A Message from President Jim Gash Regarding University Operations

Posted on January 9, 2025, 11:18 AM Updated on January 9, 2025, 11:12 AM

To the Pepperdine Community:

As we prepare to return to university life for the spring semester, we do so under circumstances none of us would have hoped or expected. We are mindful and deeply impacted by the devastation wreaked by the recent fires in the Los Angeles area as we prepare to support our community in the days ahead. We have prayed, and continue to pray, for God’s protection and provision for the University community and communities throughout Los Angeles County.

The decisions we have made and announced throughout this last week were, and continue to be, made in careful consideration of the circumstances, in alignment with our core values, and with the best interest of our community in mind. These decisions have been made by Pepperdine’s Emergency Operations Committee (EOC), composed of senior University leaders who coordinate resources to ensure the safety of students, faculty, and staff during critical incidents and manage emergencies affecting Pepperdine. The EOC was activated on Tuesday as a fire started in Pacific Palisades and has met multiple times every day since, staying up throughout the night to monitor the fire, to ensure the safety of our community and to coordinate the University’s response. Through ongoing consultation with first responders, government organizations, and local officials, the EOC considers all the available facts to inform University-wide decisions based on the evolving situation.

To date, the Palisades Fire has destroyed more than 1,100 structures in the neighboring coastal communities near our Malibu campus, necessitating extensive and ongoing fire suppression and response action by firefighters, utility companies, and other first responders. Road closures also remain in place. As gas lines ruptured in the burn areas, the gas company had to shut off the natural gas service to temper these exacerbating circumstances, including termination of service to many parts of Malibu and Pepperdine’s Malibu campus. Malibu’s gas service will be off until conditions improve enough to allow safe re-activation of the gas lines. These conditions will improve but will take some time, perhaps a week or more.

After careful consideration of all of these factors, and with consensus from the EOC and academic leadership, undergraduate and the vast majority of graduate classes on the Malibu campus will take place online through Sunday, January 19. The deans will communicate more specific guidance related to academic programming. The University will modify campus operations accordingly. Students with classes scheduled for Calabasas, West Los Angeles, or Irvine campuses and employees supporting these campuses will receive further guidance from their deans and/or supervisors. 

Students may choose to attend these online classes from their home or another selected location, or come to the Malibu campus to log into these online classes.

Students who have registered to live on campus this spring semester are still welcome to check into their residence halls in accordance with the previous timeline. Those residential students who choose to come to the Malibu campus while classes remain in an online format can expect the following:

• The Malibu campus is currently accessible only through the John Tyler Drive gate, which can be reached by coming down Pacific Coast Highway (from north of campus). Kanan Dume Road remains open, but Malibu Canyon Road and PCH south of campus are closed and expected to remain so for some time. Road closures do not currently have exceptions for residents. Many businesses in Malibu and the surrounding communities are closed—and moving farther south, many are also damaged or destroyed.

• The Malibu campus currently has electrical power, including WiFi service, but remains under a preemptive shutoff warning—meaning power could be turned off if fire or weather conditions necessitate an outage for safety reasons.
   
• Natural gas service to campus has been shut off, with no restoration date yet identified. This means that hot water, heating in most buildings, and Dining Services kitchen appliances that rely on natural gas are not operational. We are actively working with the gas company to re-establish service as quickly as feasible and investigating alternatives that would allow us to provide services to students until our access to natural gas is fully restored.
  
• Numerous Malibu businesses have been impacted by the fire, including gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants, many of which may have limited services—if they are available at all—as Malibu recovers from the Palisades Fire. 

Faculty will deliver classes online from home or from their campus offices as fire and road conditions permit. Deans and supervisors will provide additional guidance to faculty related to their ability to teach and hold office hours. 

Critical support personnel should continue to report to campus to support basic operations. Other staff are generally expected to return to normally scheduled work shifts and campus locations on Monday, January 13, and employees should check with their supervisors about the need to come in or work remotely. Employees who live in the areas impacted by the fires, or have children whose schools are impacted, should work with their supervisors to adjust work schedules to attend to family or home needs.

Our faculty and staff, led by the informed leadership of the EOC, will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that we can return to normal campus life as soon as possible and that students are supported throughout this time of difficulty. As a reminder, if you become aware of students who have experienced fire-related losses or have other immediate needs, please alert the Student Care Team [insert link– studentcareteam@pepperdine.edu]. Employees can seek assistance from Human Resources.

No words can remove the pain and loss many have encountered over the past two days, but as we confront this challenge, I am confident that Pepperdine will do everything we can to support one another and support our community. Our unity and resilience will again shine through this time of difficulty, just as it has in times past.

I ask that you continue to pray for the safety of all those in the path of the fire. Pray for the ongoing work of our incredible local firefighters and other first responders from around the country who are working tirelessly to save lives and property. Pray for the members of our Malibu, Palisades, and greater Los Angeles communities whose loved ones, homes, and property have been lost.

I am confident, too, in the steadfast hope we have, even in the midst of ongoing trials. As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”  And as the Psalmist assures us in Psalm 46, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Serving and relying upon one another and resting in the goodness of our present and faithful God, we will remain strong, together.

Jim Gash
President and CEO