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News and Events

News & Events Recaps

March 2006

  • The School of Public Policy hosted a discussion on current United States-Taiwan Relations. The panelists discussed how the traditionally good relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan might change in view of China’s strengthening economic and military power. Panelists included the following distinguished political science professors:  UCLA’s Richard Baum, Pepperdine’s Robert Kaufman and Bruce Herschensohn, and USC’s Stanley Rosen. 

  • The Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judges selected the following School of Law students for publication within the Journal: Kim Ly, Jamie Norman, Jennifer Allison, Shirlene Love, Jeffrey Groendel, Sindy Lie, Michelle Shimasaki, Katherine Kmiec.

  • Pepperdine’s speech and debate team attended three different tournaments and achieved two impressive successes.  At Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, sophomore Stevie Seibert took second overall, remaining undefeated for most of the day.  The freshman team of Nick Stewart and Micah Martin were named first alternates for the district at the National Debate Tournament.

  • The Graphic, Pepperdine’s weekly newspaper, won first place in the weekly broadsheet category at the Associated Collegiate Press National Newspaper Convention.  More than 140 schools competed in the five categories which included both four and two-year college publications.

  • Pepperdine point guard Michael Gerrity was named the West Coast Conference's (WCC) "Freshman of the Year" by CBS SportsLine.com. Despite missing six of the final eight games with a foot injury, Gerrity finished second on the Waves and 12th in the WCC in scoring with 14.1 points a game, including 13.5 points a contest in conference play. During his rookie season, Gerrity scored in double figures 17 times and was Pepperdine's leading scorer a team-high 13 times while concluding the year as the WCC's top freshman scorer.

  • The Graziadio School was honored to present J.D. Power III, founder of J.D. Power and Associates, as a speaker in the Dean’s Executive Leadership Series. Power has spent more than 40 years as a pio­neer in advancing customer satisfaction, of which more than three decades has been dedicated to leading one of the most prestigious marketing in­formation firms in the world - J.D. Power and As­sociates. The firm numbers among its clients virtu­ally every automotive manufacturer and importer serving the U.S. market.

  • The 33rd year of Songfest was held in Smothers Theatre.  The theme was “Across the Board.”  Each group presented 12-minute mini musicals acting out a well-known board game.

  • James Wilson, professor of public policy, lectured on “Exposing the Truth: Crime Rates in the U.S. versus Europe” in the Drescher graduate campus auditorium as part of The School of Public Policy’s Charles and Rosemanry Licata Lecture. He discussed why crime rates in America are, for most offenses, lower than they are in many European nations. 

  • The Center for Faith and Learning and University Libraries hosted a book review of Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany by Joel Fetzer, associate professor of political science at Seaver College, and Chris Soper, professor of political science at Seaver College, in the Payson Library. Seaver College professors Laurie Brand and Alexander Diener reviewed the book.

  • The Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series hosted professor Paul Gordon Lauren of the University of Montana. Lauren spoke on "Human Rights and International Relations." He has been awarded and recognized both for his scholarship and his excellence in teaching through the University of Montana's Distinguished Scholar and Most Inspirational Teacher awards and CASE Professor of the Year.

  • Seaver senior Mariko Wilson, sophomore Kim Groomes, and Susan Salas, associate professor of telecommunications at Seaver College, presented at the 2006 American Association of University Women (AAUW) “Brighter Horizons” conference for fifth to ninth grade students at California Lutheran University. Wilson and Groomes screened their TV 26 program "Strong Currents" with the students and discussed their involvement with the broadcast program. They also described life as college students at Pepperdine. Over 850 students from Ventura County participated in the event.

  • The second annual Four Points by Sheraton LAX Tournament was held at Alumni Park on the Malibu campus. Women's university lacrosse teams participated from Arizona, Brigham Young, Northeastern, Oregon, and Pepperdine.

  • The Graduate School of Education and Psychology welcomed author and educator Peter C. Murrell, Jr. to the West Los Angeles graduate campus.  GSEP faculty, staff, students, and members of the community, including GSEP Professional Development School partners, attended Murrell's presentation titled “Creating Professional Learning Communities of Accomplished Practice in Urban Teaching and Learning.” With the aid of slides and videotaped classroom encounters, Murrell engaged the audience in a discussion on the topic of building authentic partnerships based on understanding, collaboration, and shared goals.

  • Robert Chandler, professor and chair of Pepperdine University’s Communication Division at Seaver College, co-authored a new book, Managing Risks for Corporate Integrity: How to Survive an Ethical Misconduct Disaster, with Lynn Brewer, former Enron executive and subsequent whistleblower of the Enron scandal, and O.C. Ferrell, the Bill Daniels Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Wyoming and founder of the Institute for Business Ethics at Colorado State University.

