After three weeks of living in the recently constructed Honors Apartments on the Drescher Graduate Campus, students say they are settling nicely into their new mountaintop homes.
By Sarah Pye
Living Editor
High on a hill live some happy Pepperdine upperclassmen.
As the first group to live in the Honors Apartments, after almost three weeks of school, students report that the newest on-campus housing has lived up to their expectations.
“I really like it a lot,” junior Tiffany Erickson said. “I love that we have our own rooms, and it’s really spacious for an on-campus apartment.”
Junior Elizabeth Unruh agreed.
“It’s like our own little community,” Unruh said. “It’s all juniors and seniors, and most of us are very involved on campus.”
Unruh said her campus involvement meshes well with living in Honors, because she is “still close enough to participate.”
Each Honors apartment unit houses four students in single bedrooms, one of the complex’s biggest pluses, according to Unruh.
“The privacy of having your own bedroom, and the freedom it gives your apartment mates to stay up late is such a luxury,” she said.
Because students living in the Honors Apartments are housed in single, rather than the more traditional shared bedrooms, room and board charges there are higher than they are for the Lovernich Apartments, Pepperdine’s other on-campus apartment housing.
Students living in the Honors Apartments pay $4,380 per semester, compared to the $3,015 Lovernich rate. According to the Housing Web site, next year these rates are likely to increase.
“I feel (the cost) is a little bit steep,” Erickson said, “but I feel like it’s worth it because they’re new.”
The complex is also home to a 300-space parking garage and a fitness center scheduled to open in mid-October. Additionally, students living in Honors will have access to outdoor barbecue facilities.
“The parking garage is wonderful,” Unruh said. “It keeps our cars clean and close.”
The apartments earned the name “Honors” because they primarily house students with GPAs of 3.0 or higher.
Unruh stressed that although many students living in Honors may be devoted to their studies, life there is anything but boring. Last weekend, she and some of her Delta Delta Delta sorority sisters and fellow Honors tenants hosted a root beer keg party.
“It just showed that we can have fun up here,” Unruh said.
Junior Bri Dellinger agreed that Honors is a social atmosphere. She said her building often hosts activities like spaghetti nights or movie parties.
“I don’t feel isolated up there because of my little family in N Block,” she said.
Unruh added that the friendly environment of Honors is compounded by the long shuttle ride up the hill that students make daily: “Waiting at the shuttle stop, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people.”
September 11, 2003