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THE PEPPERDINE GRAPHIC Volume LV
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Issue 1
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August 24, 2026
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pepperdine-graphic.com
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IS PEPPERDINE SUSTAINABLE? ater From w
to solar
Faculty, students, alum question Pepp’s sustainability efforts Amanda Monahan Managing Editor In the outdoor seating area adjacent to the Rockwell Academic Center, Sustainability Program Coordinator Chris Doran’s class sat in the blazing heat. Two guest speakers, Ricky Eldridge, director of the Center for Sustainability, and Nicolle Taylor, senior vice president and chief operating officer, conversed with students. Students in the class, held in spring 2023, asked Eldridge and Taylor about their backgrounds, quickly learning that neither had any sustainability experience. As the conversation continued, fewer and fewer students asked questions. The intense and unwelcoming space — along with the tone of the administrators’ responses — caused many to shut down, alumna Kathryn Horvath (‘23) said. Horvath said she remembers the administrators giving disrespectful responses to their questions regarding the University’s sustainability initia-
tives and showing a lack of interest in getting to know her and her classmates. But things got worse when students asked administrators why Pepperdine University does not take a stance on climate change. Eldridge and Taylor told the group — which consisted of juniors and seniors who would soon be graduating with degrees in Sustainability — that there was no scientific evidence in support of climate change. Some students froze up, some cried and some had the courage to respond. But everyone was shocked. “You know, you read it on the website, or you hear it from other people, but having somebody directly tell me as a student graduating with a degree in Sustainability from the University that they can’t acknowledge that climate change is real and that the University’s stance is to provide an open discourse and debate,” Horvath said. “Is the University providing an open discourse and debate about gravity? Like, no. That would be dumb.” Despite existing in a city that cares
deeply about issues such as coastal erosion, climate change and water pollution, Pepperdine exists in its own world — one that refuses to take a stance on climate change. The school references its 1972 water reclamation system as a sustainable initiative on the Center for Sustainability website, but faculty and students said it has been slow to implement more contemporary sustainable practices, such as solar energy. Alumna Belle Li (‘26), who was a double major in Sustainability and Hispanic Studies, has known she wanted to study the intersection between social justice and the environment since she was young. However, in her past four years at Pepperdine, she has grown increasingly discouraged with the University’s own environment when it comes to these topics. “I feel like the school deliberately tries to not be sustainable,” Li said. “The more I learn, the more I’m disappointed with the different things that we do — it’s both the lack of action and then the actions are
actually unsustainable.” Backgrounds Eldridge has no background in sustainability, environmental work or education. He is a licensed attorney, graduating from USC Gould School of Law in 2018. Horvath noted her frustration with this, having someone without relevant background in the position. “That was frustrating as a student who was hoping to get a career in the environmental field,” Horvath said. “To see that even at my school, the folks who are in charge of our sustainability for the entire university don’t have that background that I’m trying to achieve and am now getting a master’s degree to achieve.”
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