"George Pepperdine College Student Handbook 1968-1969," 1968, p. 4 (Pepperdine University Archives Student Life Collection)Jennings Davis
Dean of students, LA
In 1972, Jennings Davis served as the dean of students at Pepperdine's LA campus, a position he had held since 1963.1 Davis had previously been a professor at sister-school David Lipscomb College (now Lipscomb University) in Nashville. He followed Norvel Young to Pepperdine after Young became president in 1957.2
Davis was a critic of the university's more objectionable racial attitudes, opposing a tradition in which (often Black) members of the homecoming court were auctioned as "slaves" to the highest bidder.3 When much of Pepperdine moved to Malibu in 1972, Davis chose to stay behind and serve on the Los Angeles campus, which he did for years.4
