Ceremony marks official opening of Dauterive Hall
The university held a grand opening ceremony for the new Dr. Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall for Social Sciences on Wednesday. The $30 million, 98,000-square foot building first broke ground two years ago and opened for classes at the beginning of the semester.
It’s official · Members of the Trojan Marching Band play at the grand opening of Dauterive Hall on Wednesday. The building has hosted classes for multiple disciplines and departments since the first day of the fall semester. – Min Haeng Cho | Daily Trojan
The building houses several programs that aim to utilize multidisciplinary approaches for problem solving. Among the programs are the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, the Center for Economic and Social Research, the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation and the USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center.
More than 500 people attended the ceremony, which was hosted in the open-air courtyard of the new building.
Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Elizabeth Garrett began the ceremony by acknowledging some prominent attendees, including former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, USC Trustee Dr. Verna Dauterive and USC President C.L. Max Nikias and his wife Niki. Also in attendance were the deans of several USC schools and leaders from the construction and administrative teams.
President Nikias introduced Dauterive, who received her master’s and doctoral degrees in education from USC’s Rossier School of Education in 1949 and 1966, respectively, and commended her unprecedented contributions to the university.
“Today, we are celebrating one of education’s unique builders,” Nikias said. “Our USC Trustee Verna Dauterive breathes life into education. Her historic gift to this building was the largest by an African American in the history of American higher education.”
President Nikias also acknowledged Dauterive’s husband, the late Peter Dauterive. Dauterive’s $30 million donation in 2008 was in his memory. Peter Dauterive graduated near the top of his class from the Marshall School of Business and went on to become the founding president and CEO of Founders Savings & Loan Association.
“Peter never forgot his alma mater, supporting the Rossier School, Marshall School and the Norris Cancer Center,” Nikias said. “Peter and Verna shared a great commitment to each other but also to USC. Verna committed this building in memory of Peter. In many ways, Verna intended Dauterive Hall to be a love letter to her late husband.”
In her speech, Dauterive credited President Nikias and Provost Garrett for deciding the building’s Romanesque style and design, which was structured in a way to optimize collaborative spaces.
One of the building’s features is a sculpture titled “Ascending Thoughts” that changes color as the sun shines on it at different times of the day.
“I think it’s good to have a building that incorporates multiple levels of subjects,” said Ioan Trayanov, an undeclared junior. “Whether or not you have classes with these other people, you’re still going to see them and run into them. And they’re not just people in your major — it’s people who have different thoughts and leads to a new type of diversity.”
President Nikias hopes that the new building will help increase USC’s engagement with the world.
“Interdisciplinary research has been one of the strengths of USC,” Nikias said. “With this new beautiful building and what goes inside, it makes a big statement and brings all the research to the next level. It will really make it possible for different social science researchers and students to come together to do the work that hopefully benefits the city and the world.”