Students gathered April 7 to protest President’s Speaker Series guest, Canadian author and psychologist Jordan Peterson.
With nearly 40 people in attendance, students joined together in a peaceful protest just outside of campus on John Tyler Road. They aimed to communicate their objection to Peterson’s politics and what they believe is a lack of viewpoint diversity in the guest speakers invited to campus for the series.
“Our main point in this protest is just try to get some ideological diversity on campus because we’ve had so many different conservative speakers, but not many liberal speakers,” said Olivia Berryman, senior and president of the College Democrats.
Students tabled in Mullin Town Square from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., to create signs and spread the word. Spirits were high as the group walked together to the designated protest space an hour before Peterson’s address.
“Having the table here today and having people, take stickers, make signs and just communicating with people in big conversation settings has been a really effective way of I think validating for us that this is worthwhile something people are able to, get their hands dirty and actually have a say in what’s going on,” senior Sofia Reyes said.
The protest was unaffiliated with a specific on-campus organization but rather a collection of passionate students who wanted a platform to make their voices heard and speak out against the harmful messages they believe Peterson’s politics represent, Berryman said.
“He’s known for misogyny, racism, transphobia and homophobia, and I just don’t believe that it’s right to have someone like that on campus,” Berryman said.
The protest was not solely for students –– members of the Malibu Democratic Club also joined in to protest Peterson’s message and stand in solidarity with students.
“We as the Malibu Democratic Club really want to stand in solidarity with the community of Pepperdine, who is opposed to this, type of event happening in our in our town because it’s against what we stand for as Americans.”
The protestors received a mix of reactions from passersby, most commonly honks of support interspersed with demonstrations of opposition.
The Planning Process
Student Affairs collaborated directly with the protest leaders — seniors Reyes, Hicks, Berryman and Cassandra Barron, a staff writer for the Graphic — to find a location that accommodated all participants, met fire-safety requirements, and ensured clear visibility. Initially, the designated space was on campus near Firestone Fieldhouse, but protestors preferred an off-campus location where they felt they would be clearly heard and unrestricted by Pepperdine’s Time, Place, and Manner policy, Hicks said.
“They know what we’re doing,” Hicks said. “It’s all approved, and because we’re off campus, the time and place policy should not apply. We weren’t gonna violate the policy anyway, but it’s helpful I think to be off campus so that students have nothing to worry about.”
The protest’s format took a couple of shapes before students and Student Affairs landed on the version at John Tyler Road. Originally, some students discussed the possibilities of a walkout, while others planned on obtaining as many tickets to the event as possible but not attending, Doug Hurley associate dean of Student Affairs said. Ultimately, they collectively decided a protest location that is technically not university property would be the best option.
“They just felt like they were going to be seen better, by the cars and everything, by being in that location,” Hurley said.
Planning the protest was quite the process, Berryman said, and getting the word out through advertising proved challenging, as they did not want any marketing to send the message that this protest was associated with a specific organization, but rather an opportunity for all students to participate. She said it was important everyone involved understand the goal is purely a peaceful protest.
“We also just wanted to make sure we were doing this as peacefully as possible, so we wanted to make sure that the people in the planning process know that it as well, we’re all on board with that,” Berryman said.
Another factor Student Affairs had to consider before deciding to move off campus was coordinating a location for counter-protesting, Hurley said. While there were no known plans for a counter-protest, the Department of Public Safety needed to find a space where two locations could be sectioned off.
“Whenever the university sets up a protest area, there has to be a counter-protest area,” Hurley said. “So DPS was going to delineate two spaces up in that area, protest, counter-protest.”
Student Affairs recommended protestors research signs, what restrictions there are to free speech, what is recommended and what is appropriate. Hurley said he did not remember telling students specifically what can and cannot go on their signs.
“I didn’t want to be in the role of, saying, ‘Here’s what you should put on your sign,’” Hurley said.” I just didn’t feel like that was my role. When you’re when you’re expressing your free speech, that’s your free speech.”
Hicks said from the beginning Student Affairs was supportive and helpful, but in the future, they can go even further.
“They’ve answered all of our questions and more,” Hicks said. “I think they’ve really done a good job of making us feel this is possible, but I do think they can do better.”
Hurley said the protest went well, and he was impressed by the students’ care and consideration throughout the process.
“I’m very proud of our students,” Hurley said. “I think that the protest that I have been a part of the students have contacted us, wanted to partner with us, wanted to get advice.”
A Request for More Viewpoint Diversity
Hicks said he feels the President Speaker Series is meant to be a middle-ground with speakers of diverse viewpoints, but in the past, the speakers are often notoriously far-right or right-leaning.
“This university is not in the business of bringing on liberal speakers and let alone left speakers,” Hicks said. “If you’re gonna pick this guy who’s so far to the right, you have to have an equal counterbalance on the other side.”
When Pepperdine announced Peterson’s address, Reyes said she was frustrated because it felt like a signifier of changing attitudes on a social, university and national scale. She said she believes Peterson is not representative of the overall opinions of the student body.
“Having our institution that we pay money towards and want to feel represented by putting so much time, money, effort, into having someone that represents all the badisms, having them so vehemently welcomed on campus is not something that we feel represents the student body.”
Hicks said he was frustrated Peterson did not have a counterweight on stage, someone to converse with that would push back, a purpose he feels a protest can serve instead.
“if you’re not gonna have somebody up there to counteract this speaker, we’ll do it outside,” Hicks said.
Protest Culture at Pepperdine
Berryman said for future generations of students, she hopes this protest will encourage the administration to bring in a wider variety of speakers, who represent the varying viewpoints of the student body.
Pepperdine does not have a history of protest culture, and the hope, Hicks said, is this demonstration will show students there are places for their voices to be heard.
“I think this is cool to show students ‘Hey you can do it,’” Hicks said. “There are ways to do this, to express your frustration.”
A protest of this nature allows students to collaborate with one another, taking action into their own hands, Reyes said.
“By doing, a protest like this we’re able to give the people who feel misrepresented by this action, a platform to actually do something themselves,” Reyes.
Hurley said he was pleased with how the protest went and he hopes this will encourage students to reach out to the university to help them facilitate gatherings like this in the future.
“I would want to send the message to other students that if they felt like they wanted their voice to be heard about a particular topic, that’s what we want to help them with in terms of exercising their free speech,” Hurley said.
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Follow the Graphic on Twitter: @PeppGraphic
Email Ava Heinert: ava.heinert@pepperdine.edu
