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PAC AUSE on
Pepperdine Ambassadors Council placed on pause
regarding the reasons for PAC’s pause, but he did not respond to requests for comment.
In the spring 2022 semester, Advancement proposed a decrease in student voice for membership selection PAC members said.
“To accomplish this reimagining and growing of PAC, we will be pausing the recruitment and selection processes in order to plan a new vision for PAC with your input, as well as the input from the 428 PAC alumni from the last 33 years who now live all over the world,” Johnson wrote in a March 22, 2022 email to members of PAC.
PAC’s pause is projected to last though the 2022-23 academic year, with the organization set to restart in fall 2023, wrote Lauren Cosentino, vice president and chief Advancement officer, in a March 14 email to the Graphic.
Gash declined to comment on the future plans for PAC but said he enjoyed his working with the organization in the past.
“Each year, I look forward to meeting and interacting closely with these talented and motivated representatives of Pepperdine,” President Jim Gash wrote in a March 14 email statement to the Graphic.
There will be interviews in spring 2023 for PAC membership for the 2023-24 academic year, Cosentino wrote.
“I am eager for PAC to resume this next fall,” Gash wrote
The Graphic reached out to Johnson
Founding of PAC
Christine Grimm, Seaver alumna (‘90) and founding chairperson of PAC, said she founded PAC with Lisa Kodama, Seaver alumna (‘89) and GSEP alumna (‘91), in her junior year. At the time, Grimm was Student Government Association president and founded PAC in response to an absence of tradition she felt at Seaver College.
Grimm said she worked with then-Chancellor Charles Runnels for former President Andrew K. Benton’s office at the time when Benton was VP.
“Pepperdine wasn’t then what it is today,” Grimm said.
Creating a Community
Benton said the founding PAC — PAC1 — and its successors were “great representatives” for Pepperdine.
The formation of PAC, Kodama said, was quick, taking only a few months — in part because of the trust the administration had in the students.
PAC, Kodama said, was about student empowerment.
“I remember one student, and I never asked him why, but he said it saved his life at Pepperdine,” Kodama said.
Joining PAC
The most important aspect of PAC,
Leow said, was acting as a student voice directly to the President’s Office. It was also traditional for PAC members to provide updates at the Board of Regents meetings.
“We would represent the University as student liaisons at events, such as fundraisers out in L.A.,” Leow said.
Gash wrote he worked to interact with PAC and its members.
“I very much enjoyed my interactions with PAC during my first three years as president,” Gash wrote. “I have hosted PAC in my home on numerous occasions and am eager for PAC to resume its important work on campus.
After joining PAC, Dawson Foster, senior and one of PAC’s two recruitment coordinators for the 2021-22 academic year, said he received a PAC Constitution that went over the inner workings and goals of PAC. These inner workings, Foster said, eventually shifted.
With returning from COVID-19 and switching to a new adviser, Maxine Li, Seaver alumna (‘22) and former external community liaison for PAC, said members’ expectations did not match up to reality.
“The issue with that was we kind of became like free labor,” Li said.
A Shift in Structure
In summer of 2022, Cosentino reorganized Advancement to help align the department with Gash’s Pepperdine 2030: Ascend Together plan for the future for the University, Johnson wrote in the March 22, 2022 email to PAC members.
PAC had “a lot of work to do” Johnson wrote in the email, so that PAC could “have an even more important and larger role in the future partnering with University Advancement.”
An area of “growth or change” for PAC was expanding the organization to represent all five schools, in the upcoming years Johnson wrote in his email to PAC.
Advancement planned on having a “restructuring of roles and responsibilities of members, which will include shared leadership between the undergraduate and graduate PAC students,” Johnson wrote in the email.
“It kind of went from being like an ambassador to Pepperdine to becoming like a worker for Pepperdine but you weren’t paid,” McCutchen said.
Administration has Stronger Say in Selection
Foster said he was responsible for running the 2022-23 academic year recruitment cycle. In the spring semester, coordinators would reach out to applicants, receive recommendations and set up interviews.
While the students would still have some say on appointments for the next Council, PAC members said they learned in the spring 2022 semester administrators wanted more of a say in PAC membership and leadership decisions.
Brinkman said everything PAC learned about the changes to selection came from Cosentino and Johnson, who then either told PAC directly at weekly Wednesday morning meetings or communicated it to the chair and vice chair, who then told the rest of the members.
While Li said she understands the difficulty in recruiting 20 members, not consulting with PAC left room for miscommunication.
In March 2022, Leow said everything was going “smoothly,” with several “sharp” candidates applying for chair.
“There were other administrators in play and advisers who also wanted to give their opinions on who should join the Council, on who should lead it,” Brinkman said.
Grimm said if it were up to her, the best idea would be a hybrid model — with both students and administrators having control over selection — but she is still not sure about the best way to go about selection.
In the original application process, applicants were free to apply as long as they met PAC’s basic requirements, and members would choose the next Council, Li said.
The basic requirements for PAC, according to the PAC Constitution, were:
- A 3.0 GPA
- Completion of 60 units before the semester one would begin their position
- Junior or senior standing
- Attendance at Pepperdine for one year prior to starting their position
- Being at the University for two semesters while a member
- Involvement in at least three areas of student life
- Not holding top executive board positions in more than one — or two related — organizations
- Not being a member of organizations that conflict with the Wednesday morning meetings — such as SGA or HRL
Li said she was concerned because Johnson said legacies may have an advantage in the selection process.
