Priam Residential College renamed after Trustee


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Following a donation from William and Leslie McMorrow, Priam Residential College at USC Village will officially adopt the name in Fall in 2019, but the building exterior has already been renovated. (Josh Dunst/Daily Trojan)

Priam Residential College, one of the eight dormitories located at USC Village, will be renamed the William and Leslie McMorrow Residential College, following a donation from trustee William McMorrow and his wife Leslie. Though the building will officially adopt the new name in Fall 2019, exterior renovations to incorporate the name have already begun.

The name “Priam” —  selected after the last king of Troy during the Trojan War — served as a placeholder for the residential college.

William McMorrow, who is a member of the President’s Leadership Council and USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Marshall School of Business in 1969 and 1970, respectively.

Three of McMorrow’s siblings and his father attended USC. Leslie McMorrow, who graduated from UC Santa Barbara and Sophia University, is also the granddaughter of a USC graduate.

This is not the first USC-related name change at the hands of the McMorrow family. USC’s signature seven-year pre-college program, which supports over 1,000 students every year, was renamed the Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative after the family gave the largest donation in the program’s history.

Last April, the University honored William McMorrow with the Asa V. Call Alumni Achievement Award -— the highest honor USC alumni can receive — during the 85th annual USC Alumni Awards.

William McMorrow is also the CEO and chairman of Kennedy Wilson, a real estate ownership and service firm. McMorrow purchased the company in 1988, which now has 22 regional offices in the United States and Japan, along with over $5.8 billion worth of real estate investments.

According to residents in the building, the University began construction on the building last week. While the nameplate on the west side of the building has been fully changed, the nameplate on the south side is still in progress.

“There was some construction that was pretty bothersome for that whole week,” said Lisabelle Panossian, a sophomore majoring in public relations and philosophy, politics and law. “That was really noisy.”

Panossian said earplugs were taped onto every resident’s door in the building to counter the construction noise.

“It was just annoying having to deal with the noise,” said Annie Hong, a freshman majoring in psychology.