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The University of Southern California (USC), Southern California's oldest private research university, is located in the urban center of Los Angeles, California.
University of Southern California
| Motto | Palmam qui meruit ferat (Latin, "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"). |
|---|---|
| Established | 1907 |
| School type | Private |
| President | Los Angeles, CA, USA |
| Enrollment | 16,000 undergraduate, 15,000 graduate |
| Faculty | 4,300 |
| Endowment | US$2.85 Billion |
| Campus | Urban, 155 acres |
| Sports teams | Trojans |
| Website |
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Founded in 1880 by three wealthy Los Angeles residents as a Methodist University, it has grown to international prominence. The university opened with an enrollment of 53 students, and a faculty of 10. Its first graduating class in 1884 was a class of three - two men and a woman valedictorian. The University is no longer a Methodist institution; it is currently not religiously affiliated.
USC has grown substantially since its founding. Besides its main campus ("University Park Campus," about 2 miles southwest of downtown L.A.), the university includes the Health Sciences Campus about 2 miles northeast of downtown and the Information Sciences Institute in Marina del Rey. The School of Public Policy and Development runs a satellite campus in Sacramento, California. Another satellite campus in Washington, D.C. was closed down in 2002.
Although pleasant in appearance, the University Park campus is adjacent to South Central Los Angeles, an area notorious for a high crime rate. The campus itself is enclosed and gated and generally separated from the surrounding neighborhood.
USC was named "College of the Year 2000" by the editors of Time magazine and the Princeton Review for its outstanding community service. Roughly half of the university's students volunteer in community-service programs in neighborhoods around campus and throughout Los Angeles.
USC has an endowment of $2.1 billion, largely as a result of an impressive fundraising campaign over the last several years by current University President law, film, medicine, business, engineering and journalism. Annenberg, the j-school, holds its own among the best in the nation, but it has adopted a fairly grueling convergence core curriculum that requires students to devote themselves equally to print, broadcast and online media for the first year of study. While this approach promises a breadth of knowledge across various journalistic media, many students resent being compelled to devote so much time and energy to disciplines they aren't interested in pursuing. On the other hand, USC's Annenberg School of Journalism has a massive endowment, and the school is generous with promising students.
On March 2, 2004, the USC School of Engineering, headed by Dean Max Nikeas, was renamed to the Viterbi School of Engineering. This was done to honor Qualcomm founder Andrew Viterbi and his wife Erna, who had recently donated $52 million to the school. According to the USC website, this gift was "the largest ever to rename an existing school of engineering."
As of 2004 US World News ranked USC 6th in the US.
USC's academic departments fall either under the general liberal arts and sciences banner of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences for undergraduates or of The Graduate School for graduates, or under one of the university's 18 professional schools. A full listing of academic subdivisions follows alphabetically by subject:
USC offers 77 majors, 101 minors, and 139 distinct areas of graduate study.
The most popular majors are Business Administration, Communications, and Psychology.
USC grades on a standard 4.0 scale, with +0.3 for a "plus" grade, and -0.3 for a "minus" grade. USC does not award the grade A+.
USC participates in the NCAA Division I-A Pacific Ten Confrence. Their traditional rival is UCLA. There have been more Trojans in the Olympics than students from any other American university. Trojan men's teams are tops in the nation in NCAA championships with 72 - more than any other university. And the football team has been voted national champions 10 times. Overall, USC's men have won 84 national team titles.
USC is also known for its marching band, which calls itself "The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe." This band performed in the 1932 and 1984 summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, in addition to their countless appearances in movies, television shows, and performances with other renowned musicians. Most recently, the band produced an instrumental version of the popular song "Hit That" by The Offspring (whose lead singer is a USC alum), and it appeared with Outkast at the 2004 Grammy Awards in their hit song "Hey Ya!".
USC is a private corporation, and is ultimately controlled by a Board of Trustees, with roughly 50 voting members and several Life Trustees, Honorary Trustees, and Trustees Emeritus who do not vote. Voting members of the Board of Trustees are elected for five year terms. One fifth of the Trustees stand for re-election each year, and votes are cast only by the Trustees not standing for election. Trustees tend to be high-ranking executives of large corporations (both domestic and international), successful alumni, members of the upper echelons of university administration or some combination of the three.
University administration consists of a President, a Provost, several Vice Presidents of various departments, a Treasurer, a Chief Information Officer, and an Athletic Director. As of the beginning of 2004, the President is Steven B. Sample, and the Provost is Lloyd Armstrong, Jr.
The College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, The Graduate School, and the 18 Professional Schools are each lead by an Academic Dean.
USC also occasionally awards emeritus titles to former administrators. There are currently six Administrators Emeritus.
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