Envisioning a Bold Future
The Beginnings
Perhaps the University’s greatest strength is its tendency toward self-examination and its refusal to claim completion in any of its important tasks; thus, we do not suffer from the entropy of closure and conclusion. We aspire to provide light and service alongside many older, venerable institutions of higher education. We do, at times, demonstrate a sense of youthful urgency to leap over decades of experience, endowment development, and tradition characteristic of those universities with whom we wish to be compared. It would be well to recognize that as we ponder the path leading to our 75th year, that our relatively young age is more an advantage than a disadvantage.
Other strengths include the following:
- We affirm the search for truth as our highest value;
- We press toward traditional evidence of quality in programs, yet we have maintained the freedom to be innovative and nontraditional;
- A selective mixture of programs, from residential undergraduate to professional and graduate programs that complement one another and are consistent with our values;
- We embrace a global perspective;
- Our facilities, the Malibu campus, the educational centers, and our permanent international program sites are unique and vibrant;
- We comprise a faculty, staff, and administration who are passionate in our caring for students and in our commitment to the University;
- We cultivate an image that is attractive to constituents, that is both honest and inspiring, and that is consistent with our founding precepts;
- We believe the future is bright, and we are ready and able to respond to new challenges that will strengthen the University.
If we are unique, it is by virtue of our youth, our deeply held commitments, and our readiness to respond to new opportunities. It is also because we have a clear view of the challenges ahead and the will and the dexterity to respond with alacrity.
The end of this document is, indeed, the beginning of what lies ahead for Pepperdine
University in the next decade. The President will be accountable, but success will
not be achieved without every leader, scholar, learner, staff member, and friend being
committed to success in this effort to envision and insure a bold future for Pepperdine
University. It is time to begin. In fact, it is now time to plan the 75th anniversary
celebration, now just eleven years away, in a manner that will complete the vision
articulated in this document. May God bless this endeavor and the people of this University.