  • Patricia Heaton, honorary chair of Feminists for Life of America, presented "Women Deserve Better than Abortion" at the Malibu campus. Heaton, best known for her two-time Emmy-winning role as Debra Barone on CBS comedy hit, Everybody Loves Raymond, addressed 200 years of pro-life feminism, explained how the modern women's movement came to support abortion, and proposed solutions for the future. Paul Contino, professor of literature at Seaver College and associate director of the Center for Faith and Learning at Seaver College, serves on the national board of directors of Democrats for Life and opened the evening with remarks titled "Abortion: Can We Find Common Ground?" A question and answer period followed. The lecture was sponsored by the Young Democrats and Young Republicans of Pepperdine University.

  • Os Guinness, author of Unspeakable: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror, spoke as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series. His presentation, titled “Can Freedom Last Forever? – The Framer’s Forgotten Question and How We Are Doing Today,” was held on the Malibu campus. Born in China and educated in England, Guinness has served as the executive director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation and one of the drafters of the Williamsburg Charter as well as a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and at the Brookings Institution. He is now a leading evangelical apologist as well as co-founder and senior fellow at the Trinity Forum in McLean, Virginia.  Guinness also spoke at the School of Law on “Rebuilding the Civic Public Square in the Midst of a Culture War.”  Later in the week, he lectured on “Globalization and its Human Challenges” at the Drescher graduate campus.

  • Approximately 300 preschool children from eleven different preschools came to Seaver College’s campus in Malibu for Jumpstart’s annual learning fair. The fair included various learning stations and literacy related activities for the preschoolers who attend Head Start Centers.

  • Housing and Community Living, the Student Programming Board and the Salon at Malibu Creek sponsored the third annual Locks of Love charity. Men and women from the Pepperdine and Malibu community donated their hair to children suffering from long-term hair loss.

  • In a show of their appreciation for American sacrifice in liberating Iraq, the women of Baghdad sent handmade bracelets to support the families of the fallen. Through a partnership created by the Students for the Defense of Democracy club, a limited number of these bracelets were made available to the students and faculty of Pepperdine University. In addition to supporting Iraqi micro-enterprise, purchase of a bracelet supported the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a nonprofit organization serving the families of Armed Forces members who died serving their country.  Radical Islamist terrorism expert and former United Nations official Zakaria Fellah discussed "Unmasking the Ideology Behind Terrorism" in the Hahn Fireside Room on the Malibu campus. Exiled from Algeria, Fellah’s father was murdered by the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. Fellah served for over a decade with the United Nations in the fields of communication, peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance, primarily in Africa and Latin America.

  • Pepperdine University YIFTU: Acting on AIDS hosted AIDS Awareness week with a Students Unite Against AIDS Chapel, a luncheon with Princess Zulu, international voice for HIV/AIDS, and free, anonymous HIV testing. AIDS Awareness Week was sponsored by World Vision, The Pepperdine Voyage, Office of Intercultural Affairs, and Convocation Services.

  • Pepperdine University and Sigma Phi Epsilon sponsored a blood drive in partnership with the American Red Cross. The drive was held upstairs in the Howard A. White Center.

  • The Pepperdine University Honors Dinner in recognition of faculty and staff took place at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. More than 500 faculty and staff attended.

  • Held to benefit local charities, “Running the Waves Malibu Run/Walk” kicked off at Zuma Beach in Malibu. The race included scenic 5K and 10K routes. The day’s line-up of events also included a favorite component from last year, the Kids 1-Mile Fun Run. The Graziadio School of Business and Management (GSBM), the Special Olympics and the Children’s Lifesaving Foundation sponsored the event.

  • Pepperdine University’s Fine Arts Division invited the Pepperdine community and the public to Collegium Musicum “Into Thy Hands,” in the Stauffer Chapel on the Malibu campus. Directed by N. Lincoln Hanks, professor of music, this free concert of choral and chamber music of the German Baroque featured Heinrich Schütz and J.S. Bach with mezzo-soprano Angela Price and organist Gary Cobb.

  • The Pepperdine University Hawai'i Club presented "Voyage Through Polynesia,” a traditional Hawaiian lu'au for Pepperdine faculty, staff, students, and the community on in Firestone Fieldhouse on the Malibu campus. The lu’au was a fun-filled night of Hawaiian food and an eclectic Polynesian hula show, culminating with the flame-works of a Samoan fire-knife dancer.

  • The Pepperdine University Alpha Phi chapter hosted its annual silent auction in the Waves Café on the Malibu campus.  Alpha Phi members collected items to be auctioned and all of the proceeds went to the Alpha Phi Foundation in support of Cardiac Care, scholarship, disaster relief, and women's programs.