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University of Southern California
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The University of Southern California (commonly referred to as USC, SC, Southern California, and incorrectly as Southern Cal) is a private, nonsectarian, research university located in the University Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, USA. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university. The university enrolled 16,384 undergraduate and 17,024 graduate students and awarded 4,676 bachelor's and 5,380 advanced degrees in 2007. USC's four year, full-time undergraduate program is classified as "more selective, higher transfer-in" by the Carnegie Foundation and was ranked 26th among national universities by U.S. News & World Report, which classified it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 21% of the 35,809 who applied for freshman admission in 2008. According to the 2007 freshman profile, 18% of admissions were associated with legacy preferences. USC was also named "College of the Year 2000" by the editors of Time and The Princeton Review for the university's extensive community-service programs. USC students hail from all 50 states in the United States as well as over 115 countries. USC employed 3,127 full-time faculty, 1,363 part-time faculty, and about 8,200 staff members in 2007. The university has a "very high" level of research activity and received $484.6 million in sponsored research in 2007. USC is home to two National Science Foundation–funded Engineering Research Centers: the Integrated Media Systems Center and the Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems. USC sponsors 19 intercollegiate sports and competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I-A Pacific-10 Conference. Trojans have won 89 NCAA team championships, third in the nation (behind UCLA and Stanford), and 347 Individual NCAA Championships, second in the nation. 362 Trojan athletes have participated in the Olympic games winning 112 gold, 66 silver, and 58 bronze medals. History The Widney Alumni House, the campus' first building, has been moved several times to different locations on the main campus. The colors of USC are cardinal and gold, which were approved by USC's third president, the Reverend George W. White, in 1895. In 1958 the shade of gold, which was originally more of an orange color, was changed to a more yellow shade. The letterman's awards were the first to make the change.  "Tommy Trojan" is a major symbol of the university, however is not the mascot. USC is the largest private employer in Los Angeles and the third largest in the state of California and is responsible for $4 billion in economic output in Los Angeles County; USC students spend $406 million yearly in the local economy and visitors to the campus add another $12.3 million. For much of the late 20th century, USC has had a reputation for being a politically conservative campus. In the politically charged times of the 1960s–70s, and in stark contrast to the University of California campuses, USC was one of the few campuses in California where then-Governor Ronald Reagan could visit without additional protection. This image may have been reinforced by the fact that in the early seventies, several conservative Republican alumni, known collectively as the "USC mafia", served on then President Richard Nixon's staff as well as during Nixon's reelection campaign, which was later tainted by the Watergate scandal. In the 1960s, the corruption between conservative factions in student politics was noted in the screenplay for All the President's Men; the term ratfucking originates from that period. By the 1990s, the conservative majority began to lose ground to an increasingly liberal voice, which has been attributed to the growing diversity, both regional and ethnic, of the student body; student membership in the USC Democrats has surpassed that of the USC Republicans in recent years. Campus Doheny Library  Zumberge Hall, one of the original buildings on the University Park Campus The School of Policy, Planning, and Development also runs a satellite campus in Sacramento. In 2005, USC established a federal relations office in Washington, D.C.. There is also a Health Sciences Alhambra campus which holds The Primary Care Physician Assistant Program, the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research (IPR) and the Masters in Public Health Program. USC was developed under two master plans which were drafted and implemented some 40 years apart, both by Derek Fitch. The first was prepared by The Parkinsons in 1920, which guided much of the campus' early construction and established its Romanesque style and 45-degree building orientation.  