Staff Editorial
It is understood that the people on Pepperdine’s Board of Regents have contributed greatly to this University.
The board, however, makes some of the most important decisions affecting this university and does so without any student representation.
Not only that, it is virtually unapproachable by the student body and refuses to respond to any inquiries made by the Graphic which, as a student publication, is a major outlet for students to be heard.
This isolation from students is especially serious amid the recent incident involving a board member and CEO who was found to have plagiarized a booklet that circulated through his company, in other corporations nationally, and at Pepperdine.
Despite his culpability, Bill Swanson remains on the board.
While someone guilty of plagiarism is allowed to stay in such an important position, students and faculty are not even allowed to attend the board’s meetings, unless invited.
This governing body for the university, whose primary function is to educate students, isolates itself from those who are most affected by board decisions, and who contribute a great deal of university’s revenue through tuition payments.
Instead, the university’s board is made of businesspeople who have other more pressing responsibilities, many of whom live thousands of miles from the university, returning to campus only on occasion.
Staff members’ attempts to contact the board only receive response from office workers who declare a policy against making comment to members of Pepperdine’s student press.
Many public universities including all of the University of California schools and California State University schools maintain student members on their administrative boards.
While not as many private schools do, many at least have some sort of student involvement. Westmont College lists a student worker on its Web site who works closely with board members and can be contacted by students, and Claremont McKenna’s Board shows its accessibility by listing personal contact information for all of its members.
Not only do all of the UC schools have a unified board, but on this Board of Trustees they include one student member, with full voting power in decision-making, who serves a one-year term. The California State University system has two student members for its Board of Trustees, one who votes and one who does not. They serve staggered two-year terms.
Few would argue that larger public universities are just the same as smaller private ones such as Pepperdine. There are also few people who would argue that students at these larger universities are more conscientious than students at smaller ones.
Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, also a small, private, Christian university, maintains two non-voting faculty members.
President Andrew K. Benton wrote in an e-mail that student membership on the Board of Regents is not necessary for a private university like Pepperdine. Benton said the board communicates with students through school deans and other administrators, who can participate in board meetings.
Benton also said student leaders sometimes meet with the board through special dinners and other events, but all of these events and student input are at the board’s discretion.
The board is willing to maintain Swanson, as part of its body, but holds that it is not necessary, or even appropriate at a university like Pepperdine to make students part of the body.
Because so many choices concerning students and campus finances are made by board members, it is unfair to leave students out of the decision making process.
09-14-2006