Transparency Item: Elizabeth Smith, director of Pepperdine Graphic Media, currently serves as the vice president of the Seaver Faculty Association.
The Seaver Faculty Association (SFA) — which represents all Seaver College faculty — approved a letter to administrators Nov. 14 that addresses Advancement’s censorship and shuttering of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art’s “Hold My Hand in Yours” exhibition in October 2025.
Religion and Sustainability Professor Chris Doran, president of SFA and Seaver Faculty Senate (SFS) — comprised of elected officers, division representatives, at-large representatives and fixed-term faculty representatives — said he sent the letter to President Jim Gash, Provost Jay Brewster and Board of Regents Chair Dee Anna Smith on the morning of Nov. 17. The letter was approved after an electronic vote by Seaver faculty took place between Nov. 9 and Nov. 14. Out of the roughly 300 total Seaver faculty, 182 submitted ballots, of which 160 voted approved, 11 disapproved and 11 abstained.
“What the vote of the faculty showed was that there was really overwhelming support for the statement that the letter made, which was to support academic freedom and artistic expression, and that any choices to hinder that have consequences to our national reputation as a modern American university,” Doran said.
Doran said the letter — written by members of SFS — was voted on by more faculty than any other motion in recent years. He called the letter a “good step” in ensuring a similar situation doesn’t happen again at Pepperdine, but there are still “many more steps to go.”
History Professor Loretta Hunnicutt, treasurer of SFA and SFS, said she thought the most important part of the letter was its request for more dialogue with Pepperdine administrators. Another goal was to support faculty in the Fine Arts Division.
“We all wanted to tell them that we would support them and understood that they were harmed, and we wanted to do what we could to improve that,” Hunnicutt said.
The Graphic obtained a copy of the SFA letter and is publishing it in full.
The letter begins with a condemnation of censorship and affirmation of the SFA’s support for free speech, free artistic expression and academic freedom.
“The censorship that occurred in the Weisman Museum of Art, an academic space meant to foster open dialogue and creative exploration, on October 1, 2025, has no place in an academic institution, as free and open inquiry serves as the basis for every discipline,” the letter reads. “Not only does censorship prevent academic freedom for faculty and undermine opportunities for academic excellence for our students, it produces a chilling effect on our future, whether that is the direction of our research, the content of our courses, or our students’ aspirations.”
The letter also draws attention to the student and faculty scholarship involved with the shuttered exhibition — a reference to the Cross-Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research grant that brought audio descriptions to the exhibition, according to previous Graphic reporting. The letter requests the University to restructure the Museum under the Provost’s Office instead of Advancement, where it currently resides.
In response to the letter, a University spokesperson referred the Graphic to Gash’s remarks on the Weisman controversy at the Nov. 5 President’s Briefing, a regular public meeting for all University faculty and staff.
“The president and provost have expressed the shared values of academic freedom on multiple occasions to members of the Pepperdine community over the years, including in faculty meetings and most recently in the President’s Briefing on November 5,” the spokesperson said.
At the President’s Briefing, Gash disputed the notion that what occurred at the Museum violated Pepperdine’s academic freedom policy, and said academic freedom was “not part of this conversation.”
“I regret that we’re having this conversation,” Gash said. “My hope is that we continue to be an institution that understands who we are, what we value, and that you all understand, and everyone watching on Zoom understands, that nothing has changed with respect to any of these issues that we’ve been talking about.”
During his remarks, Gash also said the General Counsel’s Office determined the University’s nonprofit status would not be threatened by the two pieces of art deemed “political” by administrators. After that determination, he said disclaimers indicating the art did not necessarily reflect the views of the University were offered by administrators as a solution to the artists on Oct. 8.
A recording of the Nov. 5 meeting is available on Pepperdine’s website. The Graphic is also providing a complete transcript of Gash’s remarks on the Weisman controversy, which lasted roughly nine minutes.
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