“If their parents were on PAC, that would give them an advantage,” Li said.
Being an ambassador for life was something Advancement wanted to focus on, Johnson wrote in the email.
Move Away from a Constitution
Additionally, PAC was set to move away from its Constitution, utilizing “operating guidelines” instead of a binding contract, Brinkman said.
Cosentino wrote PAC will be using the original charter, which calls for membership to be jointly decided.
Cosentino did not respond to request for follow-up comment on whether the charter was the same as the Constitution by the time of publication.
“PAC has had a charter from the original year of inception, and that is the charter that will be honored going forward,” Cosentino wrote.
The Constitution, Li said, protected
PAC members and provided an outline for what recruitment and roles within PAC looked like.
Getting rid of the PAC Constitution, Li said, also would have removed a framework and guideline for PAC’s operation.
However, while the Constitution encourages the adviser to sit in on selection — and gives him one vote — and for faculty to take part in interviewing applicants, the Selection Committee is responsible for all member selection, according to PAC’s Constitution.
“The Selection Committee shall consist of graduating senior Council members only,” according to the Constitution. “There must be at least nine members on the Committee. If fewer than nine graduating seniors are available, the Executive Board may recruit PAC alumni to serve on the Committee.”
Fitting a Mold
As administration moved to have more control over PAC’s selection process, PAC members said they felt the administration would not choose students representative of the University population.
Most people he has met at Pepperdine, Foster said, have been non-religious and very affirming of different sexualities and belief systems.
Approximately 40% of students at Pepperdine are somewhat or very politically liberal, according to a fall 2022 Office of Institutional Effectiveness Diversity Equity and Inclusion report.
running — originally unopposed — for chair.
Eventually, another student de cided to run for chair, and Fos ter said he was excited to begin the interview process. From there, Foster said he learned about the changes facing PAC, specifically that Advancement leaders would decide the next year’s chair.
Foster said he believes his sexuality played a role in why Advancement did not select him as chair — something he called “heart-wrenching” and “silencing.”
Cosentino did not respond to re quest for comment on Foster’s specific concerns on his sexuality.
In response to Advancement select ing the chair, Cosentino wrote “that is not the case.”
The lack of approval regarding a candidate’s sexual orientation, Leow said, prompted long conversations among PAC members and with John son regarding next steps for PAC.
From there, Leow said it was hard to move forward.
“That was probably the last straw that we were like, ‘Yeah, this isn’t going to fly,’” Leow said.
Despite Advancement’s concerns, PAC was happy with their candidates, Leow said.
While Li said PAC members understood Pepperdine has a Churches of Christ background, saying that everyone within PAC had to fit a certain mold ran contrary to the initial mission of PAC.
Seaver College’s Sexual Relations Policy states the University’s understanding of Scripture is that marriage is only between a husband and a wife, according to the website. However, the University also states it will not tolerate “harassment of LGBT students,” and students cannot lose their scholarships or face disciplinary action because of their sexuality.
Students have protested this policy, according to Graphic reporting.
Leow said he had multiple conversations with former members and people within PAC32 about the boundaries and duties of PAC.
Advancement would seek “the input from the 428 PAC alumni from the last 33 years,” to decide the organization’s future, Johnson wrote in the March 22, 2022 email to PAC members.
No Word on What Comes Next
Cosentino, Johnson wrote in the email, reorganized Advancement over summer 2021. Johnson wrote she also asked him to work on expanding PAC’s role within the Pepperdine community through areas of change.
“We were just upset and frustrated and disappointed that this club that’s meant to be a privilege — and you’re supposed to have a voice in administration — was turning out that they actually didn’t care what our voice was,” McCutchen said.
In fall 2022, Brinkman said Cosentino told him PAC would be restarting in a month or so before ultimately saying the organization was on a hiatus.
Another 40% of students either have no or “unstated” religious affiliation, according to Pepperdine’s At a Glance Admission statistics.
Foster said he was the only student on PAC who was a member of the Churches of Christ. Pepperdine is affiliated with the Churches of Christ, according to the University’s website.
“[PAC’s diversity] probably could have been better, but we had multiple ethnicities, we had different beliefs, we had different religions and different sexualities,” Foster said.
Foster also said he has been openly gay since his first year at Pepperdine and was out to PAC at the time he was
“Regardless of what the University was going to say about the orientation of our students and whether they could have a voice because of their orientation or not, we were just going to stand firm and fight for what we believed in,” Leow said.
Going Over the Changes
Johnson wrote in the March 2022 email Advancement would be reaching out to members to “help plan the new, more robust structure of PAC with University Advancement.”
The University told PAC they would reach out to former members about how to proceed, but Leow said he never learned what the outcome of that was.
“The chair and vice chair have faced the brunt of it for us, and I will forever
“It’s just very disappointing to see that things are the way they are because I’m pretty sure if you asked any professor or administrator over the last 20, 30 years, they would probably know what PAC is and the impact that PAC has on the University,” Leow said.
In fall 2022, Li said Johnson sent her an email about the possibility of PAC restarting for the year, but Li explained she would graduate in December, so she could not take part.
“[PAC] just faded off,” Li said.
The email to applicants, Foster said, went out April 22, 2022 — the day after PAC met with their adviser — and was honest about the uncertainty surrounding the future of PAC.
“In summary, the Pepperdine Ambassadors Council will look different than what was advertised moving into next year,” PAC wrote in the April 22 email to applicants.
