Empty. Quiet. Sad. Slow. Peaceful.
A ghost town.
That’s the dominant sentiment of Pepperdine students for what campus life is like on the weekends.
“The community of Pepperdine on the weekends definitely differs from the community during the week just with the level of excitement and activity,” said Blake Farley, a first-year religion and philosophy student.
Students throughout campus discussed their views on the social climate, the university’s offered events and the general feeling of emptiness at Pepperdine on the weekend.
Ghost town
A Pepp Post poll of 55 students found that 67 percent have felt lonely on weekends at Pepperdine.
“It’s like a deserted wasteland,” said Brandon Oddo, a sophomore sports medicine major.
Many students leave to visit family, nearby theme parks and surrounding cities, leaving others searching for activities to occupy their time.
Some students, however, believe that Pepperdine does a great job of providing events for students on weekends and spreading the word about the details of those events.
“I was just looking at all the posters and there seems to be lots of things,” said Hannah Cheng, a first-year student planning to major in integrated marketing communication.
Cheng also enjoys the smaller “pop-up” events at Pepperdine that offer food or activities for students in the area.
Though more than half of students surveyed believe Pepperdine is boring and empty on the weekend, seven students in the Pepp Post poll referred to Pepperdine as quiet and peaceful.
Where do students go?
Although a decent population of students remain on campus, many students leave Pepperdine on the weekends.
Students leave to explore Los Angeles, eat dinner or go to the beach. Many students also live in off-campus housing and have little motivation to return to the Malibu campus.
Some 54 percent of Seaver College students are from California, according to Seaver College’s Admission Fast Facts.
Many California students make trips home to visit family and friends on the weekends.
“All my suitemates live in California so they all went home last weekend, so it was just me,” said Caroline Wilkerson, a first-year undeclared student.
Another student has seen the same trend in California students traveling home and has seen the effects as Pepperdine becomes quiet on holidays.
“It’s definitely a ghost town on three-day weekends because that’s when people have time to fly home or just to drive home if they’re only a couple hours away,” said Roarke Matchett, a first-year political science major.
Minji Kim, a first-year engineering student, lives about an hour and a half away from Pepperdine in Huntington Beach. Kim said she will occasionally go home to visit her family because she doesn’t think she is missing much of campus life during the weekend.
The Board
The Board is a student activities group required to plan an event “every Friday and Saturday during the school year for students” said Doug Hurley, the associate dean of Student Activities.
“The mission of the Board is to serve students and provide them with opportunities to engage in community on campus,” said Kellie Warren, a junior sports administration major and member of the Board.
The Board is a large part of weekend student life and yet several students believe the Board has room to grow.
“I think they’re really fun when they do happen, but there could be more things going on especially on the weekends,” first-year engineering student Allison Nguyen said..
The Board hosts small events like Coffee House and giveaways, but also hosts large. campus-wide events, such as Blue and Orange Madness and Pacific Sounds.
Farley appreciated the goal behind the Board’s events but believed that the activities could be better tailored to the entire student population.
“I feel like Pepperdine offers a good number of activities on the weekend for students but they aren’t necessarily inclusive for all student groups,” Farley said.
Farley said Board events were tailored to students who like art or music, and fell short in reaching members of the community who enjoy other activities.
Other students, even those unhappy with the weekend social climate, said they wouldn’t attend more events if Pepperdine held them, simply because of lack of interest.
Hours of operation
Several students said the hours of operation for Pepperdine staples such as Jamba Juice, the cafeteria and the library, also attributed to a general feeling of loneliness throughout the campus.
The Starbucks on campus recently cut their hours and moved their close time from 9:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m during the week. The weekend follows an even tighter schedule, with Friday close time at 5:00 p.m. and Saturday close time at 2:00 p.m.
Jamba Juice is closed on all weekends and closes at 5:00 p.m. during the week.
The cafeteria closes Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 p.m., one hour earlier than the customary 8:00 p.m. close. These hours cause a problem for students even on weekdays.
“Students are staying up late doing their work and there’s not really anywhere you can go to grab a snack,” Nguyen said.
Oddo, although not a fan of the campus hours of operation, did not believe the hours should change.
“Realistically are enough people taking advantage of it for them to open it that much later?” Oddo said. “No, I don’t think so.”
Religious opportunities
The University Church of Christ offers opportunities for religious activities on the weekend.
“The only standing things on the weekend are Bible classes and our two worship services,” UCC Pastor Al Sturgeon said.
The university church also offers a few Sunday activities outside of normal services throughout the year.
“We typically have four or five all-church events sprinkled throughout the year,” Sturgeon said.
Annabelle Childers completed the reporting for this story under the supervision of Dr. Christina Littlefield and Dr. Theresa de los Santos in Jour 241 in fall 2018. Dr. Littlefield supervised the web story.
