THE PEPPERDINE GRAPHIC VOLUME L |
ISSUE 9 | October 29, 2020
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AShley Mowreader |news Editor 9% Asian faculty, 7% Hispanic or Latinx faculty, 5% Black or African American faculty, 2% faculty of two or more races, 2% faculty whose race is unknown, 0% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander faculty and 0% “non-resident alien” faculty. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the number of faculty of color to keep up with this changing student body that we’re having at the university level,” said Roshawnda Derrick, assistant professor of Hispanic Studies. “Students are expecting more training in diversity, cultural competence, being global citizens — those are some of the things that we say that we promote — but we don’t actually have faculty of color who are representative of students in the same way.”
Gr ace wood As si stan t n e ws e d itor Editor’s Note: In referencing the sources’ races, Roshawnda Derrick prefers to be referred to as Black. David Holmes did not respond for comment but referred to himself as African American during the interview.
Why are There Less Faculty of Color at Pepperdine?
This year, Pepperdine University announced its recommitment to racial equality and increased diversity on campus, including the goal of building an ethnically diverse and gender-balanced faculty and administration. Data from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness’ 2019 fall semester census shows that white faculty comprise 76% of Seaver instructional faculty, compared to
David Holmes is the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and an English professor at Lipscomb University. Holmes taught at Pepperdine for over 25 years and also served as associate dean for Curriculum and General Education before leaving in 2018. After beginning his career at Pepperdine in 1993, Holmes was the first African American tenured professor and the first African American
to be promoted to the associate dean level. One reason why people of color may not want to teach at Pepperdine is because the Church of Christ is primarily white, Holmes said. Data from Pew Research Center shows the Church of Christ’s members are 69% white, 16% Black, 10% Latinx, 4% mixed race and 1% Asian. Being in the minority within a Church of Christ university could pose challenges to the success of a person of color, Holmes said. “African Americans are a smaller demographic in Church of Christ schools, so they’re less likely to get promoted to full professor in administration,” Holmes said. “The issues are not only retention — and you should retain the faculty of color — but also, will they get tenure? And will they be promoted to the level of full professor or an administrator?” Holmes said while he feels Pepperdine needs to hire more faculty of color, he understands the University can only select from the professors available. In the 2014–2015 school year, 108,912 white people earned doctoral degrees, compared to 13,278 Black people, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. “Pepperdine’s challenge is a challenge
related to the history of racial discrimination,” Holmes said. “In other words, you don’t have enough people who are available, not only because they have to have that experience, but because historically, we have undereducated and marginalized our people of color.” Holmes said while he doesn’t think Pepperdine is consciously trying to exclude faculty of color from working at the University, the administration’s goal of diversity cannot be met until the University addresses its history of institutional racism is. “A place like Pepperdine — or any institution that has a history of racist practices and policies — has to ask itself: ‘Have I examined the old pipes of our practices and policies?’” Holmes said. Stanford University’s research on implicit bias “suggests that people can act on the basis of prejudice and stereotypes without intending to do so,” according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Pepperdine Provost Rick Marrs said implicit bias is something he has to remain aware of, and fight through, when looking to hire new professors.
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IP preps chateau for future Lausanne participants Ashl ey Mo w r eader New s edi to r Chateau d’Hauteville, overlooking Lake Geneva near Vevey, Switzerland, housed the royal d’Hauteville family for almost three centuries. The future chateau residents, however, won’t be nobility but Pepperdine Lausanne program participants. Pepperdine finalized the chateau purchase Nov. 5, 2019 after the property went on the market in 2015 with an asking price of 60 million Swiss francs, around $66 million. International Programs plans to use the space as the Lausanne program facility, the IP European headquarters and an international conference center. The property is undergoing major renovations and will not be housing students until at least 2023, Pepperdine administrators said. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful estate,” said Lausanne Program Di-
rector Ezra Plank. “But it is several years out, and at this point, we’re just doing a lot of the dirty work.” In 2007, Pepperdine purchased the Maison du Lac, the current program facility for Lausanne, for 10.5 million francs — around $9.5 million at the time. Prior to the purchase, Lausanne participants shared the hotel with other guests, resulting in friction among its patrons, according to a Jan. 24, 2008 article by the Graphic. After the purchase and expansion, Lausanne became the largest study abroad program, housing around 70 students each semester. The Masion du Lac, built in the 1960s, needs major renovations to both utilities and building systems, making it more cost-effective for the University to purchase a new property entirely, wrote Executive Vice President Gary Hanson in an email. Pepperdine became “seriously interested” in the chateau in 2017 and began negotiations in 2018, Hanson wrote.
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photo courtesy of riviera properties A New Home Abroad | The University is renovating Chateau d’Hauteville is being renovated for future Lausanne participants to move in beginning in 2023. These students formerly stayed in Maison du Lac. “After assessing more than 20 alternative sites in the region, we discovered the Chateau d’Hauteville,” Hanson wrote. “This property quickly rose above the rest, representing the promise of a location and facility better able to meet current and future undergraduate student needs while at the same time creating new possibilities for our graduate schools, conferences, partnerships and events.”
Hanson led the acquisition of the property for Pepperdine, and Riviera Properties Switzerland sold the property for the d’Hauteville family. Chateau d’Hauteville is an 18th-century castle from 1760, making it older than the United States as a country, Plank said. Built in the European style, the chateau property includes 67 acres of land, coach houses, a winepress,
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gardens, fountains, stables and a creek. Pepperdine owns the entirety of the property and its various elements — including farmland and vineyards, which are under long-term lease agreements with two farmers, helping to offset the property cost, Hanson wrote.
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