University of Southern California

[20] The University of Southern California was founded following the efforts of Judge Robert Maclay Widney, who helped secure donations from several key figures in early Los Angeles history: a Protestant nurseryman, Ozro Childs; an Irish Catholic former governor, John Gately Downey; and a German Jewish banker, Isaias Wolf Hellman.The second and largest master plan was prepared in 1961 under the supervision of President Norman Topping, campus development director Anthony Lazzaro, and architect William Pereira.With a grand opening held on August 17, 2017,[27] the USC Village includes a Trader Joe's, a Target, a fitness center, restaurants, outdoor dining, 400 retail parking spots, a community room, and housing for 2,700 students.7 out of 420 hospitals in the State of California[31] and ranks in the top twenty nationally for specialities by U.S. News & World Report, including cancer, cardiology, gastroenterology, and geriatrics.[32] In July 2013, the university expanded its medical services into the foothill communities of northern Los Angeles when it acquired the 185 bed Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, California.The Metro E Line light rail service between Downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica wraps around the south and eastern edges of the University Park campus.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.The school of architecture also claims notable alumni Frank Gehry, Jon Jerde, Thom Mayne, Raphael Soriano, Gregory Ain, and Pierre Koenig.In October 2010, the collections at ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the largest repository for documents from the LGBT community in the world, became a part of the USC Libraries system.[3] The USC-MSA reference is a numbering system developed by the Muslim Students' Association of the University of Southern California to access their database of the six major Hadith collections.Boyle, Leo Buscaglia, Drew Casper, Manuel Castells, Erwin Chemerinsky, George V. Chilingar, Thomas Crow, António Damásio, Francis De Erdely, Percival Everett, Murray Gell-Mann, Seymour Ginsburg, G. Thomas Goodnight, Jane Goodall, Solomon Golomb, Midori Goto, Susan Estrich, Janet Fitch, Tomlinson Holman, Jascha Heifetz, Henry Jenkins, Thomas H. Jordan, Mark Kac, Pierre Koenig, Neil Leach, Leonard Maltin, Daniel L. McFadden, Viet Thanh Nguyen, George Olah, Scott Page, Tim Page (music critic), Simon Ramo, Claudia Rankine, Irving Reed, Jacob Soll, Michael Waterman, Frank Gehry, Arieh Warshel, Lloyd Welch, Jonathan Taplin, Diane Winston, and Gabriel Zada.USC won the National College All-Sports Championship, an annual ranking by USA Today of the country's top athletic programs, 6 times since its inception in 1971.[169] The USC Yell Leaders worked closely with The Spirit of Troy and the Song Girls to lead cheers and perform stunts to rally Trojan fans at football, basketball, and volleyball games.[171] The USC Spirit Leaders are responsible for leading stadium wide chants and increasing crowd participation at all Trojan athletic events, including football and basketball games.KXSC (FM) is a University of Southern California-owned, public radio station based in Sunnyvale, California, serving the San Francisco Bay Area.The station gives students hands-on experience in a variety of music industry and broadcast-related positions, including live event promotion, social media management, radio production, and audio engineering.The station's annual KXSC Fest, which began in 2009, has played host to performers such as Nosaj Thing,[172] Muna (band),[173] Mika Miko,[174] Dan Deacon,[175] Thee Oh Sees,[176] and Flying Lotus.In 2010, KSCR adopted the call letters KXSC in order to be eligible to obtain a new FM license from the FCC, as well as to mark the station's move to a brand-new facility in the basement of the Ronald Tutor Campus Center.[183] Outside the Panhellenic and Interfraternity conferences, the Greek community at USC is very diverse, boasting the Multicultural, Asian, Inter-Fraternity (composed of professional fraternities), and the National Pan-Hellenic (historically Black) Councils.On May 1, 2014, USC was named as one of many higher-education institutions under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights for potential Title IX violations by Barack Obama's White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.[185] In 2018, USC was ordered to pay $111,965 in legal fees to a male student accused of rape after the Title IX investigation run by Gretchen Means Gaspari was deemed unfair.[204][205] In April 2024, the USC administration under President Carol Folt was met with widespread criticism following the decision to restrict valedictorian Asna Tabassum from speaking during that year's commencement ceremony.Following several on-campus protests, statements from dozens of human rights organizations and national coverage, USC further restricted all external speakers from speaking at that year's main commencement.The student organizers wrote in a release that, among other demands, the campus occupation would not end until it saw financial transparency of USC’s endowments and investments, an academic boycott of Israel, and protection of free speech.[212][213] USC has graduated more alumni who have gone on to win Academy and Emmy Awards than any other institution, largely due to the School of Cinematic Arts,[215][216] and has conferred degrees upon 29 living billionaires.[224] Notable alumni also include Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon; Charles Bolden, the former director of NASA and a former astronaut; O. J. Simpson, American football player, actor, and accused murderer; Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group; Lillian Copeland, Olympic champion in the discus throw; George Lucas, creator of Star Wars and Indiana Jones; Andrew Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm and inventor of the Viterbi algorithm; Academy Award winner John Wayne; Dexter Holland, co-founder, lead singer and guitarist of The Offspring, actor and comedian Will Ferrell; Emmy Award-winning actor John Ritter; Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry; Hall of Fame football player Ron Mix; longtime Los Angeles Lakers owners Jerry Buss, as well as his daughter and current Lakers owner Jeanie; recycling symbol designer Gary Anderson; entertainer Larry Harmon, better known as his alter ego, Bozo the Clown; former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher; deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi; actress America Ferrera; journalist Julie Chen; former Prime Minister of Jordan Fayez Tarawneh; Taiwanese actress and singer Michelle Chen; American influencer Jake Shane; and Hwang Dong-hyuk, South Korean director of Netflix's most watched TV show, Squid Game.Because of USC's proximity to Hollywood, close ties between the School of Cinematic Arts and entertainment industry, and the architecture on campus, the university has been used in numerous movies, television series, commercials, and music videos.[225] Movies filmed at USC include Forrest Gump, Legally Blonde, Road Trip, The Girl Next Door, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Love & Basketball, Blue Chips, Ghostbusters, Live Free or Die Hard, House Party 2, The Number 23, The Social Network and The Graduate.[226] Television series that have used the USC campus include Brooklyn Nine-Nine, How to Get Away With Murder, 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 M.D., CSI: NY, Undeclared, The West Wing, Alias, The Office, Monk, The United States of Tara, Gilmore Girls, Scrubs, and The Roommate.^ The alternative name "Southern Cal" frequently appears in sports-related news articles to distinguish it from the University of South Carolina, who also uses the "USC" acronym.