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News and Events

News & Events Recap

March 2011

  • The Center for Entertainment, Media, and Culture (EMC) hosted two movie screenings and filmmaker Q&As during March: a sneak preview of Sony’s Soul Surfer on Mar. 15 with producer and Pepperdine alum David Brookwell; acclaimed director Randall Wallace answered questions on Mar. 31 following a screening of his recent film, Secretariat. The EMC also hosted a conversation with Academy Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino on Mar. 10.
  • Pepperdine announced on Mar. 31 the discovery that it had failed to properly administer financial aid awards to a number of its student-athletes. After discovering the error, Pepperdine contacted the NCAA and is taking immediate steps to rectify this issue and to review all of its athletics compliance processes.
  • Pepperdine announced Mar. 29 that it will be honored by the U.S. Olympic Committee with the U.S. Olympic Achievement Award for its contributions in producing more than 40 student-athletes and coaches who have achieved success in the games since 1956. Men’s volleyball coach Marv Dunphy is being individually honored with the distinction.
  • The undefeated Pepperdine rugby team outplayed rival Cal Lutheran with a 43-7 victory in their last home game of the season on Mar. 28, at Alumni Park in Malibu.
  • Leah Hochman, director of the Jerome H. Louchheim School of Judaic Studies at USC and assistant professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, presented a lecture titled “Will & Grace, I & Thou: Martin Buber’s Religious Philosophy,” on Mar. 28, in Payson Library, Malibu.
  • Guest artist Grant Peters and Seaver College Fine Arts chair Gary Cobb performed a recital on the trumpet and piano, respectively, on Mar. 27, featuring "Suite in D" by Handel, "Sonata for Trumpet and Piano" by Karl Pilss, an arrangement of Gershwin's "Someone to Watch over Me" by Joseph Turrin, "Night Sun Journey" by Meg Bowles, and "3 Episodes" by Turrin.
  • The Pepperdine University community was saddened to learn of the passing on March 27 of Elinor Nootbaar, wife of Herb Nootbaar of Laguna Beach, California. The couple’s love of Pepperdine and especially the University’s School of Law, motivated them to endow the Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics at Pepperdine. She was 87 years old.
  • The Pepperdine Wind Ensemble performed a concert on Mar. 25, featuring the world premiere of Fanfares to Fast Track by Pepperdine’s composer-in-residence, N. Lincoln Hanks.
  • The Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies and the Center for Entertainment, Media, and Culture screened the 2011 Academy Award-winning short documentary Strangers No More on Mar. 24; after the film screening, a Pepperdine student who interned with the Bialik-Rogozin School in Tel Aviv, Israel, last summer discussed the film and the school.
  • The Pepperdine College Republicans hosted entrepreneur, philanthropist, and born-again Christian Foster Friess for a discussion titled, “A Story of Free Enterprise and Faith,” on Mar. 23.
  • Pepperdine hosted Harut Sassounian, publisher of The California Courier newspaper and president of the United Armenian Fund, on Mar. 23 for a discussion titled “Genocide Recognition or Quest for Justice?” The exploration of the Armenian Genocide was sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Affairs (ICA) and the Pepperdine Middle Eastern Peace and Awareness (MEPA) student group.
  • The Global Justice Living Learning Community screened Not For Sale II on Mar. 23, a compelling worldwide documentary on slavery and human trafficking based on the book Not For Sale by David Bastone, who previewed the film and discussed his work in the field of global justice.
  • James Q. Wilson, the Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy, presented his annual lecture, titled “How to Achieve Immigration Reform,” at the annual Reagan Forum on Mar. 22, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
  • The School of Law and Law Fraternity Phi Alpha Delta hosted a panel discussion with Los Angeles County District Attorney (LADA) Steve Cooley, world-famous defense attorney Harland Braun, and current visiting distinguished practitioner in residence, ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack on Mar. 22.
  • The Fine Arts Division Women’s Chamber Choir at Pepperdine performed their “Spring Soiree” concert on Mar. 22, directed by Ryan Board, director of choral activities.
  • The Pepperdine University Libraries launched the First Responder Series: Good Information About Current Issues with a Mar. 21 discussion on "Libya - Where Has It Been, Where Is It Going?” Robert Lloyd, associate professor of international relations, and David Simonowitz, visiting assistant professor of Middle East studies, reviewed Libya's history and the international policy implications of the crisis.
  • Famed film and television actor Alfred Molina engaged the students of Pepperdine’s Theatre Department in a Mar. 20 special Shakespeare-focused Master Class part of a series sponsored by the Center for the Arts and Friends of the Theatre.
  • Pianist Tanya Bannister performed at Pepperdine on Mar. 20, performing Schumann’s “Abegg” Variations, Albéniz’s Evocación and El Puerto, Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, Chopin’s Ballade No. 4, Janáček’s In the Mists, and Liszt’s Tarantella.
