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Pepperdine University is a private institution of higher learning affiliated with the Church Of Christ . The university's location overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Malibu , California . HISTORY Early years In February 1937, against the backdrop of despair and pessimism of the Great Depression, George Pepperdine founded the University as a Christian liberal arts college in the city of Los Angeles. On September 21 , 1937 , 167 new students from 22 different states and two other countries entered classes on a newly built campus on 34 acres at West 78th Street and South Vermont Avenue in the Vermont Knolls neighorbood of South Central, Los Angeles (),Aldore Collier, FaithDome: "A grand-slam homer for Jesus." , ''Ebony'', December 1989. referred to later as the Vermont Avenue campus.Vanessa Jahn, GSEP 35th Anniversary: A Celebratory Evening to Remember , ''Colleague Alumni Magazine'', Spring 2006.Tracy Domingo, Miracle at Malibu Materialized , ''Graphic'', November 14, 2002 By April 6, 1938, George Pepperdine College was fully accredited by the Northwest Association. Mr. Pepperdine had built a fortune founding and developing the Western Auto Supply Company which he started with a $5 investment, but his prosperity led to his greater ambition to discover "how humanity can be helped most with the means entrusted to my care. I consider it wrong to build up a great fortune and use it selfishly." Mr. Pepperdine voiced his two-fold objective for the college that bore his name, "First, we want to provide first-class, fully accredited academic training in the liberal arts . . . . Secondly, we are especially dedicated to a greater goal—that of building in the student a Christ-like life, a love for the church, and a passion for the souls of mankind." Move to Malibu By the 1960s, the young college faced serious problems. The area around the Vermont Avenue campus developed issues with crime and urban decay; tensions also arose due to the .Tracy Domingo, Miracle at Malibu Materialized , ''Graphic'', November 14, 2002 In 1969 activists in the Watts area threatened to burn down the campus, however were talked out of it after all-night negotiations by then-President M. Norvel Young.Tracy Domingo, Miracle at Malibu Materialized , ''Graphic'', November 14, 2002 In addition, the Vermont Avenue campus was running out of room to expand.Tracy Domingo, Miracle at Malibu Materialized , ''Graphic'', November 14, 2002 In 1967, the school put forth a multi-campus idea that would move the undergraduate campus to an alternative location; a committee formed and looked at numerous locations, including sites in , 1971 , the university broke ground to commence construction and in September 1972 the Malibu campus opened for student enrollment.Tracy Domingo, Miracle at Malibu Materialized , ''Graphic'', November 14, 2002 As the young college grew over the decades it caught the attention of entrepreneur, lawyer, and inventor Frank R. Seaver, who mentioned Pepperdine in his will. However, it was his widow, Blanche E. Seaver who gave large donations which enabled the school to expand into Malibu in 1971. In 1975, the Malibu campus was named the Frank R. Seaver College, and it has become the flagship undergraduate school of the University. In 1981, the Vermont Avenue campus was sold to the Crenshaw Christian Center and turned into a large religious facility.Aldore Collier, FaithDome: "A grand-slam homer for Jesus." , ''Ebony'', December 1989. Pepperdine gained university status in 1971 when the School Of Law was added and the business and education departments became separate schools. In 1975, the undergraduate program was named Seaver College in honor of the Seavers. In the 1980s, Pepperdine rose to prominence as one of the United States' leading centers of Conservative politics, attracting many conservative-leaning professors from nearby UCLA and USC . Prominent conservatives on the Pepperdine faculty have included Ben Stein , Kenneth Starr , Arthur Laffer , Douglas W. Kmiec , and, currently, Daniel Pipes . In 1993 and 1996, massive brushfires threatened the campus with destruction, but firefighters succeeded in protecting almost all structures. CAMPUS The main campus is nestled among several ridges that overlook the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway , just outside the Malibu city limits (although its mailing address is "Malibu"). Driving up the main campus entrance road is a memorable experience, as it ascends a steep well-groomed grassy slope past a huge stylized cross, known as the Phillips Theme Tower, symbolizing the university's dedication to its original Christian mission. Most buildings were constructed in a typical 1980s-style reinterpretation of classic Californian and Mediterranean Architecture (red tile roofs, white stuccoed walls, large tinted windows). Pepperdine University was voted as having the most beautiful campus by Princeton Review and having the best dorms of any campus in the nation. However, the methodology of the survey asked students how satisfied they were with the dorms, rather than objectively ranking dorms against each other. This has resulted in many students questioning how the so-called "best dorms in the country" lack air-conditioning in an area that often reaches 90 degrees during the summer months. There are views of the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island , Palos Verdes Peninsula , Long Beach and the westside of Los Angeles from numerous points. Graduations take place at Alumni Park, a broad expanse of lawn overlooking Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean. The main academic plaza for undergraduate programs of Seaver College lies just above Alumni Park and includes Stauffer Chapel, Tyler Campus Center, Payson Library, and the Ahmanson Fine Arts Center. Undergraduate housing and athletic facilities sit to the north/northwest of the academic complex. The Law School exists even higher above these areas. The central campus is surrounded by a loop road consisting of Seaver Drive, Huntsinger Circle, and John Tyler Drive. Banowsky Boulevard separates Alumni Park from the main academic complex and is named in honor of William S. Banowsky, the 4th president of Pepperdine. Spur roads to the east of the central part of campus lead to faculty housing. To the northwest, Via Pacifica winds uphill to the Drescher Graduate Campus, completed in 2003 and home to the School of Public Policy, the Villa Graziadio conference