Victoria Stanzione, a Pepperdine University sophomore, was denied internship credit at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) by the deans of Seaver College last week.
“The internship is not aligned with the mission and purpose of Pepperdine University, and I cannot approve the internship for academic credit,” said Associate Dean of Seaver College Michael Feltner.
While living in Washington, D.C., this semester as part of Pepperdine’s internship program, the political science major was notified of the rejection by the D.C. program director.
Stanzione told the Huffington Post that she did not expect her internship application to be approved. Yet, upon hearing her application was rejected, Stanzione sought to challenge the university to overturn their decision. However, to her dismay, Pepperdine maintained their initial decision.
Following the deans’ decision to deny Stanzione academic credit to intern at the MPP headquarters, the MPP posted a press release on its website.
“We are extremely disappointed that Pepperdine University would deny any student the opportunity to learn about public policy by working on this important social justice issue,” said Morgan Fox, spokesman for the MPP. In addition, Fox demanded that Pepperdine consider the aftermath of this decision.
Fox believes that Pepperdine overlooked the organization’s mandate and instead focused on the weed-decriminalization’s group name. Feltner, however, said that the rejection was not immediate. He maintains that extensive research was carried out before making the final decision.
According to the MPP’s website, the organization seeks to reform United States marijuana laws. The group believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is prison, and therefore, it seeks to decriminalize marijuana use. For instance, the group focuses on making medicinal marijuana available to seriously ill patients who have their doctor’s approval.
In contrast, Pepperdine is an institution “committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values.” Dean Feltner elaborated on how the university’s mission statement and Stanzione’s internship at the MPP contradict one another: “The university’s policies on alcohol and other drugs are grounded in our mission. While we strive to be caring and compassionate in our application of the policy, we also must be direct and make decisions that uphold the policy. In this case, we determined that the mission of the MPP was not aligned with university policies concerning drugs,” Feltner said.
Pepperdine is a dry campus and “it goes without saying that illicit drug use is not allowed on campus in any way shape or form,” said Jerry Derloshon, Pepperdine’s senior director of public affairs, in an interview with Huffington Post. Put simply, marijuana is illegal, and that is why Stanzione’s internship was denied.
Kate Zawidzki, Legislative Coordinator at the MPP, sees the MPP and Pepperdine’s mission as “not only compatible but also complementary.” Zawidzki admits that interns at MPP will engage in challenging and controversial work, “undertaken for the greater good and the pursuit of truth.” MPP maintains that an increasing number of clergy members and denominations actually support marijuana policy reform including the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Union of Reform Judaism, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church’s Board of Church and Society. Furthermore, Zawidzki said she is disappointed that Pepperdine would not allow a student to aid in the organization in reforming our nation’s “broken marijuana policies an issue, in her eyes, that is closely related to the Christian principles of “mercy, compassion, justice and the pursuit of truth.”
The university has received significant media attention surrounding its decision to strike down Stanzione’s application. The MPP itself has release two press releases, the Huffington Post has covered the story and several bloggers have voiced their opinion via the Internet.
Pepperdine assisted Stanzione by securing another internship at the Center for American Progress. Stanzione declined to comment.
