VOLUME 19 | ISSUE 2 | 2021
CLASSES OF 2020 AND 2021 COMMENCEMENTS
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n Friday, May 14, 2021, the Pepperdine School of Public Policy (SPP) hosted a limited-capacity, in-person commencement ceremony for the resilient Classes of 2020 and 2021 in Malibu at Alumni Park.
Hattie Mitchell (MPP ’12), visiting professor of education policy and impact and the founder of Crete Academy, opened the ceremony with the benediction and the Pledge of Allegiance. Recent Seaver College graduate Kaytlin Withers (’21) sang the national anthem. “It took an incredible team effort to organize a commencement that will be remembered for years at SPP,” described dean Pete Peterson (MPP ’07). “From SPP and University staff to our graduates and their families, everyone contributed to host a ceremony that was both solemn and celebratory. I’m so grateful to all who helped make it possible.” Commencements continued on page 2
Glenn Loury opens 2021 Augustus and Patricia Tagliaferri Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series
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n June 5, 2021, the School of Public Policy held its first in-person event since March 2020, a lecture in the Augustus and Patricia Tagliaferri Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series. The series’ name has been expanded to include and honor the late Augustus “Gus” Tagliaferri (MBA ’74), whose generosity endowed the program, which hosts leading scholars to explore the many facets that comprise wise public decision-making.
In his lecture, “Preserving the American Project: The Bias Narrative vs. the Development Narrative,” economist Glenn Loury, one of the country’s foremost experts on social capital, explored the components that lead to greater economic opportunity and broader societal flourishing—and those that don’t—for African Americans. He contended that in doing so, we might realize anew the common aspirations we all have for the pursuit of happiness.
publicpolicy.pepperdine.edu/preserving-the-american-project
Loury’s lecture was particularly resonant in light of last year’s wave of public protests across America, which literally and figuratively placed the question of race front and center in the nation’s public square. The debates around the best ways forward—politically and in public policy— have been polarizing and wide ranging. But a common thread running through even disparate policy proposals, and a key element of Loury’s address, has been the quest for increasing the social capital— the relational foundations of economic opportunity—of African Americans.