In the wake of the national conversations on lesbian gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT)-related issues Pepperdine University has jumped on board by creating the committee “Building Bridges: Pepperdine’s Response to Homosexuality.”
Since last November the group composed mainly of Pepperdine faculty has been meeting to discuss Pepperdine’s stance on homosexuality. Building Bridges is preparing to release its summary statement before the end of the spring semester.
According to the group’s meeting budget the purpose of the group is to “review Pepperdine policies recent trends in biblical interpretation and research on homosexuality and current needs and future directions for coordinating [Pepperdine’s] response as a community.”
Dean of Students Mark Davis stands as the chair of the committee and asserts there are several factors behind Building Bridges.
“I noticed that many conversations were occurring in silos. So I decided to bring together representatives from various departments engaged in conversation Davis wrote in an e-mail.
Aside from departmental discussions, Davis also commented that his own conversations with gay and lesbian students over the past year made it clear to him that there are some misunderstandings to address.
Although during Pepperdine’s continuing reaccreditation process, the WASC visiting team observed that Pepperdine would benefit from more open dialogue about diversity in its various forms Building Bridges is not a direct response to WASC’s criticism. However, Davis assured that WASC will be very interested in how Pepperdine is addressing issues of diversity.”
Building Bridges has several outcomes in mind including a “draft of some recommended changes to the sexual relationships statement in the Student Handbook and to create a FAQ document that addresses the various questions being asked in our community Davis said.
As it stands, the Seaver College’s Code of Conduct in the Student Handbook prohibits sexual activity outside a marriage between husband and wife including but not limited to premarital extramarital or homosexual conduct.”
Furthermore the Student Handbook also provides a definition of sexual relationships establishing that sexual relationships “are designed by God to be expressed solely within a marriage between husband and wife.”
The handbook explains that the definition comes as expressed in Genesis and is carried out through Scripture. Therefore as a matter of moral and faith witness all members of the University are expected to avoid such conduct themselves and to refrain from encouraging it in others.
Besides looking into current Pepperdine policy on homosexuality Building Bridges will also be “following up with some outreach and programming ideas discovered in [the] benchmarking as well as the creation of new forums for discussion that we’ll publicize so anyone can join in the conversation Davis said.
Building Bridges is composed of 16 faculty members, including Davis, Dean of Seaver College Rick Marrs, faculty director Gary Selby, University Chaplain Dave Lemley, Provost Darryl Tippens, and the SGA president, Daelan Blankfein. The participants met for a series of seven meetings and are set to meet one more time to create a summary statement of the group’s research and discussion.
The faculty and administration group also met with current students who are members of ReachOUT, an LGBT group on campus not officially recognized by the university. Along with listening to what LGBT students had to say, the committee also looked at LGBT Stories from Pepperdine a blog compilation of 13 anonymous stories from Pepperdine LGBT students and their struggles with sexual orientation in a Christian setting.
During that same meeting, ReachOUT also presented Building Bridges with a report they compiled themselves titled Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policies: A Commitment to Creating a Safety Community.” The report compares Pepperdine to 14 peer institutions. The report found that “[t]he majority of schools 11 out of 14 publically commit to protecting all students faculty and staff from discrimination regardless of their race color national or ethnic origin age mental or physical disability gender and sexual orientation.”
Furthermore the report also asserts “All institutions in California protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and it includes a terminology guide and a list of offensive terms, so that the university can adopt more modern and inclusive language.
Senior Matthew Miller, one of the students behind the report, remarked via e-mail that, The purpose of creating the report was to protect all members of the Pepperdine community against discrimination.”
Although the timing of the LGBT-conducted report coincides with the Building Bridges Committee discussions Miller points out that the report is not just concerned with LGBT issues as “ReachOUT opposes discrimination against anyone and everyone.
“There are other issues with our non-discrimination statement beside various exclusions e.g. we use outdated terminology such as ‘handicap’ versus ‘disability.'”
Aside from looking at what is written in the handbook the ReachOUT group is “hoping that they’ll include a non-discrimination statement including gay students said junior Alexander Cooper, a member of ReachOUT.
Cooper said the potential of losing scholarships because of being homosexual has been the concern of many Pepperdine LGBT students.
Overall there’s a lot of uncertainty over our position with the administration at Pepperdine. We don’t know where we stand and many of us fear being reprimanded in some way particularly after coming out. It’s kept a lot of students in the closet and has prevented them from seeking the sort of resources that they need Cooper said.
Cooper also spoke about the issue of an LGBT support group on campus.
We’re also hoping that the University will finally allow us to have a gay support group. We’re emphasizing that the group’s purpose is simply to support all LGBT students Cooper said.
Cooper concluded by saying that ReachOUT is glad that the administration is considering altering university policy toward gay students.”
As of now ReachOUT stands outside Pepperdine recognition. They have a Facebook group in which they state they are “dedicated to raising awareness educating the public and supporting dialogue about LGBT issues while promoting equality compassion and the right to be treated with dignity in all situations regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The date for the last meeting is yet to be determined as is the date for the release of the summary statement.
“We were all touched by the personal struggle of our gay and lesbian students and were grateful for the opportunity to sit down and have a serious respectful conversation Davis pointed out as a highlight of the group meetings so far.
