Editorial
With the recent bar fights between Pepperdine students and the group known as MLO, or Malibu Locals Only, we need to stop and think about Pepperdine’s place among the residents of this sunny small beach town.
Malibu is a wonderful place to live, for permanent residents and students alike: clean streets, beautiful beaches, world-class restaurants, safety, security and all the California coastal charm anyone could ever want.
Perhaps it is because Malibu is such a gem that some people feel the need to fight to make it exclusively theirs. Obviously, groups like MLO feel as though Pepperdine students have no right to take up space in their little plot of paradise. After all, most of us had never been here before the age of 18 and move on when we hit 22. We’re transients – how dare we try to claim Malibu as our own.
However, Pepperdine students have been calling Malibu home since Pepperdine’s seaside campus opened its doors in 1972.
There is likely no student among us who, upon telling someone where he or she goes to college, has not heard the words, “Wow, what a beautiful campus!”
Though Pepperdine is certainly much more than its scenic surroundings, the great view offered from the Caf has probably persuaded more than one high school senior to decided to make Malibu his or her four-year home. Pepperdine should be grateful.
So how is it, then, that we, as a college community and as local residents, respectively, are going to reconcile our differences and learn to get along as a more cohesive unit? Simple, we all need to start paying a little more attention to that good old Golden Rule wisdom, and start treating each other with respect and tolerance.
Bar fights at the Malibu Inn are not the secret to success. Neither is excessive noise, partying or property destruction at local apartment units. If Pepperdine students want to be accepted by the locals, we need to make the first step and start remembering to be respectful to those who call this little city their permanent home.
And for their part, community members should recognize that, in Pepperdine, they really have it pretty good as far as schools they could have in their community. For the most part, Pepperdine students are good, respectful, morally upright people, dedicated to lives of service and leadership – from which the surrounding community benefits.
And what about the fact that Pepperdine is Malibu’s biggest industry? How much business would prosper without student patrons? The University also creates jobs for Sodexho and other employees who work on campus.
Events like Step Forward Day, or our participation in the annual Malibu Chili Cook-off show the first steps toward unity. The Pepperdine Volunteer Center also makes efforts to reach out year-round, sending tutors into local schools or volunteer Spanish speakers to the Language Connection. And even recently at Convocation, students were reminded that though we live in an affluent community, we must not forget to take care of Malibu’s many homeless people.
Pepperdine does care about the community, and, in turn, there are some community members and organizations that really have demonstrated they care about us.
There is more than one Malibu local in the stands at any Pepperdine basketball game, and the Center for the Arts have many dedicated local patrons who are routinely in the audience for theatrical presentations. Businesses like Howdy’s and Malibu Yogurt have long had a pleasant rapport with the Pepperdine community, even serving as sponsors for many on-campus charity events.
These steps are good, but more must be done. There will always be people from the community who think Malibu would be better off without Pepperdine, and there will always be those in the Pepperdine community who think the town ought to cater more to the school’s needs.
The point is that neither the college nor the locals are going anywhere anytime soon, and we could all do a better job of being tolerant of each other.
We would urge all local businesses to welcome Pepperdine students into your establishments, and hope that there would be no local renters who feel having a Pepperdine tenant to be a liability. And, in turn, we also urge Pepperdine students to be respectful, mature representatives of the University when visiting the community, and never become any type of liability when living there.
If both groups take further steps to be tolerant of one another, it is safe to say that everyone will benefit. There’s enough paradise to go around in Malibu, so let’s make an effort to share it.
Submitted March 25, 2004