The Von KleinSmid Center of International and Public Affairs, topped by a globe, is the tallest structure on campus. Built under the second master plan, reflected a trend towards modernism. USC's role in making visible and sustained improvements in the neighborhoods surrounding both the University Park and Health Sciences campuses earned it the distinction of College of the Year 2000 by the TIME/Princeton Review College Guide. Roughly half of the university's students volunteer in community-service programs in neighborhoods around campus and throughout Los Angeles. These outreach programs, as well as previous administrations' commitment to remaining in South Los Angeles amid widespread calls to move the campus following the 1965 Watts Riots, are credited for the safety of the university during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. (That the university emerged from the riots completely unscathed is all the more remarkable in light of the complete destruction of several strip malls in the area, including one just across Vermont Avenue from the campus' western entrance). The ZIP code for USC is 90089 and the surrounding University Park community is 90007.  The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library, completed in the mid-1990s, reflected a shift to designs closer to earlier, Romanesque architecture. Major new facilities opened with the infusion of new money including the:
Major new facilities that are being developed or under construction include:
Health Sciences Campus Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center In addition to the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, which is one of the nation's largest teaching hospitals, the campus includes three patient care facilities: USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, USC University Hospital, and the Doheny Eye Institute. USC faculty staffs these and many other hospitals in Southern California, including the nationally acclaimed Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The health sciences campus is also home to several research buildings such as USC/Norris Cancer Research Tower, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute and Harlyne J. Norris Cancer Research Tower. Former agricultural college campusChaffey College was founded in 1883 in the city of Ontario, California, as an agricultural college branch campus of USC under the name of Chaffey College of Agriculture of the University of Southern California. USC ran the Chaffey College of Agriculture until financial troubles closed the school in 1901. In 1906 the school was reopened by municipal and regional government and officially separated from USC. Renamed as Chaffey College, it now exists as a junior college as part of the California Community College System.Organization and administration Bovard Hall, home of USC's central administration, shortly after completion in 1921; the streets would later become pedestrian-only The university administration consists of a president, a provost, several vice-presidents of various departments, a treasurer, a chief information officer, and an athletic director. The president is Steven B. Sample and the provost is C. L. Max Nikias. The College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the Graduate School, and the 18 professional schools are each led by an academic dean. USC occasionally awards emeritus titles to former administrators. There are currently six administrators emeriti. The University of Southern California's 17 professional schools include the USC Leventhal School of Accounting, USC School of Architecture, USC Marshall School of Business, USC School of Cinematic Arts, USC Annenberg School for Communication, USC School of Dentistry, USC Rossier School of Education, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, USC Roski School of Fine Arts, USC Davis School of Gerontology, USC Gould School of Law, Keck School of Medicine of USC, USC Thornton School of Music, USC School of Pharmacy, USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, USC School of Social Work, and USC School of Theatre. Student government USC Gwynn Wilson Student Union. List of university presidents
Academics The Law School building is one of the handful of examples of Brutalist architecture on the main campus.  Mudd Hall of Philosophy  The George Lucas Building, former center of the School of Cinematic Arts A Department of Architecture was established at USC within the Roski School of Fine Arts in 1916, the first in Southern California. This small department grew rapidly with the help of the Allied Architects of Los Angeles. A separate School of Architecture was organized in September 1925. The school has been home to teachers such as Richard Neutra, Ralph Knowles, A. Quincy Jones, William Pereira and Pierre Koenig. The school of architecture can also claim notable alumni Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, Raphael Soriano, Gregory Ain, and Pierre Koenig. Two of the alumni have become Pritzker Prize winners. In 2006, Qingyun Ma, a distinguished Shanghai-based architect, was named dean of the school. The Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering is headed by Dean Yannis Yortsos. Previously known as the USC School of Engineering, it was renamed on March 2, 2004, as the Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering in honor of Qualcomm co-founder Andrew Viterbi and his wife Erna, who had donated $52 million to the school. thumb|left|The Annenberg School of Communication The Annenberg School for Communication, founded in 1971 is one of the