As the academic year moves forward, Niki and I reflect on the first full month of classes with tremendous pride and gratitude. The USC community has celebrated a number of landmark events in the past few weeks, highlighted by the groundbreaking for the USC Village, the largest development project in the history of USC, and, we believe, the history of south Los Angeles.
USC’s first-rate faculty and student body need first-rate facilities, and Los Angeles needs its private university—its largest private employer—to be at its best, its most productive and influential. The USC Village—with its majestic architecture, park-like piazza at the center, and ground floor lined by trees and filled with cafés and restaurants—will serve as an inviting new town square for all members of our community, and create a true home away from home for our students. It will add 2,700 beds for student housing, dramatically increasing the university’s residential space, and include a gym and a Trader Joe’s grocery store that will serve our entire neighborhood.
Leavey Honors Hall at the USC Village
The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation Honors Hall will stand at the heart of the USC Village, and house up to 600 of our most academically ambitious students. Leavey Honors Hall was made possible by a generous $30 million gift from Trustee Kathleen McCarthy and her family’s foundation, and speaks to her longstanding commitment to our undergraduate students. In Leavey Honors Hall, our students will enjoy an unsurpassed range of options for academic, social, and cultural growth, as they work with, and live alongside, our most distinguished faculty. I am particularly pleased that Mrs. McCarthy has stepped forward with the first major gift to our USC Village.
Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
Mrs. McCarthy’s support continues a suite of stellar gifts from trustees, including a historic $20 million gift from Trustee Ronnie Chan and his wife, Barbara, directed in support of our top-ranked occupational science and occupational therapy program. The Chans’ gift honors Ronnie’s dear mother, and will endow and name the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. This is the first naming gift and the largest ever made to any occupational therapy program in the history of the field.
Their gift also greatly extends the division’s international reach, as it creates the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Occupational Therapy China Initiative, which will establish a partnership with a top Chinese university to develop a graduate program in occupational therapy in China. In addition, this gift endows the Mrs. T.H. Chan Professorship in Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, which will be held by the division’s leader, Dr. Florence Clark. The Chans’ gift—their third major gift to USC—reflects their family’s ongoing dedication to the university.
Dauterive Hall welcomes scholars
Earlier this month, the USC community came together to formally dedicate Dr. Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall, the university’s first interdisciplinary social sciences building. Trustee Verna Dauterive—a two-time alumna of USC—committed the $30 million gift in memory of her late husband, Peter, a graduate of our Marshall School of Business. The couple met in Doheny Memorial Library during their student days. At the dedication ceremony, Dr. Dauterive said, “I am deeply humbled and very excited about the building, but I am even more excited about what will happen inside: gifted bright stars working together to change the world in wonderful ways that will create brighter futures for all societies.”
Viterbi professors honored for innovation
MIT Technology Review recently published its prestigious annual list of Innovators Under 35, all exceptionally talented technologists whose work has tremendous potential to transform the world. USC faculty routinely appear on the list, and this year, an impressive three USC Viterbi faculty were recognized: Professor George Ban-Weiss, as a humanitarian for his contributions to climate research; Professor Megan McCain, as a pioneer who advances personalized cardiac medicines; and Professor Maryam Shanechi, as a pioneer who uses control theory to understand the brain.
Judge Widney statue dedicated
As the semester began, our campus community came together for a memorable ceremony to dedicate a statue in honor of Judge Robert Maclay Widney, USC’s chief architect and founder. Judge Widney played a seminal role in USC’s birth and early growth. He personally drafted the university’s articles of incorporation, served as the first chairman of our Board of Trustees, and donated $100,000—an extraordinary amount in that age—for the university’s first endowment fund. He was a dreamer and a builder, and through force of will, he reimagined a region and the destinies of countless others who would follow here. For generations of Trojans, this statue will serve as a monument to his permanent place in USC history.
Yours truly,
C. L. Max Nikias
President