Pepperdine University is an independent university enrolling approximately 7,700 students in five colleges and schools. Founded in 1937, the University moved to its current campus in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean in 1972. Pepperdine University is religiously affiliated with Churches of Christ and seeks to pursue the highest academic standards within a context that celebrates and extends the spiritual and ethical ideals of the Christian faith.
Following the successful completion of an occupancy management plan, Pepperdine University re-engaged The Scion Group to conduct a comprehensive market and demand analysis and strategic housing plan. Scion’s work included an analysis of the current and future on- and off-campus housing options, conducting student focus groups and a survey of undergraduate and graduate students, and interviewing university administrators. Scion developed a plan for the campus’s future housing needs, which included creating intentional communities that would attract specific student cohorts that the University wanted to accommodate in on-campus housing. Additionally, Scion recommended strategies that will help the University use housing rates to enhance demand for on-campus housing.
Scion analyzed Pepperdine’s housing capacity in three different scenarios, accounting for study abroad students, additional graduate beds used by Seaver undergraduates, and Pepperdine’s retention rates. Pepperdine’s housing capacity was analyzed relative to the University’s projected undergraduate enrollment; Scion’s estimated demand for housing by class cohort, which includes demand for new housing; and campus capacity relative to the University’s goal of housing 75% of Seaver undergraduates. Scion analyzed projected Seaver enrollment by class cohort and housing capacity. Scion predicts that the capacity will decrease in fall 2017 when 100 beds are lost due to construction associated with the new residence hall. Additionally, Scion recommended strategies that will help the University use housing rates to enhance demand for on-campus housing.