Pepperdine University, a conservative Christian island in the liberal seas of both California and higher education in general, is under attack from its friends. Its friends, the American Civil Rights Institute (Ward Connerly’s organization) and the Center for Equal Opportunity, point out that Pepperdine is not practicing what conservatives these days usually preach.
Pepperdine, it turns out, not only practices racial preference, but claims divine inspiration for its devotion to a scholarship program limited to minorities.
“It’s our responsibility, given our Christian mission, to be not a white island but to reflect the diversity around us,” said W. David Baird, dean of Pepperdine’s undergraduate college.
ACRI and CEO, cutting Pepperdine no slack because of its generally conservative reputation, have sent letters of complaint and are willing to pursue the matter if Pepperdine doesn’t relent. MIT and Stanford, having received similar letters, have removed racial restrictions from similar programs previously limited to minorities, but so far Pepperdine has refused to budge.
My hunch is that liberals, who had no sympathy whatsoever for Bob Jones University’s explanation that its ban on interracial dating was rooted in its faith, will be considerably more sympathetic to Pepperdine.
California Supreme Court Justice Janice R. Brown, one of the appellate court nominees being blocked by Senate Democrats, is a Pepperdine trustee. Since she has ruled against racially exclusive programs, it would be interesting to know what she’s saying to the Pepperdine administration.
[ADDENDUM: Yesterday Howard Bashman linked to a Los Angeles Times article on this controversy.]