center, as well as the fulltime programs of the Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology. Housing for graduate students, undergraduate honors students, and faculty are also located here. Graduate Campuses The Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Graduate School of Education and Psychology are headquartered in West Los Angeles at the Howard Hughes Center next to Interstate 405 . These two schools also offer programs at graduate campuses in Encino , Irvine , Long Beach , Pasadena , Santa Clara , and Westlake Village . International programs of the University's various schools take place in London , Heidelberg , Florence , Buenos Aires , Paris , Madrid , Lausanne , Johannesburg , Tegucigalpa , Brisbane , Chiang Mai , Hong Kong , and Tokyo . ACADEMICS Seaver College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Seaver College (named for Mr. and Mrs. Frank R. Seaver, the largest single benefactors of Pepperdine) educates undergraduates in a liberal-arts environment. Seaver College is comprised of 8 divisions and 40 majors: Business Division: Accounting, Business Administration, & International Business Communication Division: Advertising, Communication, Integrated Marketing Communication, Journalism, Public Relations, Speech Communication, & Telecommunications Fine Arts Division: Art, Art History, Music, Theatre Arts, & Theatre and Television Humanities and Teacher Education Division: Creative Writing, English, Film Studies, History, Humanities, Liberal Arts, & Philosophy International Studies and Languages Division: French, German, International Studies, & Spanish Natural Science Division: Biology, Chemistry, 3/2 Engineering, Computer Science/Mathematics, Mathematics, Mathematics Education, Natural Science, Nutritional Science, Physics, & Sports Medicine Religion Division: Religion Social Science Division: Economics, Political Science, Psychology, & Sociology The college also offers master's degrees in History, Communications, American Studies, and Religion, in addition to teaching credentials. David Baird is the current dean. Graziadio School of Business and Management Pepperdine's Graziadio School Of Business And Management enrolls approximately 2,400 students in its programs, which are offered as both full-time and part-time classes. It is the fifth largest graduate business school in the country, and was founded in 1969 . The school was named after its benefactor, George L. Graziadio . Linda Livingstone is the current Dean. Degrees granted by the school include:
School of Law The Pepperdine University School Of Law is located adjacent to the Seaver College Campus, and enrolls about 670 students who come from all parts of the country. It is fully approved by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association Of American Law Schools . Pepperdine's Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution is consistently ranked as the number one dispute resolution program in the country, offering LL.M., master's and certificate programs. Some of its other newer degree offerings include the juris doctor/master of divinity in conjunction with Pepperdine's Seaver College. Other joint degree programs include the JD/MBA, JD/MPP, and JD/MDR. The school offers both a summer session and a fall semester in London , England . Kenneth Starr is the current dean. Graduate School of Education and Psychology Primarily serving working professionals, the Graduate School of Education and Psychology offers both masters and doctorate programs in education, education administration, psychology, and clinical psychology. Margaret Weber is the current dean. School of Public Policy Approximately 120 graduate students are enrolled in the School of Public Policy, which offers a two-year masters of public policy degree. Not simply the study of government, Public Policy is the study of how governments, non-profits, and even individuals and businesses address problems of public concern. Students specialize in economics, international relations, American politics, or local/regional policy in addition to their core studies and are required to complete a policy-related internship. James Wilburn is the current dean. Presidents
ATHLETICS Pepperdine University participates in the West Coast Conference , a conference made up exclusively of religiously affiliated schools in which it is the only member that is not Catholic . Appropriate for its location adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, well known for its waves, Pepperdine's teams are known as the Waves. Pepperdine University was recently ranked by the Sears Cup as having the most successful athletic program for non- Football Division I schools. UCLA was ranked the most successful Division I athletic program with football. Pepperdine University sponsors 14 NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics teams-baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, tennis, volleyball and water polo teams for men, while women compete in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis and volleyball. There are also a number of intercollegiate sports clubs such as Men's Soccer, Men's and Women's Lacrosse, Ultimate Frisbee and Ice Hockey. NCAA Division I Team Championships:
NCAA Division I Individual Titles:
NOTABLE ALUMNI Academia
Business
Entertainment
Politics and government
Sports
RANKINGS AND REPUTATION The '''' has also noted Pepperdine as being one of the nation's largest conservative colleges. '' US News & World Reports '' (see “Pepperdine at Glance” in the external links section) has ranked Pepperdine as the 54th best national university for undergraduate education, its law school is rated as 66th among the top 100 law schools in the country by U.S. News and World Reports, and the Straus Institute has appeared as #1 in the field of dispute resolution.http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/brief/lawrank_brief.php The Graziadio School of Business & Management has been consistently ranked by BusinessWeek as having one of the world's Top 25 Executive MBA programs, and ''US News & World Report'' has ranked the Graziadio School's Fully-Employed MBA program in the world's Top 30 and its Full-Time MBA program in the world's Top 100. Financial Times magazine has ranked the Graziadio School's EMBA in the world's Top 65. TRIVIA '' Zoey 101 '', the Nickelodeon series featuring Jamie Lynn Spears , was filmed at the Malibu campus. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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