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News and Events

News & Events Recap

December 2009

  • In vehicles brimming with gifts, students, faculty, and staff caravanned to Mexico for the annual service initiative known as Santa Run. They hand-delivered toys, clothing, and practical items donated by members of the Pepperdine community to children in Tijuana and San Felipe.
  • The Hollywood Players of Malibu, a troupe made up of the students in the Master of Fine Arts program in Writing for Screen and Television, presented their latest work at the second annual Fall Literary Arts Festival, held at the Howard A. White Center stage on Thursday, Dec. 10.
  • An award-winning research project undertaken by Maretno Agus Harjoto, assistant professor of finance at the Graziadio School of Business and Management (GSBM), found that it can actually be very difficult for corporations to make profits when conducting business in a socially responsible manner. Harjoto won the prestigious 2009 Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing from UC Berkeley's Center for Responsible Business, for his co-authored study, "The Economics and Politics of Corporate Social Performance."
  • Frederick Larson, creator of the Bethlehem Star Project, came to Elkins Auditorium on the Malibu campus on Wednesday, Dec. 9 to share scientific evidence that the Star of Bethlehem proclaimed the birth and death of Jesus.
  • The Center for Entertainment, Media and Culture screened the Nicolas Cage blockbuster Knowing on Monday, Dec. 7, in Elkins Auditorium, Malibu, and followed it with a conversation with the movie's screenwriters, and Pepperdine alumni, Stiles White and Juliet Snowden.
  • Five-man vocal powerhouse Rockapella, best known for their role as the house band in the children's show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, delivered their vocal instrumentalism to Smothers Theatre at Pepperdine University in a holiday concert on Sunday, Dec. 6.
  • The "Elements of Nature" exhibition on display at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum closed on December 6. The exhibition showcased works of art reflecting how the four ancient elements—earth, air, fire, and water—continue to have meaning modern lives.
  • The Graziadio School of Business and Management honored its graduating students at a commencement ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 5, in Firestone Fieldhouse on the Malibu campus. Anne M. Sweeney, cochair of Disney Media Networks and president of the Disney/ABC Television Group, delivered the commencement address and Susanna Kass (MBA '88), founder and CEO of the EvOasis Corporation, was recognized as the Distinguished Alumnus.
  • Together with 17 to 25 volunteers, School of Law students Frank Gatto and Al Sturgeon make approximately 50 sack lunches and 100 sandwiches before a smaller group delivers them. The completely student-run initiative, which began in May 2007, is funded by the School of Law and the campus church.
  • Several faculty members at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) were able to secure grants in support of free and low-cost counseling services provided to those in need by GSEP's marriage and family therapy and doctor of psychology students and alumni, including Duncan Wigg, Cary Mitchell, and Robert Hohenstein.
  • Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca addressed a weekend conference audience on "The Relation of Interfaith and Crime Reduction" in a program held Saturday, Dec. 5 at Pepperdine University. The special program was part of a larger conference called "The International Conference on East and West Encounters: The Gulen Movement."
  • The Chamber Music Program at Pepperdine University, under the direction of professor Sara Banta, performed a public concert on Friday, Dec. 4 at the Raitt Recital Hall, featuring a repertoire of chamber music performed by Pepperdine's string, guitar, woodwind, brass, and percussion ensembles.
  • The 2009-10 Clinical Connections series at the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) continued on Friday, Dec. 4, as a panel of psychology professors offer their theoretical perspectives on couples therapy at the Irvine Graduate Campus.
  • Several events across campus signaled the start of the Christmas holiday season. On Thursday, Dec. 3, the first annual Town Square Christmas tree lighting took place at Joslyn Plaza, followed by a holiday choral concert performed by the Fine Arts Division in Smothers Theatre. The concert, titled "The Many Moods of Christmas," featured the distinguished University Choirs and Orchestra, directed by Milton Pullen and Tony Cason, respectively. The celebration continued on Friday, Dec. 4, with a night of student music around the Joslyn Plaza Christmas tree, and President Andrew K. Benton and Vice President Jeff Pippin performed some rock 'n' roll holiday classics.
  • The Graziadio School of Business and Management's Dean's Executive Leadership Series hosted James N. Gianopulos, Chair and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, for a December 3 lecture at the 20th Century Fox Studios in West Los Angeles.
  • Luisa Blanco, assistant professor of economics at the School of Public Policy, present "Latin America and the Financial Crisis of 2008: Lessons and Challenges" on Thursday, Dec. 3, at the School of Public Policy.
  • The Pepperdine University Libraries hosted its first annual Special Collections Holiday Open House on Thursday, Dec. 3, followed by a lecture with award-winning novelist, essayist, short story writer, and writer of screenplays, Ron Hansen, on Friday, Dec. 4. Both events took place at the Payson Library on the Malibu campus.
  • Kasra Ferasat, a fully employed MBA program student at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management, was named the $1,000 winner in the 2009 student paper competition held by the Graziadio Business Report, the school's online quarterly journal.
  • The Seaver College Natural Science Division culminated the fall semester of its seminar series with a lecture by Junjun Liu, assistant professor of biochemistry at Cal State Polytechnic University, in Pomona. Liu presented "Regulators of the Cell Cycle: Studies of Polo-like Kinase One in Xenopus" at 12 noon on Wednesday, Dec. 2, in the Keck Science Center on the Malibu campus.
  • Pepperdine University School of Law celebrated the recent successes student advocates had in regional and national competitions with a reception on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
  • On Tuesday, Dec. 1, Michael Zakian, the director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, presented a lecture titled "Spirituality and the Origins of Abstract Art," in which he delved into the lives and careers of the deeply spiritual abstract painters Piet Mondrian, Vassily Kandinsky, and Kazimir Malevich, who championed abstraction to combat materialism.