Another Donation For USC - $110 Million!!!

This just in... The Mork family has donated a historic gift to USC, in the form of $110 million. Announced on the USC's official website, this is the largest sum of donation in USC undergraduate scholarships history. The USC Mork Family Scholars Program is aimed towards incoming freshmen and are awarded based on academic merit. It runs similarly to the USC Trustee and Presidential Scholars programs. Recipients have to maintain at least a 3.5 GPA and will enjoy the same benefits offered to Trustee and Presidential Scholars, including residence in the residential college for honors students and special programming throughout the academic year.

Did USC just get $200 million, $15 million and now $110 million in the last 2 months or so? So basically I go to the best school in the history of the universe! Fight on! 

USC Hires New Professors

According to the official USC website,

Lord John Eatwell, a well-known British economist, member of the House of Lords, and president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and Lady Eatwell (known professionally as Suzi Digby) an acclaimed choral conductor and recipient of the Order of the British Empire for services to music education, have been appointed to the USC faculty for the Fall 2011 semester by president C. L. Max Nikias.

Lord Eatwell will join the faculty of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, where he will teach a graduate course in the Department of Economics on Classical Economic Theory and Its Critics, and an undergraduate course in the School of International Relations on Global Economy 2020. For this latter course he will invite six prominent political figures and experts to give guest lectures on crucial factors and policy issues that will influence global society over the coming decade.

Suzi Digby (Lady Eatwell) will join the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music, where she will teach an undergraduate course on English Choral Literature with Nick Strimple, a professor of choral music and an acclaimed composer, conductor and scholar. In addition to teaching, she will be involved with a variety of artistic and educational endeavors within USC Thornton.

So, for those that are still taking courses next semester, sign up!

USC Receives $200 Million in Donation

As a Trojan, I'm very excited to hear this news! 

USC Alumnus Donald Dornsife and his wife Dana presented USC's College of Letter, Arts, and Sciences with an unrestricted endowment of $200 million. This beats George Lucas' $175 million donation to USC in 2006. According to Pamela Johnson of USC News, Dornsifes' endowment marks "the largest naming gift in the history of higher education for a college of letters, arts, and sciences." 

Check out a celebration video of Donald and Dana Dornsife. It's narrated by USC Professor Kevin Starr, whom was inducted into the California Hall of Fame last year by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Unrestricted, you say? Now that's impressive. But Donald Dornsife believed it was a simple decision. He said, "We think we understand the people who are going to administer the gift. We have a lot of faith in them. And if it's a good friend of mine, I say, 'They don't tell me how to put a steel building up. And I don't tell them how to run a university." 

President Nikias is bringing serious dough. On the day of Nikias' inauguration in October, 2010, USC Trustee Ming Hsieh and the Annenberg foundation announced that they will donation $50 million donations each to fund cancer research and journalist education. That's another $100 million for my beloved school! 

When I was a freshman, I always hear about how strong the Trojan network is. As a senior, I am grateful to witness it in action. I'm very proud to be a Trojan. Fight on!