By JJ Bowman
News Editor
South Central Los Angeles is a lot closer to Malibu than you might think.
The Crenshaw Christian Center, continuing a mission that would make the university founder proud, operates where the original George Pepperdine College stood, at 79th and Vermont in inner city Los Angeles.
Although many of the original buildings from GPC days remain in use, such as the painfully cramped women’s dorms, some of the structures show signs of neglect.
Pepperdine shows some neglect too. Maybe not to the center that took its place, but the students at Frederick KC Price school who now walk the same grounds as students at GPC, who have little contact with the university.
Nine journalism students took a tour of the old campus Wednesday, alongside three GPC graduates from the class of 1950. Bob White, an official at the center since it moved to the old Pepperdine campus in 1981, hosted the tour and boasted of many of the newer facilities, including the “Faithdome,” which seats 10,000 people around a stage, making it one of the largest places of worship in the world.
The dome is impressive in its simplicity, and White eagerly displayed all facets of the church, but he held one commodity in highest regard, the Price schools, which teaches students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
This school, on Pepperdine’s own grounds, continuing the spirit of “Freely ye received, freely give,” has little contact with the university, yet Price High boasts some impressive talent, not to mention some historic land.
The basketball team won its fourth straight division five basketball title Friday, becoming the first school in California ever to achieve such an honor — an honor White assured that went directly to God.
This year’s literary magazine featured, among others, Melaina Trotter, who writes poetry that few Southern California college students could match. She will attend the University of Southern California on scholarship, her teacher Marcia White said.
When asked if any of her students were going to Pepperdine, White said no. In fact, after racking her brain she could not think of anyone in her 17 years of teaching at Price High who had gone on to Pepperdine.
She did note that some of the students took a tour of Pepperdine in Malibu. Undoubtedly, the university recognizes the gifted Price High students, but it takes a lot to make the huge socioeconomic trek to Malibu.
Finding a consistent way to bring students from 79th and Vermont to Pacific Coast Highway — by scholarship or other means — would ignite a connection to Pepperdine’s past, and increase the underrepresented minority population on campus.
Paul Perry, a Pepperdine graduate from 1950 who participated on the tour, explained this best during a story he gave about the camaraderie he developed with classmates on various skiing expeditions that have continued through today.
“Every great university has a sense of place,” he said.
That sense then helps people forge friendships with their fellow Pepperdine students.
People can argue whether Pepperdine qualifies as a “great” university — Perry certainly believes it does — but how much more would the argument be enhanced if Pepperdine could maintain a stronger bond with its roots, particularly the school that continues to uphold the old George Pepperdine college values on the old George Pepperdine campus?
—Should we return to our roots? E-mail JJ Bowman at jjbowman@pepperdine.edu.
March 27, 2003