The Year in Review
The Heritage Continues: Events

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation funded a $100,000 program directed by Cary Mitchell, associate professor of psychology at GSEP. GSEP will match the gift with funds raised from outside sources. The grant allows Pepperdine
to continue its innovative mental health training clinic at the Union Rescue Mission (URM) in Los Angeles, where, since 2001, psychology students have provided psychological services to homeless men, women, and children in Los Angeles at no cost. The new grant makes it possible to add a new aspect as the URM mental health clinic partners with URM's Legal Aid Clinic, which is run by the Pepperdine School of Law. They plan to provide psychological and educational services to families that are dealing with child visitation, child custody, or other family legal issues.

The Seaver College debate team exploded onto the 2002 debate season with two successful tournaments and was ranked number one in the nation in October 2002. Later that month, the team hosted the Fifth Annual Ray Buchanan Invitational Debates at Pepperdine, one of the top ten debate tournaments of the year.

The School of Law and the School of Public Policy presented the Fifth Annual Charles and Rosemary Licata Lecture in October 2002. The theme was "The International Criminal Court: A New Diplomacy?" a discussion with Pierre-Richard Prosper, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, and David Davenport, former Pepperdine president who at the time was a research fellow at Hoover Institution.

Honduran poet Roberto Sosa read from a bilingual edition of his work in November 2002 at Seaver College. The readings and discussions were in English and Spanish. Sosa, a major figure in recent Honduran literature, writes about a number of topics, but a consistent theme in his poetry is social justice. Sosa's Pepperdine reading was his only West Coast appearance.

The School of Law trial advocacy team earned its first national championship title by winning the nation's most prestigious mock trial competition. Pepperdine defeated second-seeded University of Texas in the Tournament of Champions in November 2002. The National Institute for Trial Advocacy, widely regarded as the best trial lawyer training program in the country, sponsors the event every year. Pepperdine will host the tournament in 2004.

Pepperdine students and faculty traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, in January to attend the American Humanics Management Institute. American Humanics is a national alliance of colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations that prepares and certifies college students for professional careers in youth and human service agencies. Representing Pepperdine at the conference were Executive Director Regan Schaffer and five Seaver students.

On February 10 as part of the 2003 Seaver College Dean's Lecture Series, Pitzer College President Laura Skandera Trombley discussed "Why Mark Twain Still Matters: American Icon, Classic Writer and Film Star." Trombley received her undergraduate and master's degrees (1981, 1983) in English from Pepperdine University. She became president of Pitzer College in Claremont, California, in 2002 and is a nationally recognized Mark Twain scholar.

A major conference, "Religion and Public Virtue," sponsored by the Pepperdine University Center for Faith and Learning, with support from the University Provost, Seaver College, and the Pepperdine School of Law, was held March 6-7 on the Malibu campus. The five distinguished scholars who served as plenary speakers for this event were: Robert N. Bellah, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Michael W. McConnell, Richard Mouw, and James Davison Hunter.

In January 2003, the School of Public Policy presented "Blue Environmentalism" by Michael Novak, the 2002 Olin Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine and the George Frederick Jewett Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Novak's teaching career began as a teaching fellow at Harvard. He has taught at Stanford, College at SUNY Old Westbury, Syracuse University, and Notre Dame.

Four hundred law students, alumni, and friends gathered at the annual School of Law dinner on March 1, to celebrate the school's twenty-five years on the Malibu campus. The Honorable Carlos R. Moreno, associate justice
of the California Supreme Court, was the keynote speaker. The Legal Hero Award was given to Judge Warren J. Ferguson, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

From January 11 through March 23, 2003, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art presented an important new exhibition, Wayne Thiebaud: Works from 1955 to 2003. Thiebaud, one of California's most respected and beloved realist artists, earned a national reputation in 1962 with his Pop Art paintings of pies and cakes, lipsticks and lollipops.

At the School of Law in April 2003, Ambassador Andrew Jacovides presented a discussion on the future of the United Nations in the aftermath of the diplomatic stalemate over intervention in Iraq. Jacovides is former ambassador of Cyprus to Washington, permanent representative of Cyprus to the United Nations, a member of International Law Commission of the United Nations, and special ambassador for the legal committee of the U.N.

The School of Law also sponsored a Global Judges Forum in May to forge international standards in the area of corporate insolvency and creditor rights. The conference attracted more than one hundred judges from sixty-five countries to the Malibu campus for a weeklong forum examining global standards and strategies governing business restructurings, insolvencies, corporate rescues, and creditors' rights. It is thought to be among the largest gatherings of international judges of its kind in history and was co-sponsored by The World Bank. At least one-third of the participants sit on the highest courts in their respective countries.

GSEP welcomed the Honorable Rod Paige, United States Secretary of Education, as its commencement speaker in July 2003. Paige challenged the future educators in attendance to bridge the gap between the educated and uneducated, bringing quality education to all students.

Members of the Pepperdine community achieved 2002 election-day success in their respective political contests. School of Law alumnus Todd R. Platts (J '91), a Republican from Pennsylvania, was elected to his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Law school alumnus Rod R. Blagojevich, (J '83) is the first Democrat in thirty years to be elected governor of Illinois. Blagojevich was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996. Republican John Cornyn, longtime member of the School of Law Board of Visitors, was elected to the United States Senate, representing Texas.

The California Newspaper Publishers' Association (CNPA) recently named The Graphic, Pepperdine's weekly student newspaper, the best university newspaper in California. More than twenty newspapers from universities across the state entered the competition of general excellence for the division of four-year colleges and universities, according to CNPA.