It wasn’t only Barack Obama’s name that was used dishonestly by the Mormon backed Proposition 8 campaign. Pepperdine University is still feeling the fallout after the Protect Marriage campaign associated itself with the school in advertising, via a controversial professor at the school who just so happens to be Mormon.  Yes on Prop 8 discontinued the practice for a short time after the university objected, but then resumed using the name after testing showed that it improved viewer response.

“Just prior to running a second ad, the campaign announced to us that in their opinion it would be more effective if Pepperdine’s name was back in,” said university President Andrew Benton. “They did not ask us; they told us what they were going to do, and they did it.”

The school has received a host of negative consequences as a result, including hundreds of calls both in favor and against the name being used, and fallout across various constituencies including students, faculty, alumni, fundraising and campus recruiting.

“Without any involvement in the campaign, Pepperdine has been lionized and vilified,” Benton wrote. “We have been given credit where it is not due and blamed beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings … Whether the writers are for or against Prop 8, I take no comfort from either position, as it puts us where we don’t belong - in partisan politics.”

Many individuals and groups opposed to Proposition 8 also allege that Pepperdine law professor Richard Peterson’s statements in the ad are untrue, specifically the statement that teachers will be required to instruct students that there is no difference between same-sex marriage and traditional marriage.

California Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley issued an opinion in August, which stated some of the ballot arguments in support of Proposition 8 are “false and misleading.”

Frawley cited California laws, which state “school districts are not required to teach anything about marriage or same-sex marriage at any grade level,” and the education code mandates that parents are allowed to excuse their children from any instruction which violates their moral or religious beliefs.

For more: Professor Defends Ads, Pepperdine University Graphic

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