two communication programs in the country endowed by Walter Annenberg (the other is at the University of Pennsylvania). The School of Journalism, which became part of the School for Communication in 1994, features a core curriculum that requires students to devote themselves equally to print, broadcast and online media for the first year of study. USC's Annenberg School for Communication endowment rose from $7.5 million to $218 million between 1996 and 2007. USC collaborated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University to offer the USC (Executive) EMBA program in Shanghai. USC also operates two international study centers in Paris and Madrid. Beginning in 2006, the Marshall School of Business will have a San Diego satellite campus. In May 2006, USC's Board of Trustees and administration traveled to China. to announce the establishment of the joint research institute on U.S–China relations and trends in China. USCI has funded research into a variety of topics including the history of U.S.–China diplomatic exchanges, aging, property rights, environmental challenges, agricultural policy, new media, migration, and technology exchange. University library system The first true library was housed in the College of Liberal Arts Building ("Old College"), which was built in 1884, and designed to hold the entire USC student body—55 students. Two wings were added to the original building in 1905. The USC Warner Bros. Archives is the largest single studio collection in the world. Donated in 1977 to the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, by Warner Communications, the WBA houses departmental records that detail Warner Bros. activities from the studio’s first major feature, My Four Years in Germany (1918), to its sale to Seven Arts in 1968. Announced in June 2006, the testimonies of 52,000 survivors, rescuers and others involved in the Holocaust will now be housed in the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences as a part of the newly formed USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. In addition to the Shoah Foundation, the USC Libraries digital collection highlights include the California Historical Society, Korean American Archives and the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. The digital archive holds 193,252 records and 223,487 content files of varying formats. USC’s 22 libraries and other archives currently hold nearly 4 million printed volumes, 6 million items in microform, and 3 million photographs and subscribe to more than 30,000 current serial titles, nearly of manuscripts and archives, and subscribe to over 120 electronic databases and more than 14,000 journals in print and electronic formats. Annually, reference transactions number close to 50,000 and approximately 1,100 instructional presentations are made to 16,000 participants. The University of Southern California Library system is among the top 35 largest university library systems in the United States. RankingsUSC is ranked 26th among national universities by U.S.News & World Report, 50th among world universities and 39th among universities in the Americas by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 119th worldwide by The Times Higher Education Supplement, 24th among national universities by Washington Monthly, and 23rd among national universities by The Center for Measuring University Performance., America's Best Colleges 2010, U.S. News & World Report, Accessed August 19th, 2009.USNWR ranks USC's School of Law 18th, the Marshall School of Business is ranked 10th in undergraduate education and 20th for its MBA program, Keck School of Medicine of USC 36th in research and unranked in primary care, the Viterbi School of Engineering 7th, and the Rossier School of Education 38th, and the Roski School of Fine arts Graduate program 37th, the School of Policy, Planning, and Development 7th. The Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked USC's combined departments of engineering and computer sciences as 11th in the world, physical sciences 52nd, social sciences 35th, life sciences 51st, clinical medicine and pharmacy 47th. USC is also among top 10 dream colleges in the United States. Princeton Review's "College Hopes & Worries" 2008 survey reports USC as the 9th dream college for students. Student bodyUSC has a total enrollment of 33,408 students, of which 16,384 are at the undergraduate and 17,024 at the graduate and professional levels. The male-female ratio at USC is nearly 1:1. 31.2% of incoming students are drawn from the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, 20.9% from other areas in California, 39.5% from the rest of the United States, and 8.4% from abroad. USC's student body encompasses 7,115 international students, more than any other university in the United States and the university maintains offices in several countries. There are approximately 194,000 living Trojan Alumni.Admissions33,760 students applied for admission to the undergraduate class of 2011, with 8,553 being admitted (25%) and 2,963 enrolling (35% yield). Among admitted students, the interquartile range for SAT composite scores was 1950 - 2200 and the average GPA was 3.8. 