For several years, Seaver College faculty have voiced their concerns about shared governance at Pepperdine.
The Seaver Faculty Senate (SFS) serves as a way for professors to voice their opinions and spark change, said Colin Storm, SFS Communication Division representative and assistant professor of Communication. SFS committee members use the senate as a way to voice their opinions on academic, administrative and professional matters, according to the SFS constitution.
“I think in that way, Seaver Faculty Senate serves as sort of a melting pot of voices from around campus,” Storm said.
History
SFS started as the Seaver Faculty Association Executive Committee, said Loretta Hunnicutt, SFS treasurer and professor of History. The Seaver Faculty Association Executive Committee consisted of a president and a representative from each academic department. The new structure allows for more members and more voices.
“We [the Seaver Faculty Association Executive Committee] thought that perhaps wasn’t representative enough of the faculty when you’re talking about seven people representing 250,” Hunnicutt said. “And then we also, we just thought, the more voices, the better.”
The Seaver Faculty Association Executive Committee transitioned to SFS in 2020 when Maire Mullins, professor of English and former Seaver Faculty Association president, pushed for a larger committee, Hunnicutt said.
The larger executive committee size made the Senate more representative and powerful, Hunnicutt said. The new model allows faculty members to work more directly with administration as well, as SFS meetings now have a representative from the Dean’s Office attend each meeting.
Hunnicutt said the transition to the SFS model was a healthy one.
“I’ve been very pleased at what I’ve seen of how many more people are involved, how much more active it is, and there’s a lot more involvement,” Hunnicutt said.
A faculty association still exists at Seaver College, however. The association consists of all current faculty members, whereas SFS consists of the executive committee members.
Though SFS is now an official senate as opposed to a committee, 14 committees for faculty still exist. These committees — which range from the Committee on Women Faculty to a committee for scholarships for high-achieving students — are all overseen by SFS. Storm said he has served on three committees in his time at Pepperdine.
SFS most closely works with the Seaver Dean, said Chris Doran, former SFS president and Religion and Sustainability professor.
“It [SFS] is mostly a way of structuring faculty opinion and the voice and advocacy work so that you can work with the dean of the college,” Doran said.
SFS consists of four branches: officers, division representatives, at-large representatives and fixed-term faculty representatives, according to the SFS website.
The number of members in each branch varies, according to the SFS website. There are four officers: president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. Each Seaver division has one representative. The division representative branch also includes a library division representative. On top of that, there are four at-large representatives and two representatives to represent fixed-term faculty.
Storm, who serves as the representative for the Communication Division, described himself as a liaison between his division and SFS.
“Any concerns or thoughts that my colleagues have here, my job is to relay them to the Senate and vice versa,” Storm said.
Terms for president, vice president, secretary and treasurer last two years, Doran said. There are no term limits for these positions, meaning a faculty member can hold an executive position for as many terms as they are elected.
Why Faculty Joined
Faculty members join SFS for a variety of reasons, multiple sources said. One of the biggest reasons faculty decided to join SFS is the idea of shared governance.
“The idea of shared governance is that the faculty have some jobs to do, and they’re sharing governance with administration,” Doran said.
Storm described faculty governance as faculty having a voice in decisions that are made by the University. Joanna Stimmel, German professor and SFS fixed-term faculty representative, said this played a big role in her joining SFS.
“We all want to have this shared governance and this is the real example of shared governance,” Stimmel said.
Storm said he spends most of his time on campus in the Center for Communication and Business (CCB), up the hill from main campus. He said he rarely visits main campus and finds SFS to be a connecting point for him and his colleagues.
“I will be the first to admit that I feel pretty distant from main campus, and so this is one way that I try to help bridge that literal geographical gap between us,” Storm said.
Further, Storm said he is very passionate about faculty governance.
“I really want to make sure that we have a voice at the table when it comes to the direction of the university — not only in the here and now, but also in the future,” Storm said. “I think that is a spot where we have the opportunity as faculty members to shape the university in the way that we think it should be shaped.”
Mere weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the shutdown of universities across the world, Doran said he decided to run for SFS president.
“I had a few talks with the previous president and I had a few talks with some mentors in mind,” Doran said. “I just felt sort of that there was an opportunity for me to serve in ways that I had not before.”
Doran led SFS through COVID-19 at Pepperdine and the “reopening” phase — an unprecedented time across the world, especially for someone stepping into a new leadership role. However, he said he found his background in theology and ministry played a key role in this new position.
“I was able to minister to a lot of people who were going through really heavy things during the summer of 2020 and into the new school year,” Doran said. “And so, I think I got an opportunity to, you know, be sort of an unofficial chaplain to a lot of folks, and create some programs for mental health awareness for faculty and spiritual health and growth for faculty that I’m pretty happy about.”
While SFS aids with the idea of shared governance, the definition of shared governance remains unclear for some at Pepperdine.
Some faculty members question whether their voice is actually heard.
“If we want to have a voice, there is a place to have the voice,” Stimmel said. “Another question is, will the voice be heard?”
Pepperdine’s accreditation comes from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges — also known as WASC, Storm said.
WASC monitors over 5,000 schools — including Pepperdine — to assure they are working toward improvement and providing high-quality education for students.
