December 31, 2017
Niki and I hope you have been enjoying the holiday season! There were many notable milestones that marked the year, the highlight of course being the opening of the USC Village—and its warm embrace by our students and the local community. It’s gratifying to see how the USC Village has fully come to life as a new heart for our campus and neighborhood, just months after its opening. What a wonderful conclusion to the year!
Our students, meanwhile, continue to inspire us with their remarkable intellect, creativity, and leadership. With this letter, I would like to focus on three students who recently received special attention. The first is Paulo Hernandez-Farella, an undergraduate at the USC Kaufman School of Dance. CBS News Los Angeles interviewed him for a story that focused on his unique path to USC, and the factors that drew him to our world-class dance school. Paulo chose USC Kaufman over Juilliard. He spoke about how USC’s program is special, as it exists within the context of a large research university, and allows its students to pursue interdisciplinary work outside their majors. On television, the story also went into detail about the cutting-edge facilities that exist for USC Kaufman students, and showed our dancers performing and practicing in their glorious academic home.
Another student who deserves recognition is Edwin Saucedo, the former president of USC’s Undergraduate Student Government. Edwin was selected to be a Schwarzman Scholar, the third USC student to be honored by the prestigious program, which provides one year of study in Beijing. He is currently pursuing a master of public administration at our Price School of Public Policy, having already earned his bachelor’s degree from the school. In Beijing, he will work toward a master’s from Tsinghua University. This distinction adds to his already-impressive list of honors: he is a USC Presidential Scholar, a USC Norman Topping Scholar, and a Gates Millennium Scholar.
Ironically, the third student I will mention is from UCLA! A Bruin undergraduate, Arielle Yael Mokhtarzadeh, recently wrote to USC’s student newspaper, the Daily Trojan, regarding the powerful symbolism of our new Hecuba statue, which stands at the center of the USC Village. Arielle points out that Hecuba represents USC’s diversity—the diversity of our community, as well as the diversity of our academic disciplines—and shares her views on the importance of championing inclusion.
“It matters that one of the top 20 private universities in the country has a female mascot to stand alongside her male counterpart,” Arielle wrote, referring to Tommy Trojan. “It matters that her face is the combination of faces of women who have seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and lived different experiences. It matters that one of her hands is placed over her heart, while the other is outstretched to every passerby.”
Of course, I should mention that Arielle was prompted by a special tradition: the USC or UCLA school newspaper editor pens a piece for the other’s publication after losing the cross-town football rivalry. But her words rang true nonetheless! Indeed, the success of USC’s football team this past season has been a source of tremendous pride for everyone in the Trojan Family, as USC claimed the Pac-12 title with a wonderful win over Stanford.
Additional thoughts
I would like to close with two op-eds I recently published on two very different subjects. The first addresses the profoundly important role that universities play in ensuring our nation’s competitiveness, and the need to recognize that crucial role in determining government funding and, more recently, in determining tax reform. As Congress worked to finalize its tax plan, I published a piece in The Hill, which I share with you here.
The second piece takes up a comparatively lighter subject: the importance of sleep. “Early to bed and early to rise was a productive formula for an agrarian age,” I wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “but our digital age extends the productivity window each day beyond our personal limits.” To this, I added: “Identifying your most productive time of day and protecting your sleep puts your best, smartest, most resilient self in your office chair each morning.” This is a point I always endeavor to follow, and pass along to my senior leadership.
Finally, I wish to take this opportunity to offer my heartfelt congratulations to USC Trustee Ming Hsieh, who was recently elected to the National Academy of Inventors. A two-time alumnus of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Mr. Hsieh invented, developed, and implemented the first fully automated, high-speed biometric fingerprint system, which has significantly enhanced security and safety around the world. This most recent distinction is so well deserved!
Niki and I wish you and your families a wonderful 2018. We look forward to writing to you throughout the coming year. Happy New Year!
Yours truly,
C. L. Max Nikias
President