This is a great article for those on the fence between a UC or USC.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/UC-CSU-could-learn-from-the-rise-of-the-Trojans-6655248.php
USC’s rapid growth over the past generation — from regional school to global powerhouse — has turned USC into one of the most influential institutions in California. In the process, USC has demonstrated what might be possible for California’s leading public universities — if they weren’t subject to the whims of our dysfunctional state government.
USC has capitalized on its flexibility as a private school to raise the school’s endowment and profile. Public universities are hamstrung in fundraising by the perception that they are state-funded institutions (even though state funding is a small fraction of their financing) and by wariness about gifts from politically unpopular donors. USC, without a meddling minority investor like state government, can raise funds as relentlessly as it likes. Its endowment, at nearly $5 billion, is one of the country’s fastest-growing.
Spending to boost diversity
And USC has spent aggressively — without the required disclosure and resulting second-guessing over big salaries common at public universities — to recruit a more qualified and diverse faculty and student body. As public universities in California were forced to make cuts during recent budget crises and the Great Recession, USC accelerated its growth.
Public universities can be prisoners of annual budgets and short-term thinking. Recall the fierce criticism last fall of University of California President Janet Napolitano’s thoughtful, multiyear enrollment and funding plan. By contrast, USC’s leaders have pursued a long-term strategy of better connecting the university to all elements of life in Southern California.
USC has secured effective control of the Los Angeles Coliseum and is developing the $650 million USC Village complex of housing, retail and commercial space. USC has gobbled up institutions elsewhere in L.A. (from a Glendale hospital to a Pasadena museum) and built a stronger presence in San Diego. USC has also been a big winner in two big L.A. trends — the revival of downtown (USC is just south of downtown) and the construction of new rail lines (Metro’s Expo line has three stops along USC’s campus).
More than a Trojan horse, USC is viewed across the region as a white knight. Many struggling L.A. institutions fantasize of being rescued by a USC takeover. These institutions include the Los Angeles Times, which, in my view, could find long-term viability by becoming a publication of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
At the same time it grows locally, USC has unabashedly prioritized global expansion, especially around the Pacific Rim. USC leads the nation in attracting foreign students, a fact it rightly celebrates even as the University of California system is bitterly criticized for adding foreign students (even though their higher tuition subsidizes lower in-state tuition for Californians).
California’s public universities, desperate to preserve their reputations for academic prestige, are quite traditional in their hiring. USC has few such hang-ups. Its strategic plan emphasizes real-world research and “entrepreneurial activities through flexible structures that allow faculty to move swiftly into new areas.” And USC has proudly opened institutes led by noted academicians like Dr. Dre and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Rooting for USC
USC has stepped on toes in pursuit of growth. The university’s recent effort to steal a major Alzheimer’s research project from UC San Diego was so brazen that the University of California sued. And as it catapults itself from mediocrity into the nation’s top tier of private institutions of higher learning, USC will face the same questions now confronting the Stanfords of the world — about whether its success contributes to widening inequality, and whether it should do more for those left behind by poor high schools and circumstances.
When UCLA and USC met on the football field this weekend, I was wearing a UCLA T-shirt for reasons personal (I grew up going to Bruins games) and professional (UCLA is a vital partner of Zócalo Public Square, which produces this column). But I root for archrival USC as a powerful example for California. Yes, our public universities have remained excellent despite all the cuts and constraints. But just imagine how much more they could do if the state stopped its meddling, and allowed our universities to fight on with all the flexibility the Trojans enjoy.