  • Virginia B. (Ginie) Braun, long-time friend and benefactor of Pepperdine University, passed away in Pasadena on March 19 after a brief illness. She was 93.
  • Pepperdine hosted a prayer service on Mar. 17 for the victims of the ongoing disaster in Japan following a series of devastating earthquakes and tsunamis in early March. University Chaplain David Lemley lead the service in Stauffer Chapel, Malibu.
  • The School of Public Policy hosted Public Diplomacy Roundtable Luncheon moderated by Colleen Graffy Mar. 17. In her lecture, “What is America Doing to Improve Its Image Abroad?” Graffy shared her thoughts on the United States’ diminished global standing and the temporary fix of the “Obama Effect.”
  • The Graziadio School of Business and Management reconvened the Dean's Executive Leadership Series with Kate Mitchell, managing director of Scale Venture Partners, a venture capital fund with over $900 million under management located in Silicon Valley, Calif. The event was held Mar. 17, at Shutters on the Beach hotel in Santa Monica, Calif.
  • Student groups performed seven sets of song, dance, and original scripts around the theme “All Nature Sings” at Pepperdine’s 39th annual Songfest production from Mar. 15 to 19.
  • Andrew Malloy, professor of music at Seaver College, performed a solo trombone recital on Mar. 14, in Raitt Recital Hall, Malibu.
  • The School of Public Policy and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation presented Scott Sumner, professor of economics at Bentley University, for a discussion of “Market Efficiency and the Crash of 2008” on Mar. 14.
  • The Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at the School of Public Policy hosted “A Place in the World: Geography, Identity, and Civic Engagement in Modern America”—a two-day conference examining one’s sense of “place” as a necessary condition for the construction of character, citizenship, and membership in society—on Mar. 11 and Mar. 12.
  • Men’s basketball coach Tom Asbury announced his retirement and associate head coach Marty Wilson was introduced as the Waves’ new head coach at an on-campus press conference on Mar. 11.
  • The six-member Hubbard Street 2, the critically lauded second company of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, performed at Smothers Theatre on Mar. 10.
  • Presented in partnership with Pepperdine Libraries, The Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies hosted two conversations on Mar.10 between members of The Christians, Jews, and Muslims of the Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative (AFPI), a group of American clergy and religious activists who advocate peacemaking as an essential and defining mandate of the three monotheistic traditions.
  • Pepperdine University, along with 16 university partners and MyWorkster.com, hosted Recruit LA, the first alumni-only job fair in Los Angeles, on Mar. 8, at the USC Ronald Tutor Campus Center at the University of Southern California.
  • Acclaimed pianist Paul Barnes performed a guest recital on Mar. 7, in Raitt Recital Hall, Malibu.
  • More than 100 Los Angeles area high school students recently participated in a one-day program of workshops, film screenings and Q&A sessions at Pepperdine, including a session with acclaimed Irish actor Pierce Brosnan and his wife, Keely Shaye. The event, hosted in partnership with Ireland-based film charity Cinemagic, was organized to encourage the young aspiring filmmakers to follow their dreams and pursue careers in film and television production.
  • Pepperdine University hosted the Italian Heritage Culture Foundation of Los Angeles in early March for a reading of Pontius Pilate, as performed by Francesco Quinn in the title role and James Parks in the role of Jesus. The play, an excerpt from The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, was staged as an Italian cultural exchange and included a red carpet rollout for the 300 invited guests.
  • Pepperdine University School of Law celebrated 40 years of Ron Phillips at the 34th Annual Law School Dinner on March 5 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Alumni and friends paid tribute to Phillips throughout the event.
  • Members of the Pepperdine community gathered on Mar. 3, to celebrate the newly renovated Encino Graduate Campus located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. The campus, which the University first established in 1987, serves students and faculty of the Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology.
  • The latest issue of the Graziadio Business Review (GBR) went live Mar. 1 at gbr.pepperdine.edu and features an assortment of articles, video interviews, and book reviews by Graziadio faculty and authors new to the peer-reviewed journal.
  • Robert Tamura, Spring 2011 William E. Simon Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy, presented a lecture titled, “The Value of Equal Opportunity in Education: How Much is Waiting for Superman Worth?” on Mar. 1.
  • The Graziadio Entertainment Club (GEC) hosted Patrick Dempsey, the executive director of facility operations at Sony Pictures Entertainment, for a discussion of his involvement with Sony’s environmental sustainability team and its “greening” initiatives. The lecture took place on Mar. 1 with Sony's environmental responsibility coordinator, Katie Hamic, to copresent the discussion.