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Pepperdine University’s current Sustainability Policy statement makes no mention of the words “climate change,” “climate,” or “global warming.” Since taking office in 2019, President Jim Gash has never explicitly mentioned climate change or the university’s connection to and responsibility for mitigating this crisis in any official memo, speech, email, or other form of official university communication. Pepperdine’s central administration, along with the Office of the President, do not emphasize climate mitigation or adaptation as a central aspect of the university’s mission as an academic institution.
If Pepperdine’s official stance on climate change is to deny its very real impact on our community, this stance must change. As a Christian institution of higher learning, we must explicitly commit to mitigating and adapting to climate change on the local and operational level, the community and national level, and the international level. Pepperdine’s decision to not acknowledge climate change and our Christian role in solving this crisis makes us a less academically rigorous institution and an ecological stain in our eco-conscious Malibu community.
As an academic institution, especially one committed to teaching science and scientific literacy, we must agree as a university that climate change actively impacts our community and other communities around the world. The reality of climate change is not a fact generally understood as up for debate amidst the scientific community.
Over 200 scientific organizations worldwide have formally stated that humans are causing climate change, and various scientific studies and documents have been published detailing the severity of the climate crisis. The impact of climate change is no less real than the impact of gravity on mudslides in Malibu Canyon, yet our university’s administration seems to encourage debate about climate science despite the scientific consensus.
Pepperdine must also explicitly identify the significant climate-related problems affecting our student body and commit to mitigate and adapt to those problems in the future. In recent years, our university community has experienced three major wildfires: the Woolsey, Franklin, and Palisades fires. Many students and their families have lost their homes to natural disasters exacerbated by climate change.
Climate change has contributed significantly to the increase in wildfires in the Santa Monica Mountains and greater southern California region, increasing the number of red flag days due to increased humidity and drought. In my time at Pepperdine, the university community has also experienced severe drought conditions exacerbated by climate change.
During my freshman year at Pepperdine, California declared a drought emergency. Increased sea level rise due to climate change also continues to impact the beaches that students value, eroding one of the most significant outdoor spaces for Pepperdine students. These environmental changes severely impact the student experience at Pepperdine, and we as a university must acknowledge these climate concerns and work to mitigate and adapt to them for future generations of students.
Acknowledging and striving to mitigate and adapt to climate change also aligns with Pepperdine’s Christian mission. Climate action does not require Pepperdine to distance itself from its Christian image and heritage. Many common-sense, environmentally conscious solutions to climate change could benefit the university and student body without casting aside our Christian heritage or our more socially conservative beliefs. Students, faculty, staff and Pepperdine administration generally agree that Pepperdine must engage in thoughtful Christian leadership, but we must extend this value and common mission towards climate action as well.
An acknowledgment of climate change could be centered around a care for God’s creation and our role as Christians to support marginalized communities, the “least of these.” Engaging in climate action would call on our university to begin to reflect God’s love and care for all human and nonhuman neighbors, including the creation that will suffer if climate change is not mitigated. This shared value of love and care for all of God’s creation should be a starting point for climate action at Pepperdine.
If the university chooses to address this crisis, the broader Pepperdine community could come together through a shared Christian responsibility to care for our environment and enact justice for those disproportionately impacted by the negative impacts of climate change.
Strong student support for climate action at Pepperdine already exists, but our university is ignoring this call for change. On March 12, 2025, the Seaver College Student Government Association passed a resolution calling on the Office of the President to publicly acknowledge climate change and craft a Climate Action Plan to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
I was one of the primary authors of this initiative, alongside Sophomore Class President Zayd Salahieh. Resolution #08-S25 lays out a strategy to reach key net zero goals at Pepperdine, including changing our university’s Sustainability Policy Statement, establishing a Sustainability Task Force under the Office of the President, and undergoing a climate audit through a faith-based organization such as Climate Stewards.
Peer institutions, such as Loyola Marymount University and the University of San Diego, have already implemented similar initiatives in recent decades, and Pepperdine is lagging behind. Resolution #08-S25 is based on strong student support data, including a survey of 336 students in Fall 2024, more than 10% of the student body. Based on this survey, 71% of the student body supported Pepperdine issuing a public statement acknowledging human-caused climate change, with only 12% of the student body opposing such a statement. 82% of students wanted more transparency on how much renewable energy Pepperdine uses, and 76% of students believed climate change was a major problem affecting them or others. When over ¾ of our student body agree on a problem, our university must take that problem seriously. We must begin to view climate change as the crisis that it is, one that Pepperdine must meet head-on.
So how do we meet this challenge? I would argue that we cannot solve a problem without acknowledging the problem exists. Pepperdine’s senior administration and President Gash must publicly acknowledge the climate crisis and our role in bringing down our greenhouse gas emissions. Resolution #08-S25 lists pathways President Gash could take to address this concern, including changing our Sustainability Policy Statement to explicitly mention human-caused climate change or communicating through email, social media, or more formal communications about the university’s role in addressing climate change.
Resolution #08-S25 also lays out potential solutions to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions that Pepperdine’s administration should consider, including boosting our renewable energy portfolio, increasing our waste diversion efforts, providing more commuting options for students and faculty, and establishing an electric vehicle purchasing policy.
To assess the feasibility and potential of these solutions, President Gash should follow the lead of our peer institutions and establish a Sustainability Task Force dedicated to crafting a public report on how Pepperdine can reach net zero emissions. This Task Force can be made up of students, faculty, administrators, and other key university stakeholders, ensuring that all voices are heard and considered. A coalition of these stakeholders could produce the Climate Action Plan Pepperdine needs to mitigate and adapt to this crisis moving forward.
As a university, we must not be afraid to acknowledge both our past and present contributions to climate change and our future role in mitigating this crisis. Pepperdine’s Affirmation Statement affirms, “That truth, having nothing to fear from investigation, must be pursued relentlessly in every discipline.” Pepperdine must begin to live up to this affirmation. If we have nothing to fear from investigation, we must begin to investigate our university’s contribution to climate change and how we can be a future environmental leader in higher education.
We can no longer hide behind lackluster sustainability statements that sidestep the real problem: climate change. We can no longer pretend that our university and our greater Los Angeles community can thrive academically, spiritually, physically, and emotionally through increasingly intense and frequent wildfires and climate disasters. We can no longer believe that the climate crisis will not reach our backyard or that our mountains or beaches will always shelter us from the reality of a warming world.
President Gash and Pepperdine’s senior administration must take proactive action to address the present and future needs of its student body. Students recognize the problem; the university must do the same. Pepperdine needs a Climate Action Plan.
Walden Hicks, SGA Senior Class President (’25)
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Contact Walden Hicks via email: walden.hicks@pepperdine.edu
