Category Archives: Timeline
2022b
USC dedicates the landmark Center for International Public Affairs building in honor of author, historian and Trojan Joseph Medicine Crow.
2022a
USC confers honorary degrees upon Nisei students, Japanese Americans who were forced to leave the university during World War II. The university also dedicates a quiet rock garden off Trousdale Parkway in their honor.
2021f
President Carol L. Folt announces that USC will be carbon-neutral by 2025.
2021e
USC wins the Pac-12 Zero Waste Challenge for the 2021 football season. It’s the university’s third victory in the league wide competition focused on diverting the waste generated at home football games from landfills to recycling or composting.
2021d
To accommodate COVID-related restrictions, USC stages 14 commencement ceremonies over seven days to honor the classes of 2020 and 2021. The ceremonies are held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, marking the first time the stadium had hosted commencement since … Continue reading
2021c
The Presidential Medallion, the university’s top honor, was awarded to all of USC’s staff, faculty and health care professionals in recognition of their extraordinary work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021b
A record 65 USC-affiliated athletes compete at the Tokyo Olympics. They bring home 21 medals, and the golden streak continues: USC has won a gold medal in every Summer Olympics since 1912.
2021a
USC hires Christopher Manning as its first chief inclusion and diversity officer. The new leadership role will build a framework that reinforces USC’s commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and belonging and to address ongoing challenges of discrimination and bias.
2020b
USC shifted all its classes online in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic — a monumental behind-the-scenes effort taken up by teaching experts, administrators and information technology specialists to make the transition as smooth as possible.
2020c
Amid unprecedented circumstances, more than 19,000 graduates were recognized at USC’s first virtual conferring of degrees. USC students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends joined the celebration online to send off the Class of 2020.
2020d
In recognition of her examinations of race, citizenship and belonging among immigrant groups in the United States, USC Dornsife Professor Natalia Molina was named a 2020 MacArthur Fellow.
2020a
President Carol L. Folt announced a major financial aid expansion to benefit low- and middle-income families, extending USC’s long-time commitment to need-based funding by pledging more than $30 million in additional aid annually to expand the current pool.
2019e
For the first time in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s history, more than 50% of its incoming undergraduate class are women.
2019d
The Lord Foundation of California, which supports faculty research and teaching at USC, receives $260 million from the sale of LORD Corp. The foundation is expected to distribute proceeds to USC in 2020, making it USC’s largest-ever gift from a named donor. The gift would be used to bolster research and studies in areas including artificial intelligence, big data, analytics, and environmental sustainability
2019c
Charles F. Zukoski is installed as USC’s seventh provost.
2019b
USC’s newest academic building, Iovine and Young Hall, officially opens. The 40,000-square foot, state-of-the-art facility includes a dedicated “incubator” space for Trojan alumni.
2019a
On September 20, 2019, the USC community celebrated Carol L. Folt’s inauguration as the university’s 12th president.
2018a
The USC Marshall of School of Business announces that more than 50 percent of its full-time MBA Class of 2020 are women — this gender parity is a first for top-tier U.S. business schools.
2018b
USC alumna and trustee, Wanda M. Austin was appointed Interim President on August 7, 2018 by the USC Board of Trustees. Dr. Austin is the first woman and African-American to lead the university.
2017g
The USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience opens. Officially the largest building on USC’s campus, the Michelson Center brings together engineers and scientists in shared spaces designed to encourage collaborative research.