually lead to Nootbaar’s involvement with Pepperdine’s School of Law when Kenneth W. Starr was named dean in 2004.
Nootbaar and her husband made a $6 million donation to the School of Law to endow the Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar Institute of Law Religion and Ethics as well as the Dean’s Office. They also demonstrated their support for the Williams French Smith Memorial Lecture Series. Additionally they gave $4 million to support the work of the Nootbaar Institute. Their constant support of Pepperdine makes them one of the most generous couples to continuously contribute donations in the history of the law school.
Nootbaar married her husband Herbert Nootbaar after his first wife’s death in 1983. They were known for their support of nearly 36 different charities as well as traveling to more than 126 countries.
Nootbaar’s family is planning a memorial service with a tentative date of Friday April 8 at 11 a.m. at the Presbyterian Church in Laguna Beach. A reception at El Niguel Country Club will follow the service.
Students apply despite tough economy
Along with hectic weather late March brought a flurry of admissions decisions to the thousands of students who apply to Seaver College. Despite the continuing economic difficulty of attending a private university Pepperdine experienced a 17 percent increase in applicants from the previous year. This year saw the largest number of applicants to Seaver in Pepperdine history at nearly 9900 students.
“We are very excited about this class – they are a fantastic group of talented academically-minded and well-rounded students that will certainly contribute to the overall campus community wrote Kristy Collins, director of admission for Seaver College.
The academic statistics of the admitted students speak to the highly competitive nature of this application cycle. This group boasts an average unweighted high school GPA of 3.75, average ACT score of 30 and average SAT score of 1930.
Applicants received decisions by March 18 and will receive financial aid decisions April 1. The national deadline to respond to acceptance letters is May 1st.
Irish visit campus for friendly debate
The Pepperdine debate team hosted the Irish national debate champions on Tuesday, March 29. Seniors Jonothan Rios and Justin Harris were the debaters for Pepperdine arguing against the use of nuclear energy.
Although the debate was not judged, Pepperdine claimed an unofficial victory based on the applause of the audience.
Mark Thuillier and Áine Hartigan won the Irish Times National Debating Championship in Ireland and were awarded a U.S. tour because of their victory. Before arriving at Pepperdine early this week, they competed in Alaska and left for Miami after their Pepperdine debate.
Normally, the teams are given a random topic 15 to 20 minutes before the debate is set to begin. This time, however, the teams were given the topic a day in advance and were able to provide compelling arguments on both sides of the nuclear energy debate that currently sparked because of the incident in Japan.
Since the debate was not an official competition, it included a number of lighthearted ad hominem attacks that referenced Justin Bieber and McLovin, among others.
Dr. Kristine Clancy, assistant director of forensics and visiting instructor of communication and debate, mediated the friendly debate.
Rios and Harris ranked No. 10 nationally for parliamentary debate. Pepperdine ranked No. 17 as a team.
I think the debate went really well. A lot of people turned out we had a full crowd at the CCB and people seemed to be pretty receptive to the debate and somewhat engaged at least. It was also great to debate in somewhat of a less formal style against the Irish with a little more humor involved said Rios.