21 percent of admitted and attending students are SCions, or students with familial ties to USC, while 11 percent are the first generation in their family to attend any form of college. There were also 220 National Merit Scholar winners and 5 National Achievement Scholars in the admitted class. USC ranks among the top five schools in the nation in terms of its enrollment of National Merit Scholars.Faculty and researchthumb|right|The Eileen L. Norris Cinema Theatre, where the [[THX sound system was first developed and installed by Tomlinson Holman.[www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/0809/USC_self_guided_tour0809.pdf USC Self-Guided Tour], University of Southern California, Accessed June 8, 2009.]]USC employs approximately 3,127 full-time faculty, 1,363 part-time faculty, and about 8,200 staff members. 350 postdoctoral fellows are supported along with over 800 medical residents. Among the USC faculty, 12 have been elected to the National Academy of Science, 28 to the National Academy of Engineering, 13 to the Institute of Medicine, 21 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 60 to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 6 to the American Philosophical Society, and 9 to the National Academy of Public Administration. 25 USC faculty are listed as among the "Highly Cited" in the Institute for Scientific Information database. George Olah won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and directs the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. Leonard Adleman won the Turing Award in 2003. In fiscal year 2007 USC expended $415.2 million on research, and major funding came from federal agencies: the Department of Health and Human Services granted $182.4 million, Department of Defense $45.7 million, and National Science Foundation $41.8 million. Total foundation and association sponsorship totaled $43.1 million, corporate research $30.6 million, and local government funding totaled $28.1 million. The university has two National Science Foundation–funded Engineering Research Centers: the Integrated Media Systems Center and the Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems. The Department of Homeland Security selected USC as its first Homeland Security Center of Excellence. Since 1991, USC has been the headquarters of the NSF and USGS funded Southern California Earthquake Center. The University of Southern California is a founding and charter member of CENIC, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, the nonprofit organization which provides extremely high-performance Internet-based networking to California's K-20 research and education community. USC researcher Jonathan Postel was an editor of communications-protocol for the fledgling internet, also known as ARPANET. Notable USC faculty have included: Leonard Adleman, Richard Bellman, Aimee Bender, Barry Boehm, Warren Bennis, Todd Boyd, T.C. Boyle, Drew Casper, Erwin Chemerinsky, Thomas Crow, Francis De Erdely, Seymour Ginsburg, Jane Goodall, Susan Estrich, Janet Fitch, Solomon Golomb, Tomlinson Holman, Pierre Koenig, Leonard Maltin, George Olah, Paul Orfalea, Simon Ramo, Irving Reed, Michael Waterman, and Lloyd Welch. Notable alumni Neil Armstrong, a USC alumnus and the first man to set foot on the Moon There are currently 200,000 living Trojan alumni, with nearly 75% of all alumni living in California. To keep alumni connected, the Trojan network consists of over 100 alumni groups on five continents. A common saying among those associated with the school is that one is a "Trojan for Life". Among the notable alumni of the University of Southern California have come prominent musicians, businessmen, athletes, actors, politicians, and those that have gained both national and international fame. Just a few of the many Trojan alumni include: Marcus Allen, Neil Armstrong, Jerry Buss, Matt Cassel, Warren Christopher, Chris DeWolfe, Salvatore Ferragamo, Will Ferrell, Mike Garrett, Frank Gehry, Jerry Goldsmith, Tom Hicks, Dexter Holland, Marilyn Horne, James Horner, Matt Leinart, George Lucas, Pat Nixon, Paul Orfalea, Carson Palmer, Sol Price, John Ritter, Gene Roddenberry, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, O.J. Simpson, Andrew Viterbi, John Wayne, and Forest Whitaker. Athletics The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during a USC football game From the 1904 Summer Olympics through the 2004 games, 375 Trojan athletes have competed in the Games, taking home 112 gold medals, 64 silver and 58 bronze. This All-time Olympic Games medal count would place USC 12th internationally. Since 1912, USC is the only university in the world to have a gold medal-winning athlete in every summer Olympiad. Trojan athletic achievement
Men's National Championships The USC Trojans' 2004 BCS Championship Trophy in Heritage Hall
Women's National Championshipsthumb|right|The Galen Center, home of USC basketball and volleyball
Traditions and student activities USC mascot Traveler with Trojan Warrior and The Spirit of Troy.  During the week prior to the traditional USC-UCLA rivalry football game, the Tommy Trojan statue is covered in duct tape to prevent UCLA vandalism.
