Is Pepperdine too accessible?

(Photo by Chike Ochoifeoma)

The week of Oct. 26, two Pepperdine juniors, Isamar Telleria, a political science major, and Bria Singson, an international studies major, did what many Pepperdine students do in the Sandbar after hours — play the piano. However, as they practiced their Beethoven, an uninvited, unfamiliar guest interrupted their session.

“The guy was just there to sleep,” said Telleria, who didn’t report the incident to the Pepperdine Department of Public Safety. “But imagine if the homeless guy had bad intentions; or if instead, he was a serial killer that had gotten on campus.”

With more random acts of violence such as stabbings and shootings hitting the news, college students are on edge more than ever before. Malibu is, according to the Los Angeles Times, a safe community with very little crime. Yet despite being a safe community, Pepperdine, like any other university, is still subject to suspicious persons entering campus.

Each week, The Graphic runs a section called “The DPS Reports,” which highlights incidents on or off campus. According to the reports, there were 67 incidents involving suspicious persons on campus from November 2014 to November 2015. In 26 of those reports, DPS discovered the suspicious person was a Pepperdine student, staff or faculty member, or a legitimate visitor. DPS was not able to locate the suspicious persons in 24 cases. DPS asked the suspicious persons to leave in 14 of the reported incidents. There were two cases where DPS either arrested or restricted the suspicious persons from campus. There has been only one case where DPS noted a person was an unauthorized visitor but didn’t mention what happened to him or her in the report.

Many students complain about how DPS appears to be better equipped to handle trivial situations rather than potential threats. Other students believe DPS does an efficient job.

Deputy Director of Administrative Operations Dawn Emrich discussed how DPS regulates on-campus visitors both day and night and how some unauthorized visitors enter Pepperdine via Alumni Park.

“Regarding access to campus, there are booths through John Tyler Drive and one through Seaver Drive, both of which are monitored 24/7,” Emrich said. “The Seaver booth always has an officer present at night. Later in the night, visitors must have a valid campus permit or ID, an articulated valid reason or a host to be allowed on campus. During the day, Pepperdine is an open-campus environment. It’s not our intention to have access to campus on a list or tracked. People tend to walk up through the park, but we have regular patrols. It’s hard to categorize a typical situation because the situations vary, but most of the suspicious persons reports involve solicitors. Our community is pretty sensitive to people who look like they may be out of place, especially if they necessarily don’t look like a college student. Calls for suspicious characters are priority calls. If someone is determined to not have business on campus, they are asked to leave.”

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(Photo by Chike Ochoifeoma)

With ride-hailing services such as Uber becoming increasingly popular for Pepperdine students, Deputy Director of Emergency Devices Robert McKelvy emphasized that Uber and taxi services must still go through the same process as any individual visiting Pepperdine.

“Taxis and Uber drivers fall under the same guidelines as other vendors or contractors after regular business hours,” McKelvy said. “DPS is responsible for making sure that the driver is coming to the campus for legitimate business or to verify that they are dropping off community members or their authorized guests. The level and detail of questions will vary depending on many factors, such as whether they are dropping off or picking up, time of day, the events on campus and is there one or multiple passengers.”

However, there are mixed reviews on whether or not DPS effectively prioritizes campus safety.

“I do feel safe on campus; I feel DPS is not reliable,” said Paulina Martinez, a sophomore integrated marketing communication major. “I feel that DPS is very distracted and can’t really tell what legit issues are. There needs to be a better system of who comes into campus because they’re very nonchalant at the gate; but when it comes to parking tickets, they’re all about that. Is their priority making money or safety? They seem to care more about non-safety issues than safety issues.”

Freshman public relations major Juan Torres reiterated a fairly common Pepperdine-ism amongst students that DPS is lackadaisical in letting visitors on campus.

“I think it’s really easy for strangers to get on campus,” Torres said. “Literally, you tell DPS that you’re picking someone up, and they let you in.”

Senior business administration major Cydney Moore said she feels safe on campus, but agreed with Torres that Pepperdine is too accessible during the day.

“I feel safe on campus for the most part,” Moore said. “I feel there’s not much crime that happens here compared to the average college campus; but in the case of an emergency, I would also want the police department present. I think it’s relatively easy to get on campus during the day.”

Junior political science and French double major Omari Allen applauded DPS’ efforts, but noted that DPS needs to improve its security of Alumni Park.

“We do a good job at screening the vehicles that come onto our campus,” Allen said. “But, there’s room for improvement. However, that improvement is deemed to be difficult given the geographic design of our campus, specifically the accessibility of Alumni Park by locals. That appears to be a target area that should receive the most immediate improvements.”

Senior psychology major Shea O’Reilly agreed with Moore’s assessment, but said she can’t speak on DPS’s reliability.

“I feel safe on campus,” O’Reilly said. “Pepperdine is in a very safe area and is fairly isolated, and we have the added protection of DPS. To be honest, I haven’t really been in a situation that would allow me to assess the reliability of DPS.”

Junior broadcast journalism major Alexis Padilla echoed Martinez’s sentiments about DPS focusing on traffic laws instead of who is allowed on campus.

“DPS focuses on unimportant things such as who parked in the carpool lane,” Padilla said. “There have been times where random people are on campus just sitting in the HAWC. I feel DPS doesn’t pay attention to the people they let in on campus.”

Junior transfer economics major Tadeh Davtian juxtaposed Pepperdine’s security with his previous experience at California State University Northridge. He said said Pepperdine is more difficult to enter.

“The school I transferred from had multiple streets that led into the school with no gated restrictions,” Davtian said. “So I would say Pepperdine is definitely more difficult to gain entry into with its gated entry, but a stranger still can access a visitor pass from DPS at the gate with ease. But at CSUN, there’s definitely more people you need to watch out for because they can be dangerous. My sophomore year, before transferring, we had two shootings around campus just in that year.”

Despite some students believing DPS doesn’t act on real issues, DPS debunked that myth two years ago when the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arrested Aaron Lewis, an armed solicitor, for weapon possession in Joslyn Plaza, according to The Graphic. Lewis was seen loitering on campus, and Waves Bookstore employees notified DPS. Upon receiving the call, DPS contacted the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department; when the LASD arrived, both groups confronted Lewis. Upon searching him, they found a knife on Lewis’ person and placed him in custody.

In addition, there were only 12 reported criminal offenses — most of which were burglaries — that occurred at Pepperdine in 2014, according to the Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis. Azusa Pacific University in Azusa reported 26 criminal offenses in 2014, California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks reported three offenses and Biola University in La Mirada reported three.

Although Pepperdine has higher reported offenses compared to two other small, private Christian universities, DPS officials said they continue to improve their ability to ensure campus is a safer environment. Pepperdine has also partnered with LiveSafe, an app where students can instantly and conveniently report incidents that happen on or off campus to DPS and other public safety officials.

Chike Ochoifeoma completed this story in Dr. Christina Littlefield’s fall 2015 Jour 241 class.