Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University (/ˈpɛpərdaɪn/) is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, California.[4][5] Founded by entrepreneur George Pepperdine in South Los Angeles in 1937, the school expanded to Malibu in 1972. Courses are now taught at a main Malibu campus, three graduate campuses in Southern California, a center in Washington, D.C., and international campuses in Buenos Aires, Argentina; London, United Kingdom; Heidelberg, Germany; Florence, Italy; and Blonay – Saint-Légier, Switzerland.
Former names
George Pepperdine College (1937–1971)
Freely ye received, freely give
1937
$1.21 billion (2022)[1]
421 full-time (2022), 561 part-time (2022)
10,030 (Fall 2022)[2]
3,662 (Fall 2022)[2]
6,368 (Fall 2022)[2]
Suburban
830 acres (340 ha)
Pepperdine Graphic
Blue and orange[3]
Willie the Wave
The university is composed of an undergraduate liberal arts school (Seaver College) and four graduate schools: the Caruso School of Law, the Graziadio Business School, the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, and the School of Public Policy.
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
In February 1937, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, George Pepperdine founded a liberal arts college in the city of Los Angeles to be affiliated with the Churches of Christ and to be called—to the founder's embarrassment—George Pepperdine College.[6]
Pepperdine had built his fortune largely through the Western Auto Supply Company, which he founded in 1909 with a $5 investment,[7] but his prosperity led to his greater ambition to discover "how humanity can be helped most with the means entrusted to [his] care. [He] considered it wrong to build up a great fortune and use it selfishly." Pepperdine voiced his twofold 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."[8]
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 (14 ha) at West 79th Street and South Vermont Avenue in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles,[9] later referred to as the Vermont Avenue campus.[10][11] The campus was designed in the Streamline Moderne style by John M. Cooper, an art deco architect.[12][13] By April 5, 1938, George Pepperdine College was fully accredited by the Northwest Association in large part due to the leadership of president Batsell Baxter and dean Hugh M. Tiner.[14]
The student newspaper, called the GraPhiC, published its first issue in October 1937.[15]
The college expanded significantly in the years following its founding, reaching an enrollment of 1,839 for the 1948–1949 year.[16] The college's first graduate program, a master of arts in religion, admitted its first students in 1944,[17] and the school's first international program, a year-long program in Heidelberg, Germany, was launched in 1963.[18]
Academic rankings
129
76
197
137
Pepperdine University competes in NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics. Most teams play in the West Coast Conference, but men's volleyball plays in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and men's water polo plays in the Golden Coast Conference. Pepperdine's teams are known as the Waves.
Pepperdine University is often ranked by the NACDA Director's Cup as having one of the most successful athletic programs for non-football Division I schools, ranking first on three occasions (most recently in 2011–12) and finishing in the top three eight times in the last fifteen years.[78] Pepperdine University sponsors seventeen NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics teams: baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, tennis, track, volleyball, and water polo teams for men; and basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track, indoor volleyball, and beach volleyball for women.[79] There are also several intercollegiate sports clubs such as women's lacrosse, surfing, and men's rugby.[80]
NCAA Division I team championships:
NCAA Division I individual titles:
The water polo competitions for the 1984 Summer Olympics were held at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on campus.[81]