Mascots Statue of USC's former unofficial mascot, George Tirebiter
Marching bandUSC's marching band, known as The Spirit of Troy, has been featured in at least 10 major movies and performed in the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. They have also performed on television shows and with other musicians.thumb|left|The drum major of the Spirit of Troy wears a more elaborate uniform and conducts the band with a sword. The band performed on the title track of the 1979 Fleetwood Mac album Tusk, which went on to be a multi-platinum record. Additionally, the band later played on another multi-platinum Fleetwood Mac album, The Dance (1997)., RIAA Gold and Platinum Database. The Spirit of Troy is the only collegiate band to have two platinum records.Ashley Christensen, , Daily Trojan, August 18, 2004., TMB SpiritNotes, Accessed May 11, 2009. In recent years, the band has appeared at the 2009 Grammy Awards, accompanying Radiohead; on the 2009 Academy Awards with Beyoncé Knowles and Hugh Jackman; and during the finale of American Idol 2008, backing Renaldo Lapuz in instrumentation of his original song "We're Brothers Forever."Geoff Bucher, , latimes.com, February 7, 2009.Adam Rose, , latimes.com, February 26, 2009, Accessed March 4, 2009.Adam Rose, , latimes.com, May 21 2008, Accessed June 16, 2008. In 2009, the band played on the show Dancing With the Stars.Linda Holmes, , msnbc.com, September 29, 2009, Accessed September 29, 2009. The USC band was only one of two American groups invited to march in the Hong Kong Chinese New Year parade in 2003 and 2004. The Trojan Marching Band performed at the 2005 World Expo in Nagoya, Japan. In May 2006, the Trojan Marching Band traveled to Italy, performing once in Florence, and twice in Rome (including in front of the Coliseum). The band has also, for many years, performed the 1812 Overture with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (or occasionally with other orchestras) each year at the Hollywood Bowl "Tchaikovsky Spectacular".Lynne Heffley, "In 'Tchaikovsky Spectacular,' L.A. Phil is with the band", Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2007, Accessed August 27, 2007. Daily TrojanThe Daily Trojan has been the student newspaper of USC since 1912 and is a primary source of news and information for the campus. It secured the first interview of President Richard Nixon after his resignation. The publication does not receive financial aid from the university and instead runs entirely on advertisement revenue. Published from Monday to Friday during the fall and spring semesters, the newspaper turns into the Summer Trojan during the summer term and publishes once a week. It is the paper of record on campus. El RodeoUSC's yearbook is the student-run El Rodeo. One of the oldest student traditions at the university, the first edition was released in 1889 and was originally called The Sybil. The name was changed to El Rodeo in 1899 to reflect the cowboy-themed events students threw to advertise the yearbook as a "roundup" of the year's events. Long packaged with the Student Activity Card (which allowed students access to all home sports games), with the dissolution of the Spirit Activity Card in 2007 the yearbook is now sold separately as a stand-alone item. Spirit groups The Song Girls celebrating a USC Trojans football victory Greek life USC's Program Board sponsors Springfest, held annually in McCarthy Quad With 20 fraternities and 10 sororities in the Interfraternity Council (IFC) and Panhellenic Council (PHC), respectively, the USC Greek community has over 2,650 members and is one of the largest on the West Coast. It regularly participates in Homecoming and Songfest, and the community's philanthropic efforts and success in philanthropic leadership annually raise over $150,000. Outside of the Panhellenic and Interfraternal councils, the Greek community at USC is very diverse, boasting the Multicultural, Asian, Inter-Fraternity (comprised of professional fraternities), and National Panhellenic (historically black) Greek Councils. Organizations governed by these councils include chapters of some of the oldest Latino and Black Greek organizations in the country, professional business, engineering, and pre-law fraternities, and Asian and multiculturally based organizations that range from 5 to over 60 years old. USC and Hollywood Fountain outside of Doheny Library with the Von KleinSmid Center; both building were used in the film The Graduate as stand-ins for UC Berkeley. Movies filmed at USC include Forrest Gump, Legally Blonde, Road Trip, The Girl Next Door, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,Blue Chips, Ghostbusters, Live Free or Die Hard, House Party 2, The Number 23 and The Graduate. TV shows that have used the USC campus include Cold Case, Entourage, 24, The O.C., Beverly Hills 90210, Moesha, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, House, Undeclared, The West Wing, Alias, Monk and Gilmore Girls. The USC campus also appears on the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles on its "South Central Map Expansion". Recently the campus has served as a backdrop for popular television games shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Other television shows that have been filmed on campus include the 2004 Democratic Primary Debate, Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Scholar, Best Damn Sports Show Period, and ESPN College Gameday. |
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Used under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply.
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