As USC blooms, so too does the Daily Trojan


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I came to the startling realization earlier this week that my days as a student at this University are numbered. After I put on my graduation robe and walk across the stage to collect my diploma, I fear I will lose the security of the Trojan Family camaraderie, the feeling that we’re in this together.

It’s the hugging between strangers after your football team makes a fourth-quarter comeback at the Rose Bowl. It’s the peaceful congregation at Tommy Trojan after an ugly presidential election, promising that despite the nation’s political divide, we as students will reach across and band together. It’s the somber gathering in remembrance of a leading expert in his field.

This pervasive unity is electric, and there’s no doubt that more and more hopeful Trojans want to be a part of our tribe. There were a record number of applicants for the Class of 2020, a feat sure to be shattered by the new class and a tribute to the strength of our academics. Entrepreneur Larry Ellison’s $200 million donation established the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, launching us to the forefront of cancer research. Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his revolutionary novel The Sympathizer, meanwhile enriching his students in the classroom. And that was just in 2016.

But Trojans, selected from a greater pool of excellence, enter a new era of USC greatness. The campaign for USC advanced by President C.L. Max Nikias is inches away from reaching its $6 billion target. The USC Village, a three-year-long, $700 million community construction effort, sees its ribbon cutting ceremony before the start of the new school year. An age of new beginnings dawns on the USC football team.

Here at the Daily Trojan, we will continue to capture our University’s ascent and invite you to be a part of the process. This semester, we hope to interact with our readership, establishing online forums for student commentary and asking for an increased number of guest submissions.

I also encourage you to look at our ever-evolving digital platforms, featuring dynamic forms of coverage. Your stories will not exist simply in black-and-white text, but will be supplemented with visuals and multimedia features. We will continue to adapt to the ever-burgeoning digital world, relaying reliable news to you as rapidly as possible.

All the while, our commitment to the quality of our content will be greater than ever. We will raise more questions on issues pertinent to the the student body. We will seek to report on the vast array of life experiences on this campus, highlighting what might not otherwise come to light.

We go to a great school. And the Daily Trojan will continue to celebrate this excellence with all of you by our side.

DANNI WANG, SPRING 2017 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF