00:00:10.560 - 00:00:31.500

For a wonderful presentation. I think you can see why the trustees and president's board committee has selected a man like Mr Pereira and his associates, but a plan is no better than the men who executed. And it's now my privilege to present to you the man

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who for two years has been guiding the essential preparatory work for this new college. He was a critical influence in the selection of the site from among 40 sites that were offered to the college for a second campus. Don Darnell was chairman of the committee that

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made the selection. He is led in the development of the innovative academic curriculum and he has co coordinate the architectural development with Mrs Pereira. He has selected an excellent task force of young faculty to translate this new concept into a viable reality. He became a vital

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part of Pepperdine College as a faculty member 11 years ago, he doesn't look old enough, but he did. He holds a doctorate from the University of Southern California and he works as an author, a lecturer as well as an educator. And his work in this field

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has led him to wide acclaim across the nation. He recently received the citation of the Liberty Bell award from the American Bar Association. He is however above all an outstanding Christian educator, I present to you Doctor William Espinos, Chancellor of Pepperdine College at Malibu. He is

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the leader. We are building this college around Doctor Banos. Yeah, thank you, Doctor Young. You have just seen pictures of what I promise is the quietest college campus in America. Uh We just have a few head of cows grazing and they do nothing worse than stage

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an occasional sit in as you have seen, we have a beautiful location. Can you imagine it backed into the rugged Santa Monica mountains overlooking the Great Pacific Ocean with a view of the entire Los Angeles harbor all the way to palace Verdes and Catalina and the

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ocean. A completely smog free, moderate climate and yet less than 40 minutes from this spot and to the center of one of the world's great cities and in a day in which the word ecology has become a magic one. We commissioned Bill Pereira among other things

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to respect what God had done in those Malibu hills. And he has not designed a program to scar and cut those hillsides, but to rather build back into the hills, preserving the great rugged beauty and the aesthetic qualities of the site. We think it will provide

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the setting for one of the most beautiful campuses in America. And yet when all of this is said we really haven't raised the basic question because it's not really a matter of location or of architecture. The basic question is what kind of college it will be?

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Suppose you had the opportunity to build from scratch, any kind of college you would choose? What kind of college would it be we're raising here, the question of the soul of the institution. What is to be its distinctive role in the field of higher education? Is

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it simply to provide more space for a few more students in the great national population or is it to stand for something which is distinctive? We wanted to match the unsurpassed location with a fresh and superior academic approach. Frankly, we wanted to avoid reproducing all of

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the mistakes that have been created in higher education. At least we wanted to commit our own new mistakes. And we feel that one of the basic mistakes really has two sides to it in America for 50 years, we have been fragmenting knowledge, dividing the curriculum into

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more than 40 different fields of specialization. And then we have been trying to dispense the facts down these narrow tunnels without any reference to values or without any uh or apart from any value system. And there have been some serious consequences of this value vacuum and

00:04:45.459 - 00:05:04.980

this syndrome of specialization. The root of the problem goes back at least as far as Francis Bacon who popularized inductive reasoning and uh therefore provided for the field of specialists who analyzed and classified knowledge and specialization has been very productive from one point of view. But

00:05:04.989 - 00:05:25.269

now educators are so alarmed that we are having the most severe attack on the methods of education in America and all of our history. What it amounts to the stunning paradox is that we have achieved sufficient technical specialization to put men on the moon and yet

00:05:25.279 - 00:05:44.010

we remain incapable of solving these basic human problems within our own neighborhoods. Is it uh physically safer to get on a machine and fly 600 miles an hour called a Jumbo jet than it is to take a stroll alone tonight along some of the dark streets

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of this city. Are we better at making machines than we are in the business of making men? Why build these cities glorious. Edwin Markham would ask why build these cities glorious. If man uniled goes in vain, we build the work unless the builder also grows. The

00:06:07.970 - 00:06:25.619

truth of the matter is that the challenge of our time is not with outer space, but with inner space, our problems are not basically technological in nature, all of the ugliest problems, the alienation and the hatred, the loneliness, and the heartache, the violence, the lawlessness, the

00:06:25.630 - 00:06:45.100

mistrust are all basically human problems. President Nixon said this so powerfully in his inaugural address. Do you remember this paragraph when he said we are rich in goods yet ragged in spirits, reaching forth to the moon with magnificent precision, yet falling back to the earth in

00:06:45.109 - 00:07:09.500

Raucous Discord. And then Richard Nixon pronounced the justification for a college like ours. When he added this to a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit in an academic sense. Our answer to the fragmentation of the curriculum is an entirely new interdisciplinary

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curriculum which seeks to unify rather than to fragment the approach to learning. I want to give you a very harsh and extreme quotation. Listen to it. The price of specialization is often a myopic and distorted view of the universe. An effective specialist makes all too often

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an inadequate human being. If that quote doesn't come from some obscure extremist, it comes from one of the world's distinguished historians, Arnold Toy Be because Mr Toye has seen that the traditional approach has produced a host of experts about the isolated fragments of mankind's knowledge, but

00:07:48.959 - 00:08:07.559

frequently men whose interests are limited to their own intellectual cave. And this is really the root of the so called intellectual snobbery of what Doctor Hayakawa likes to refer to as the academic guild. Men who are experts in the physical sciences are all too often ignorant

00:08:07.570 - 00:08:25.290

or disdainful of the behavioral sciences. And men in the behavioral or social sciences are equally at sea in the physical or social or moral universities and our young people are being forced to pay the price for all of this. We are pressing our young people more

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and more almost at the point of high school to decide what they're going to be specialists in for the rest of their lives. And then when they enroll in the college, they go down one of these narrow tunnels, learning a great deal about that narrow ribbon

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of information, but having not had the rich advantage of exposure to a great classical education. Of course, some young people who know at age 17 that they ought to be nuclear physicists should go immediately as freshmen into that course. But as a former Dean of Students,

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I can tell you that one of the basic problems knowing that young people today is an absence of direction about what they will be in life for certain. Why should every 17 year old be victimized according to his interest at age 17, why should he not,

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first of all be exposed to a classical broad, liberal arts education and then be privileged to choose his specialty and in a wiser way from that background. And so we are announcing tonight that the Malibu College is washing out this traditional departmental approach. Ah, after all,

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you don't read about it anywhere in the book of Genesis, uh we are going to rather integrate the curriculum around four broad areas of study, the Natural sciences, the social sciences, communications, which will include all of the foreign languages and the humanities. When a young person

00:09:54.479 - 00:10:07.739

enrolls in the college, he studies across the lines of discipline at the feet of men who are prepared to teach in an interdisciplinary style. For the first two years, he has a basic core curriculum in which he is exposed in each of these broad areas. And

00:10:07.750 - 00:10:23.059

then at his junior and senior years, he begins to emphasize one of the areas and we're proud of our faculty for voting to make this kind of change, you know, faculties, despite their public reputations are among the most conservative people that is they're very resistant to

00:10:23.070 - 00:10:43.940

change. They're very liberal about everybody else's business and very conservative about their own. And someone has said that uh trying to change a college curriculum is a task to be compared in magnitude to moving a cemetery. Doctor Glenn Dumpy in counseling with us envied our opportunity

00:10:45.229 - 00:11:03.020

to be flexible. One of the great advantages of an independent college is that we have mobility and flexibility and Doctor Dumpy wished he could get through his faculty senate. This kind of an interdisciplinary approach, complementing our interdisciplinary curriculum will be an individually planned or personalized method

00:11:03.030 - 00:11:20.260

of instruction. By that. I mean, each student will be received as a distinct individual. He will be allowed to learn at his own pace. He will be given maximum personal attention from the faculty. We have facilities and equipment to match this program at the heart of

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our curriculum. Mr Pereira showed you the great learning resources center which is displacing and greatly expanding the traditional library educators from coast to coast are lamenting the traditional library approach in which students are supposed to come and sit in the building and check out a book

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and read. One of the problems is we don't have adequate space to store the books. Harvard University has announced that if it continues to acquire books at its present rate of acquisition by the year 2000, it will need a building as tall as the Empire State

00:11:51.090 - 00:12:07.909

building to store them. And so we have the latest in microfilm and other forms of storage and retrieval techniques with computer assisted uh learning techniques. In our learning center, the center will be a virtual learning laboratory where every student will have his own. Carol and the

00:12:07.919 - 00:12:21.159

Carols will be equipped among other things with closed circuit television. The closed circuit television will also be in the student's room which is going to be a part of the learning situation. His dormitory room and these professors who have been getting by for years with reading

00:12:21.169 - 00:12:32.729

their dog eared notes to a class of 25 or 30 are out of business at Malibu because he will be required to commit those lectures to the television where the students will audit them at their own pace. And the professor will be freed to be with

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the students as a person to interpret the meaning of the facts in the lectures. Part of our problem. In addition to this fragmentation, the other half of it has been that we've brought, been trying to educate in America and what I like to call a value

00:12:45.539 - 00:13:06.380

vacuum that is we have believed that the teacher was to believe nothing in particular because his job was to simply stick to the facts. Take no position regarding values. And as a result of this scientific neutrality in the classroom, we have produced now for decades, atheism

00:13:06.390 - 00:13:28.119

mechanism, nihilism as ways of thought, materialists, sensualists, cynics as their Children. And it's no wonder the students are restless. They are hungering. These college students are hungering for some sense of meaning and they are asking what relationship, the facts and the figures and the dates and

00:13:28.130 - 00:13:45.609

the numbers have to the ultimate issues of life and death. One lesson to be learned from the recent campus turmoil is that education cannot be dispensed like aspirin or cough syrup. Nor may students be vaccinated with facts. Students are wary of a system which teaches the

00:13:45.619 - 00:14:06.729

price of everything and the value of nothing. And young people today are not merely wild and ungrateful. Those who look upon the student generation as being hell bent on destroying Western civilization are simply wrong. This is the most idealistic generation in our past. They are deeply

00:14:06.849 - 00:14:24.890

honest and they are searching for some commitments that are worth the investments of their lives. The pathetic fact is that in their deep moral strivings, these young people have been given such pathetic leadership as a matter of fact, one of the reasons we are taking on

00:14:24.900 - 00:14:47.840

the challenge of building an entirely new college is because of our faith and young people. Pepperdine College's deepest con convictions have always been rooted in spiritual realities. We will of course continue to be creative and innovative to keep pace with the changing times. But the new

00:14:47.849 - 00:15:07.979

knowledge is coming so rapidly that it is rendering today's knowledge obsolete tomorrow. And we might be doing our students a disservice to rivet young minds and on some narrow ribbon of information today, thereby rendering them obsolete or incapable in the world which we will face tomorrow.

00:15:07.989 - 00:15:28.770

Our task ought rather to be to teach them the capacity to learn, to instill in them a sense of personal discipline and responsibility so that they may be prepared for the growth and the flexibility and the adaptation of the generations which are to come. And is

00:15:28.780 - 00:15:50.570

it possible, is it possible in a world which is changing every day that the object might be to find out what is not changing? At least this is the kind of college that we envision on the rim of the Malibu overlooking the ocean. We invite your

00:15:50.580 - 00:16:11.059

partnership in the adventure of making the dream come true. And in the words of John Ruskin, when we build, let us think that we build forever and let it be such work as our Children will thank us for and let us think as we lay stone

00:16:11.070 - 00:16:33.539

on stone a time is to come when these stones are held sacred because our hands have touched them and that they will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them. See this our Children did for us. I am personally deeply grateful for

00:16:33.549 - 00:17:07.239

the challenge of building with your partnership, this kind of school. Thank you. He didn't mention it 24 million if they give it a Yeah. Thank you, Chancellor Bowski. I think the audience agrees that we didn't make a mistake in choosing you as the man to take

00:17:07.250 - 00:17:32.650

on this task. I think Doctor Banos is the best suited educator that I know in the whole country to do an outstanding job in this college in Malibu. And I'm very thankful for his accepting the challenge as I view these plans. And here, Mr Pereira and

00:17:32.670 - 00:17:50.359

Doctor Banos, I'm deeply moved because I see beyond the bricks and mortar, the thousands of young men and women who come with eagerness to learn the answers to a better life and beyond them, I see their parents who with loving care, send them to college, praying

00:17:50.369 - 00:18:10.630

that they will go through the development stage of adolescence or early twenties by becoming responsible young citizens in this Great Republic. And I see beyond these young people who will be the first generation enrolled in this college, those who are yet unborn, but who are coming

00:18:10.640 - 00:18:30.349

on as our population doubles in this state and in these states and who will be given an opportunity to learn about God and about their fellow man and about this universe with the scientific method and learn how to live and how to make a living and

00:18:30.359 - 00:18:49.000

to how to make their life count in the service of their fellow man to the glory of God. This is what this campus means to us as it comes into being. Somebody says, but it seems too big. How in the world can you do it? You're

00:18:49.010 - 00:19:10.699

a young college you read in the program perhaps what Daniel Webster said about Dartmouth pleading the case when they were about to undercut her, undercut her legal standing. And he moved the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court justice Marshall who was very stern when

00:19:10.709 - 00:19:35.099

he closed his speech by saying of Dartmouth sir. It's a small college, but there are those who love her. Pepperdine's a small college. But I think you see tonight, there are those who love her and many who cannot be here tonight. The figure of which we

00:19:35.109 - 00:19:57.640

are seeking for this Malibu campus is large. We heeded the advice it was given years ago, make no little plans. They have no power to stir the hearts of men. And so we're making big plans because we believe there are men and women whose hearts will

00:19:57.650 - 00:20:25.199

be stirred. Our architect estimates that this first increment to take care of approximately 1500 students with all of the site preparation and development buildings and so on will cost approximately $24,600,000. You can see, we don't make little plans even though we're a small college. We made

00:20:25.209 - 00:20:46.709

grand plans. And I'm thrilled tonight to tell you that we found grand people to undergird these plans with their gifts and their pledges. And tonight, it is my privilege to announce to you for the first time. the exciting news that we have friends who have underwritten

00:20:47.140 - 00:21:20.520

in cash stocks, trust and pledges 14 million $800,000 of that 24 million goal. You know, that may not sound too big in the national budget, but in independent higher education, that's a lot of dough and we are grateful because it's the people who are here and

00:21:20.530 - 00:21:34.099

others who couldn't be here, who are making it possible. But I would like to introduce a few people we've held back and then we will present the governor and close this meeting out. First of all, I would like to introduce the family that has donated this

00:21:34.109 - 00:21:57.630

unparalleled site which the governing boards chose over 40 sites that were offered for a second campus. They are one of the pioneer families known throughout California and beyond. Their grandfather and others in the famous Rynch family were educators and I'm sure that they will look with

00:21:57.709 - 00:22:17.579

smiling benediction upon their generous multimillion dollar gift of 100 and 38 acres matched by about 55 acres that we are getting it below the market cost, giving us a 200 acres and a little more on this marvelous site. I'd like to have Mr and Mrs Merritt

00:22:17.780 - 00:22:49.000

Adamson, Sylvia Adamson, Neville and Rhoda May Dallas to stand at this time. Would you please stand? Yeah, no one. I hope you will express to them your appreciation for this marvelous gift. Next, I would like to present a family who has come all the way from

00:22:49.010 - 00:23:04.939

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We had the governor out here just the other day to be here for this happy occasion. They are interested in. Pepperdine goes back more than a decade and it is particularly significant in that it demonstrates that they are more interested in the character of

00:23:04.949 - 00:23:23.819

an institution than in its geography. Probably no family in America has done more to express the voluntary philanthropic spirit, which is so distinctive of our country than the Mellon family. So it is with special gratitude that we present Mr and Mrs Richard Mellon Scaife of Pittsburgh.

00:23:23.829 - 00:23:48.239

Would you please stand spray? And while we're thinking of the great state of Pennsylvania, I'd like to present a member of the renowned Tw Phillips family, which has been so outstanding in its support of Christian education for more than a century. Probably no family in the

00:23:48.250 - 00:24:08.510

restoration movement. One of the largest, if not largest indigenous religious movements in America has given more generously to Christian education than the family of the TW Phillips Chancellor Bowski and I met with Mister BD Phillips and his family in their home on Sunday evening just a

00:24:08.520 - 00:24:24.910

few days before he passed away. And we are pleased tonight that he can be represented here with Mrs BD Phillips, a worthy woman who carries on in the noble tradition of her husband and is one of the great benefactors of Pepperdine College in Malibu, Mrs Phillips.

00:24:34.979 - 00:24:50.319

Next, we have a man and his wife who've had an interest in this type of education for many years. They've gone to a school similar to ours. They have great vision and commitment to Christian values. He is a member of our President's board and it's a

00:24:50.329 - 00:25:17.969

pleasure to present to you, Mr and Mrs Palmer Connor of Alhambra Palmer Adine. Would you stand? Yeah. Next, we would like to present a famous representative of a famous family from Texas and whenever you can get anybody to come all the way from Dallas Texas for

00:25:17.979 - 00:25:35.520

a dinner, you know, it's something Doctor Clint Murkison of the well known Texas. Murkison family has been on our president's board and serve as chairman of one of the special committees in connection with this program. He's well known to all the football fans for the Cowboys

00:25:35.530 - 00:25:56.410

and I must admit when they play the Rams, I have mixed emotions, but uh we are delighted to have Clint Murkison here. Would you stand? Clint? We also have some present board members interested in the Rams in case that may have escaped you. And I don't

00:25:56.420 - 00:26:14.949

know which way it would benefit Pepperdine most. But anyway, I won't get into that. Next. We have the pleasure of presenting a noble woman who with her husband has given more to higher education in Southern California than any other couple. She has supported, particularly Pomona and

00:26:14.959 - 00:26:34.670

the University of Southern California. And now Pepperdine, she is standing wholeheartedly with us in bringing about this birth of a new college at Malibu, a truly great American, a dedicated philanthropist, Mrs Frank R Seaver and her nephew, president of the hydro company founded by Frank R.

00:26:34.680 - 00:27:05.599

Sever, who wrote the charter for Los Angeles County. Mr Richard Sever, would you stand, Mrs Seaver and Richard again, both members of our president's board and wonderfully enthusiastic supporters. We are so glad they can be here and especially Mrs Seaver has been ill. We're so glad

00:27:05.609 - 00:27:23.449

that she was allowed to come. You know, somebody commented on the rain and I said it occurred to me that Doctor Arthur Coons had the suggestion when he told me at my inauguration about 15 years ago that fundraising was not like mining salt or gold and

00:27:23.459 - 00:27:37.689

you put in 15 hours and brought in so much, but it was more like planting a crop or maybe like planting a forest or a nursery and we've already planted with the Adamson's a nursery out on our new campus to put things right? When we get

00:27:37.699 - 00:27:53.640

the buildings up and they're growing every day and we need this rain. And Doctor Kon said, you know, after you've done all you can do you plant and others help the Lord has to give the early and the latter rains. And I said, I think this

00:27:53.650 - 00:28:14.900

is the latter rain tonight. Next, another famous family in contemporary America, the Charles Payson family, we regret that Mrs Payson could not come. She is in the east and unable to be with us. Maybe she's making plans for the Mets for next year. But Charles is

00:28:14.910 - 00:28:29.319

a member of our board and his present has flown out here from Miami. You can imagine how that must make him feel when he comes in with the rain. And his son, Johnny is a graduate of Pepperdine College and his wife, Nancy are here and it's

00:28:29.329 - 00:28:55.079

a great pleasure to express our gratitude to this wonderful family uh who is underwriting the library in the middle of the campus in memory of their older son who gave his life in World War Two. Mr Charles Payson, Johnny and Nancy, would you stand please? I

00:28:55.089 - 00:29:10.050

could go on and mention a number of others. Some who have helped significantly at this time did not want us to mention them, but we hope we'll be able to pay proper respect as time goes on. These people and others like them have given with the

00:29:10.060 - 00:29:25.520

assurance that you would join with them in matching their generosity to complete this goal of 24 million, 600,000 within 12 months. And Jeb, I want you to go back and tell President Nixon to put us on his schedule. We wanna have Governor Reagan here. We wanna

00:29:25.530 - 00:29:42.699

have other important people in the state and the nation and we want the president to be here when we reach this goal and have a victory celebration. We may have to have five or six hotels that night, but we believe we can arrange it and we

00:29:42.709 - 00:30:02.150

believe we'll be able to reach that goal in 12 months of 24 million, 600,000. Now somebody said to me, he's a very influential person. He said, well, now haven't you set your goal too low? And I answer by saying, no, this is just the first increment

00:30:04.079 - 00:30:20.839

we have. When we reach this, we must develop further our Los Angeles campus. We need more endowment. We need to develop our law school in Orange County and our campus at Malibu. So don't feel that we have reached the end of the need. A college is

00:30:20.849 - 00:30:37.930

like a growing child. As long as it grows, it needs friends and parents to provide the shoes and the uh clothes and so on. So we want, we have other things. In fact, we even have a figure in mind that we'll just mentioned of the second

00:30:37.939 - 00:31:15.520

increment of 13,250,000 somebody said, how did you arrive at that by careful planning? Yeah. Ok. Now I'd like to turn the meeting back to Doctor Banos because we're going to have a very important academic presentation. And then the Governor's speech, Chancellor Banos, come with me. We

00:31:15.530 - 00:31:33.680

have a special surprise tonight and Governor Reagan and Mr Scaife and Doctor Young are preparing to call college into session, putting on the robes of scholarship for this special surprise and as they do that and they'll be back in just a second or two, we have

00:31:33.689 - 00:31:52.069

a big announcement to make that on the, on the 23rd of May, we will dedicate our campus site. The preparation for the buildings will begin next month. The ground preparation, the grading on the 23rd of May, we will have a colorful tent in full academic uh

00:31:52.689 - 00:32:08.290

convocation and the distinguished editor of the US news and World report. Mr David Lawrence will be here to make one of his very rare public addresses and we simply mentioned the date of the 23rd of May because you want to mark it. It's a Saturday. It'll

00:32:08.300 - 00:32:27.270

give you a chance to come to the campus at Malibu to greet Mr David Lawrence and to be with us as we hallow this ground to the glory of God and to the service of mankind. Now, if I time that properly, they should just about be

00:32:27.280 - 00:33:37.270

ready to come out. Oh, why very, very well done Yeah, that was very impressive to see it. I could see it enough to uh, to make it out. Well, I was surprised. Yes, I flip this. Ok,

00:33:37.280 - 00:33:59.770

Richard. Now, here's the interview. I'd like to call this assembly into academic session. We have a very special honor. We'd like to bestow upon the governor of our state and he will be presented for this recognition by Mr Richard Scaife. Previously introduced a member of our

00:33:59.780 - 00:34:23.319

board who has come out from Pittsburgh for this event, Mr Scaife. Thank you, Doctor Young President Young. I wish to present to you the outstanding, one of the outstanding leaders of our time, a man whose career has encompassed such diversified achievements as being a broadcaster, an

00:34:23.329 - 00:34:39.840

editor, a labor leader, a motion picture and television star, a rancher, a businessman and now governor of the largest state in the union, a state. I am told that would qualify as the sixth largest nation in the world in terms of productivity. He is a man

00:34:39.850 - 00:34:59.899

who has been frequently honored for his extraordinary contributions to his nation in war as well as in peace. Probably no one in contemporary America has reached more people with his lectures, speeches, and writings on the importance of preserving individual freedom and human values in the midst

00:34:59.909 - 00:35:20.080

of an increasingly complex technological age. He is a man who has stressed ethical and moral values in a time when these have been under massive attack. He is a graduate of a small independent college in Illinois where he worked his way through school, washing dishes, waiting

00:35:20.090 - 00:35:40.159

tables and teaching swimming, swimming. He showed his talent for leadership by being elected president of the student body at this college which re recently honored him with a doctorate of humane letters. His faith in God and his commitment to Christian values are well known. His own

00:35:40.169 - 00:35:56.659

success by virtue of the use of his own talents is a tribute to our way of life where a man can move forward into a role of great responsibility. If he is willing to pay the price. As governor of this Great State, he has approved spending

00:35:56.669 - 00:36:15.419

44% more money for education that has been spent in this state in a comparable period. He is a particularly outstanding advocate of the independent college and its role in American life for these reasons, President Young and on behalf of the governing boards and the Academic Council

00:36:15.429 - 00:36:44.389

of Pepperdine College, it is my privilege as a member of the board to present to you the honorable Ronald Reagan as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Laws. Wait just a minute, Richard. Now we'll get to step off the whole button up, darling. Yeah,

00:36:45.830 - 00:37:05.810

Mr Scaf Governor Reagan. It is a great pleasure on behalf of the governing boards of Pepperdine College and the Academic Council who approved this degree to grant you the degree of Doctor of Laws, whereas you have exhibited exemplary leadership, both as a leader in Union and

00:37:05.820 - 00:37:25.500

management affairs. Whereas you served with distinction as the chief executive of the largest state in the union where you as, whereas you've been an outstanding advocate of the balance between public and independently supported higher education, whereas you have demonstrated your concern for the moral and ethical

00:37:25.510 - 00:37:39.879

values which are at the heart of our free way of life. It is my privilege as President of Pepperdine College on behalf of the governing boards and with the approval of the academic Council to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws with all of

00:37:39.889 - 00:38:03.270

the rights, privileges and responsibilities. Thereto, appertaining. Congratulations, Governor. Thank you very much. Let's get this out of stand down a little bit as you. That's good. I put up on the back. It's great. Now you can take your hat off if you want to stick it

00:38:03.280 - 00:38:35.129

out. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah, Mister President Dick S Cave. Ladies and gentlemen, I am deeply honored by the action that has been taken here tonight. I'm quite sure with what I know about Pepperdine College that it was not due to the

00:38:35.139 - 00:38:57.860

fact that I once led a student strike in college. The first degree I ever received was as the result of four years of undergraduate effort in the line of economics. And I have nursed a suspicion for all this time that it too was honorary as a

00:38:57.870 - 00:39:19.929

matter of fact, I never thought of having reached a point of completion in the courses as it is described in the catalog. But more that I had just used up my athletic eligibility in the last three years. I've discovered a heretofore unsuspected and kind of latent

00:39:19.939 - 00:39:48.340

vindictiveness in my nature. I'm already thinking of those in Sacramento. I will insist addressed me henceforth as Dr Reagan. I was hoping Doctor Young that you wouldn't have laid so much stress on the fact that it was Doctor of Laws because my vindictiveness even goes so

00:39:48.350 - 00:40:12.760

far as that I had considered maybe stretching the term doctor far enough that it might qualify me for a couple of transplant operations. Yeah. No, I am, I am not as has been said by some anti intellectual, although I think I share with you the same

00:40:12.770 - 00:40:27.469

disdain for the pseudo intellectual, the one who tries to stretch a little learning and make it go a long ways. And I've always been fond of a story involving Mark Twain who on an ocean voyage found himself trapped at his table in the dining salon with

00:40:27.489 - 00:40:42.969

a, with someone who was trying to impress him in just this regard. And finally, at one point, when Twain asked him to pass the sugar for his coffee, the man couldn't resist another attempt. And he said, isn't it interesting, Mr Twain that the only two words

00:40:42.979 - 00:41:08.070

in the English language with the su spelling having a Sh Sound are Sugar and Shumack and Twain said, are you sure? Yeah. Yeah. But they so much has been said here tonight about this wonderful institution in these schools, the independent schools are absolutely essential to the

00:41:08.080 - 00:41:27.540

total education system of this nation. It is absolutely essential that we have these independent colleges. They serve as an educational whetstone and they help to hone the educational process, they forced the public system to compete in the drive for excellence. Indeed, by that very competition, they

00:41:27.550 - 00:41:48.909

help preserve the public institution from political interference. I guarantee, I guarantee a measure of academic freedom that the public universities and colleges couldn't attain without schools such as this one. The independent colleges and universities educate about 25% of all the graduate and four year undergraduate students

00:41:48.919 - 00:42:05.229

in California. And for this reason, that's why I believe and why I have worked and tried to persuade our own representatives in Washington that the federal government should grant tax credits, not deductions, but tax credits for at least a portion of the tuition fees that are

00:42:05.239 - 00:42:26.590

paid by parents as they send their sons and daughters to college. Yeah. And I don't believe with all of us working toward this, that this is an impossible idea. I think we should seriously explore the possibility of extending federal aid not through a bureaucracy at the

00:42:26.600 - 00:42:46.439

risk of violating our traditional separation of church and state. But again, in a spirit of competition, granting tax credits for contributions to schools and colleges within a prescribed limit. Of course, as to the overall amount, the private sector, the business communi community can make no greater

00:42:46.449 - 00:43:04.909

investment in freedom and their contributions to the independent colleges and the schools of this country. Now, if they did the real winner, of course, as they do, this would be our way of life. I once drew a parallel between the rise and fall of Rome and

00:43:04.919 - 00:43:25.010

the course of our own republic. The similarity is frighteningly eerie. It is so accurate and even as to detail, the institution of a welfare system that created a whole segment of society depended on their fellow citizens, silver coins that were replaced by copper taxes growing every

00:43:25.020 - 00:43:44.159

heavy ever heavier on the middle class of Rome and scholars of that day affecting ragged clothing and heaping scorn upon what they call the middle class values of the Roman citizens. Crime was rampant and rioting was commonplace. It's been pointed out that the days of a

00:43:44.169 - 00:44:01.709

democracy are numbered when the belly takes command to the head. When the less affluent feel an urge to break a commandment and begin to covet that which their more affluent neighbors possess, then they're tempted to use their votes to obtain instant satisfaction and equal opportunity at

00:44:01.719 - 00:44:19.090

the starting line becomes an extended guarantee of a tie at the end of the race under the euphemism. The greatest good for the greatest number we move toward a managed economy and we destroy the system that has given us just exactly that for 200 years, the

00:44:19.100 - 00:44:35.260

greatest, good for the greatest number and we mortgage the earnings of generations yet unborn. We've known riots in our streets. We no longer walk in the countryside of the city streets without fear. And the jungle seems to be closing in on this little plot. We've been

00:44:35.270 - 00:44:52.219

trying to civilize for 5000 years and all of us I know are disturbed at the virus that's infected the campus during the recent years. Just listen to some words that I know will sound very familiar to you. The revolt of the coming generation is against all

00:44:52.229 - 00:45:12.270

that is senile and rotten in the decay of our democratic society. Sons are pitted against fathers because the generations cannot understand each other. They are deadly enemies and no 1/30 is trustworthy. The student rebels are a new generation disgusted with the complacency of their parents fighting

00:45:12.280 - 00:45:29.310

courageously for a better world, young idealists concerned with the real issues of society. Well, we've heard that so much these last few years. This is the creed of the campus revolutionary. But I think I should tell you that some of us perhaps have an earlier memory

00:45:29.320 - 00:45:45.989

because the words I've just read are not the words of today's young radicals. These were the words of Adolf Hitler to the youth of Germany in the early thirties, national socialism, Nazism. He said would come to power as a party of the youth. And so it

00:45:46.000 - 00:46:06.610

was with fascism in Italy, the hymn of fascism was called Giove Youth. The first cave in came in the great German universities government controlled and supported whose professors were forced by their students to teach aryan supremacy. Actually, the youth of that period feeding on emotion were

00:46:06.620 - 00:46:23.510

fascinated with violence and the history of the time now says their favorite device was disruption of the meeting and creation of disorder to demonstrate that the system was unable to function. Well, one day in a meeting on one of our own campuses of the trustees, I

00:46:23.520 - 00:46:40.040

listened to a tape recording that had been taken of a group of citizens who were meeting, planning their own disruption of the campus. And on the tape, we heard the explicit directions given on how to start fires in the college buildings and subsequently 50 were started

00:46:40.050 - 00:46:52.729

in the buildings of that campus. And then we heard them as we continued to listen, outline where the pickets would go, how they would parade and what they would do and how they would take over the college. And then as we listened, we heard a voice

00:46:52.739 - 00:47:12.000

in the same matter of fact, tone say if in the process of doing this, it becomes necessary to kill, you will kill in the unreality, the overwhelming sense of unreality as we were listening, but that it was happening at all. But even more frightening is how

00:47:12.010 - 00:47:35.600

close we are and we've come to accepting it as a kind of normal way of life. Doctor Spock's babies have grown up, which is probably more than we can say for the doctor. Yeah, I, and when, and how did all this begin? Well, it began with

00:47:35.610 - 00:47:53.399

those who in the name of change and progress decided that we could scrap all the time tested wisdom that man has accumulated in his climb from the swamp to the stars, simply call its constricting tradition and morality. The dead hand of the past wipe out the

00:47:53.409 - 00:48:11.939

discipline is no longer binding upon us. Just as the chancellor told us here, Saint Thomas Aquinas warned teachers that they must never dig a ditch in front of a student that they fail to fill in to cleverly raise doubts and to never find an answer to

00:48:11.949 - 00:48:30.429

discuss freely all sides of the question without values. And thus to ensure the creation is thus to CRE ensure the creation of a generation of uninformed and talkative minds. Our obligation is to help our young people find truth and purpose, to find identity and a goal.

00:48:31.189 - 00:48:47.040

Forgetting for a moment. These nihilists and radicals, there is another kind of unrest on our campuses involving the great majority. They have complaints and many of their complaints are legitimate. They want to invest their energy and their idealism in causes. They can believe in the chancellor

00:48:47.050 - 00:49:03.260

was right about that. They refuse to become numbers in a computer. They want more than a four year ride on an assembly line in some kind of diploma mill, they want a reordering of the priorities and there's a certain validity to many of the points they

00:49:03.270 - 00:49:22.330

raise as they criticize what they call the establishment. But in their exuberance and their impatience to build a better world, they have at times allowed themselves to be misled into excessively and premature actions by others who have taken advantage of their concern. I think now there

00:49:22.340 - 00:49:38.939

are some hopeful signs that they're wiser to the ways of the zealots and that they even some of those teachers among them who led them down those paths, who use them for nonconstructive alien purposes. Many of our young people today and they are idealists as you've

00:49:38.949 - 00:49:55.070

been told, talk about a greater participation in our American democracy. When asked about their plans for the future, they say they want to serve, they want to become as they put it meaningfully involved. Well, if young people are looking for action, constructive action, which can give

00:49:55.080 - 00:50:10.909

spirit and uplift to the decade of the seventies and make it a benchmark in man's search for a better world, they can find it by working within this system, improving it, making it more responsive to the citizens and to the needs of the future. And part

00:50:10.919 - 00:50:31.790

of this preparation and participation must begin on the campus and in the mind, meaningful participation by its very nature must have a modicum of wisdom as well as idealism and enthusiasm. It's possible that even among the most radical, some of their protests and their noise have

00:50:31.800 - 00:50:46.830

in reality been a cry for help. I've told some of you, I'm sure about an experience I had as a participant in a lecture series at a large university in the Midwest. We took place in a field house and there were several 1000 civilians or I

00:50:46.840 - 00:51:03.719

should say off campus people, adults mainly in the on the main floor. And then in the seats around this huge fieldhouse were some 10,000 students. And in a question answer period that followed one of the questions from an adult to me, expressed a concern about young

00:51:03.729 - 00:51:21.139

people not accepting the moral standards of the principles that we've tried to teach them. And my answer suggested that perhaps they weren't rebelling against the principles and the standards so much as because they don't believe that we're living up to those principles and standards. And there

00:51:21.149 - 00:51:39.580

was a split second of silence and then 10,000 kids came to their feet with a roar that I shall never forget. Have they lost faith in us or in our rules? Do they doubt our willingness to practice what we preach? Where were we, for example, when

00:51:39.590 - 00:51:55.850

God was expelled from the classroom? And if we believed, why didn't we fight back? As the country? Parson once said, the fellow who left the gate open is only slightly more guilty than the one who saw it open and didn't close it. I suppose what I'm

00:51:55.860 - 00:52:13.050

really calling for is the old fashioned custom of bearing witness. It's so much more powerful than just mere talking or sermonizing or teaching a lesson. I had an experience recently of bearing witness. I'd like to share with you. I have an 11 year old son, Nancy

00:52:13.060 - 00:52:29.399

and I have reared probably the world's greatest Ram football fan that ever lived. He was three years ago, was given a size 54 Ram t-shirt by Roman Gabriel and he will not watch a football game on TV without wearing it. It's more fun than watching the

00:52:29.409 - 00:52:45.699

set. Well, the only game we could get to in person was at the end of the 11 game winning streak when the Rams lost to the Vikings here in the Coliseum. We had a heartbroken son, but I, what was worse around us was the kind of

00:52:45.989 - 00:52:59.760

somewhat cynical talk that goes on in a round of football game. There were fans that were saying, well, they don't need it. They've won the title, so they're really not trying. And then there were even some who were saying, I understand that the, that the pros

00:52:59.770 - 00:53:11.639

kind of shade points of now and then for the gamblers. Well, I was suffering a little under this and there wasn't much I could do about it. I couldn't put cotton in his ears. But the secret I was nursing was that if the game ended in

00:53:11.649 - 00:53:25.840

time for us to catch our plane to Sacramento, I had an invitation to take him down to the locker room. Well, there was time. So I sprung the invitation and this eased the disappointment somewhat and we left Nancy outside the door of the dressing room and

00:53:25.850 - 00:53:40.709

we went in and if there was any doubt as to whether they were trying or not in that game in, they came and they literally were bleeding. These big hawks came in and they were angry and deacon Jones came through saying everybody up and they all

00:53:40.719 - 00:53:52.969

gathered in a little kind of meeting room looked like a school room. And then for about seven minutes, you found out how mad they were at themselves over the way they played and the fact they lost the game. Well, this was pretty impressive. And then after

00:53:52.979 - 00:54:09.699

about seven minutes of it, in a matter of fact, tone of voice that made you realize what was taking place was a regular weekly occurrence. George Allen, the coach said, all right, that's enough. Let's give thanks. And 35 of the sweating bleeding giants in the presence

00:54:09.709 - 00:54:27.889

of this hero worshiper of ours dropped to their knees and repeated the Lord's prayer. I don't think I can ever say anything to my son. That will be as great as that example of bearing witness. It's time we bear witness. Not as individuals alone but our

00:54:27.899 - 00:54:48.149

institutions like this college and I'm sure it will with what we've heard here tonight, its plans and its policies. The United States Department of Education survey of 68 campuses and 7500 faculty members asked a question, what is the primary obligation of the university? And the answer

00:54:48.159 - 00:55:09.929

from the overwhelming majority of the faculty was to protect the academic freedom of the faculty. What about teaching? Where is the obligation to the students in our quest for academic excellence? If we lost sight of the primary purpose, it's time perhaps to reorder the priorities, the

00:55:09.939 - 00:55:26.250

doctrine of Publisher Parish must give way to prestige that is based on the ability to teach. Reward must be related to the quality of the young men and women that we send out into the world from our campuses as the end product of our educational effort.

00:55:27.239 - 00:55:45.800

Now, no one at all and certainly no one in my present position would deny the great value of our great public universities and colleges. They are of course essential in the backbone of our educational system. But let no one carelessly dismiss our obligation to the independent

00:55:45.810 - 00:56:05.719

colleges and universities which are so much a part of the educational tapestry of America without them. I promise you that tapestry would soon become a very simple fabric of great monotony and very little color. It would be dull. Indeed. You have done me a very great

00:56:05.729 - 00:56:24.129

honor. Here tonight and one of which I am more proud than I can say. I doubt that you've added any particular luster to your own scholastic prestige as an educational institution by this deed. As a matter of fact, you may find yourself in the days to

00:56:24.139 - 00:56:40.570

come. Looking forward to a time when at least the mantle of old age will have settled a patina on me that will make me more acceptable among your peers on other campuses. Well, all I can say in addition to thanks is by way of some ray

00:56:40.580 - 00:57:23.830

of hope for you in that situation. Take heart because we age faster in Sacramento. Thank you. Let's pass this uh degree down bill. So we won't get it here this time. Uh That says the degree. Thank you, Doctor Reagan. And that I might add that we

00:57:23.840 - 00:57:45.500

heard there might be some pickets but the rain discouraged them. Yeah, I would like to say that I think your speech and what we've said about you indicates to this audience, why are we at Pepperdine feel that it's quite appropriate that your alma mater should give

00:57:45.510 - 00:58:09.979

you the first honorary degree. But we're proud to be the first college in California to honor you with faculty and governing boards with a doctor's degree. We'll see that your speech is given proper distribution and we will also close this meeting on the spirit of optimism

00:58:09.989 - 00:58:28.419

that you have given to us. You know, you can count the acorns upon a tree. But it takes someone with vision to see the trees in one acorn. We've planted an acorn at Malibu tonight. It's easy to look at a glass half full of water and

00:58:28.429 - 00:58:51.709

concentrate on the fact that it's half empty. We like to concentrate on the fact that it's half full. We prefer to make our lives count by concentrating on the positive. We like that sentiment. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. And

00:58:51.719 - 00:59:14.219

we are thrilled tonight that so many of you who are here are helping us pay for the tallow and the strings Don Miller, chairman of our board, who has served since the days. The schools were started who was selected by Mr Pepperdine, the founder. We'll give

00:59:14.229 - 00:59:44.530

our benediction and we hope you will remain as long as you can and visit with others who are here. This is indeed an auspicious and historic occasion. Thank you for coming and God bless you. Yeah. Are you saying please, eternal God and our father? We give

00:59:44.540 - 01:00:07.830

you thanks for the thrilling events of this evening, for the inspiration of the visualization and the word pictures that have been portrayed of the great challenge that lies before us as an educational institution. We give you thanks for the inspiration that comes to us because of

01:00:07.840 - 01:00:32.340

the great assistance that this company of people have given an impetus to bringing this to fruition. Bless the efforts that are being put forth by Dr Young Chancellor Banos, the great group of educators and the governing boards that are striving to make this a reality. May

01:00:32.350 - 01:01:02.020

we go forth from this session with greater inspiration and dedication to thee and to our fellow men in the master's name. We pray. Amen. How nice to see you. You did a good job, so hard.