Pepperdine University
The main campus of Pepperdine Institution found in Los Angeles County in the state of California. Pepperdine is a private research university that is connected to the Churches of Christ. The main campus of Pepperdine University spans 830 acres (340 hectares) and is located close to Malibu, California, with views of both the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway. In 1937, businessman George Pepperdine established the university in South Los Angeles; in 1972, it moved to its current location in Malibu. There is a main campus in Malibu, three graduate campuses in Southern California, a center in Washington, DC, and international campuses in Buenos Aires, Argentina; London, United Kingdom; Heidelberg, Germany; Florence, Italy; and Lausanne, Switzerland. Courses are currently taught at all of these locations.
Seaver College, which is an undergraduate liberal arts school, 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—make up the university. Seaver College is an undergraduate liberal arts school.
George Pepperdine established a liberal arts college in the city of Los Angeles in February 1937, against the backdrop of the Great Depression. The college was to be affiliated with the Churches of Christ, and to the founder's embarrassment, it was to be called George Pepperdine College. Despite this, George Pepperdine was the college's namesake.
The Western Auto Supply Company, which Pepperdine established in 1909 with an initial investment of $5, was the primary vehicle through which Pepperdine amassed his fortune; however, Pepperdine's success inspired him to pursue a more significant goal: the discovery of oil "how the resources that have been entrusted to his care can be used to benefit humanity in the greatest way possible. He believed that it was unethical to amass a large fortune and then exploit it for one's benefit." Pepperdine expressed his desire to see the institution that bears his name achieve two goals: "To begin, one of our primary goals is to provide academic instruction in the liberal arts that is of the highest caliber and completely approved... Second, we are particularly committed to achieving a higher objective, which is the instillation of a Christ-like lifestyle, an affection for the church, and a zeal for the salvation of the souls of all people in the student body."
On September 21, 1937, 167 new students from 22 different states and two other countries began attending classes on a campus that had recently been constructed on 34 acres (14 ha) at West 79th Street and South Vermont Avenue in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles. This campus was later referred to as the Vermont Avenue campus. John M. Cooper, an art deco architect, was responsible for the campus's design, which was executed in the Streamline Moderne style. George Pepperdine College received its final accreditation from the Northwest Association on April 5, 1938. This accomplishment was largely attributable to the efforts of George Pepperdine College president Batsell Baxter and dean Hugh M. Tiner.
In October of 1937, the inaugural edition of the student newspaper known as the GraPhiC was released to the public.
The years immediately following the college's inception saw substantial growth, culminating in the institution has total enrolment of 1,839 students for the 1948–1949 academic year. The college's first graduate program, a master of arts in religion, welcomed its first students in 1944, and the school's first foreign program, an academic year spent in Heidelberg, Germany, was established in 1963. Both of these programs were pioneered by the institution.