A concern WASC has voiced about Pepperdine is shared governance and whether or not it exists at Pepperdine, Storm said.
“The faculty are not the only ones who have had this concern,” Storm said. “Our WASC accrediting organization… has recommended that Pepperdine become better in shared governance.”
The spring 2025 WASC visit took place virtually from March 19 to March 21, with the next visit not taking place until spring 2031. During the spring 2022 visit, WASC recommended Pepperdine create a definition of shared governance; one of the recommendation subcommittees that took place during the most recent visit discussed this.
Faculty Concerns
SFS serves as a listening ear for faculty concerns. The senate meets once a month, and the conversations within these meetings vary, Hunnicutt said.
“We pass resolutions, we debate things and try to represent as many voices as possible,” Hunnicutt said.
Within the transition to a senate model, Hunnicutt said something SFS wanted to do was have more collaboration. As a result, a representative from the dean’s office is usually present at the monthly meetings.
“Most recently, it was the selection of the dean,” Hunnicutt said. “We wanted to make sure faculty had a voice in that, and so we advocated for that, and really encouraged people to attend the presentations of the candidates.”
Doran said that while only SFS members are allowed to speak during SFS meetings, any faculty members are welcome to attend.
Dean Selection
The dean search and selection has been a more recent concern for faculty members. When it comes to selecting the next undergraduate dean, the administration makes the decision. However, faculty members are allowed to voice their opinions.
“There was an opportunity for all faculty to write into the committee or write into the provost individually,” Doran said.
Faculty input in the dean selection process is an example of shared governance, Storm said.
“We recently hired a dean, and so it’s really important to have faculty voice in the decision making process toward selecting that dean,” Storm said.
However, Doran said administrators had the final say in the dean selection.
“The provost made it very clear early on that he would make the decision,” Doran said.
Faculty members have a stronger voice when it comes to selecting a divisional dean, Doran said. Seaver College includes eight divisional deans. Only seven of the divisional deans have a similar selection process.
For seven of the divisions, the search process is straightforward. Applicants submit their name for consideration and go through a typical hiring process, Doran said. Faculty members then are welcomed to share feedback on who they would like the next divisional dean to be.
Even though the Seaver dean makes the final decision, faculty input is highly considered, Doran said.
“I’ve been here 18 years, so at least the last two [Seaver] deans that I can think of, off the top of my head, have been very willing to hear the input of folks,” Doran said.
The eighth division — the Religion and Philosophy Division — has a slightly different selection process, Doran said.
The reason for the different selection process comes down to the university’s bylaws, Doran said.
The bylaws of the institution allow for the Board of Regents to weigh in on the divisional selection for Religion and Philosophy Division, Doran said. Additionally, the Board has a say in hiring, firing and promoting any faculty member or candidate in that division. He went on to say the Board of Regents’ participation in the Religion and Philosophy divisional dean selection in Spring 2024 caused some alarm in faculty members.
“That just caused a lot of confusion, and it caused a lot of, I think, concern about the Board getting to sort of weigh in whenever they see fit, rather than participating in a timely process,” Doran said.
Donna Nofziger, professor of Biology and SFS president, shared faculty concerns with President Jim Gash regarding the divisional dean selection. Gash responded to the concern in an email, which Nofziger shared with all Seaver faculty.
According to Gash’s response in summer 2024, the Board of Regents’ Faith and Heritage committee, based on their interpretation of the bylaws, has the ability to “oversee… the selection of the members of the religion faculty and staff.”
Doran said he was on sabbatical when the divisional dean search was ongoing. However, he said he remembers talking to his colleagues about the confusion and wished they had been informed sooner about the Board of Regents participation.
Now, one year later, Doran said the divisional dean selection process in the Religion and Philosophy department remains unclear.
This process was troubling for Doran, and he said he has decided to no longer sit in on hiring committees until a clear definition of the bylaw is provided.
“The Board decided not to give us any clarity and further clarity on what that would be,” Doran said. “And so to me, that’s very troubling that we can’t get to sort of the basic clarity on how often or how frequently or how intensely the board is going to be involved in decisions and deal with promotion, hiring, firing.”
How to Join SFS
Any current Pepperdine faculty member who is interested in joining SFS is encouraged to reach out to the committee, Storm said.
“There are a lot of faculty members here with a lot of different opinions and a lot of different needs and perspectives,” Storm said.
Aside from more connection between administration and faculty, another key reason for switching to a senate model was to allow for a variety of positions to meet the needs and desires of the variety of faculty members present at Pepperdine, Hunnicutt said. In the past, she said there were restrictions on serving depending upon whether or not a faculty member was on the tenure track.
“That was another thing we wanted to do with the senate model, was provide for as many different types of faculty to serve as possible,” Hunnicutt said.
All are welcome in SFS, and anyone who is interested in joining will almost certainly have a seat open for them, Hunnicutt said.
“So, you know, in theory, you have to get elected, but in practice, if you’re interested in serving, you’re probably going to get a job,” Hunnicutt said.
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Contact Gabrielle Salgado via email: gabrielle.salgado@pepperdine.edu
Contact Amanda Monahan via email: amanda.monahan@pepperdine.edu
