It began with a six-by-four inch color photo in the Pepperdine Annual Report.
When it came out over the holidays, more than one of us, thumbing through the polished, professional report, stopped on the pages that contained the senior administration mug shots as well as the group shot of the university advancement team.
It wasn’t their stunning good looks that made us stop in our tracks — it was the lack of diversity in the photos. Within the senior administration and advancement team, there was not one minority, not one face that illustrated the university’s promise of diversity to its students.
And we began to wonder. Some years ago, the university made known its commitment to diversity on what, at least since Pepperdine left South Central Los Angeles in the 1970s, has been a white-washed campus.
How far has the university come?
Undoubtedly, since the days on Vermont and 79th when African-Americans weren’t allowed to live in the dorms, Pepperdine has made leaps and bounds in its effort to embrace all races and ethnicities.
We have an annual Student Summit on Diversity. Dr. Calvin Bowers serves as our Equal Opportunity Officer. We even have a director of Hispanic Affairs, Dr. Israel Rodriguez. And the Admission Office works relentlessly though application season to read each file and take into account race — along with other factors — to admit the best freshmen and transfer class possible. There’s the Black Student Union, the Latino Student Association, the Multicultural Theater Project and a Civil Rights trip to the Southern United States each summer.
But it’s not only diversity concerning races and ethnicities. Pepperdine has been committed to promoting the expansion of students’ point of views.
On campus, clubs that promote different religions, ethnicities and ideologies are common, and their members are devoted. The College Republicans, the Catholic Student Association, the Young Democrats and even the controversial GLSA are perfect examples. We have anti-war rallies, pro-war rallies and forums for respectful academic debate. No matter what a student’s ideological views, there is a crowd for him or her at Pepperdine — a remarkable achievement in what is often seen as a rich, conservative community.
And for those whose views are limited to their suburban, middle-class backgrounds, the university provides overseas programs to help them see that they — and America — are not the center of the world. Recently, the university has gone even further, expanding overseas choices that offer more than the typical Euro-centric experience.
Such programs include Biblical Sites, Thailand, Argentina, Russia and the first academic year program in Hong Kong that will be inaugurated next year.
The university, it seems, is doing a more than a decent job making sure its students leave their Malibu oasis with a understanding and appreciation for everything strange and beautiful in the world.
But that picture still glares out at us from the pages of the annual report.
It’s a strange image to fixate on, but it speaks loudly. Despite Pepperdine’s effort, there are still miles to go before we can abandon the quest for a more diverse environment.
First, we hope that the university continues its efforts to admit students that represent the broadest range of races, ethnicities and points of view.
Second, we are confident that the university will flourish with continued respectful academic debates that have, of late, been increasingly common.
Finally, we urge the university to recognize that diversity among the students will be difficult to achieve if it is not reflected in the faces of the administration.
We’ve gone far, but there are still miles to go. Let’s encourage students and administrators to redouble their efforts to ensure a racially, ethnically and ideologically diverse campus.
That is the mark of a truly great institution.
April 03, 2003