After three years, space politicization continues


Rare is a thing so unknowable as to provide infinite wonder. In a simpler age, the night sky might have been such a thing. It sure isn’t now. Last Monday marked the three-year anniversary of one of the saddest days in recent memory: Pluto’s demotion to dwarf-planet status. Years of watching Ms. Frizzle and her […]

Kenyan census is not a cure-all


The term “ethnic violence” is used so often in relation to African tribal disputes that it is easy to forget to ask exactly what that term means. For Rwandans, it meant that relations between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes became so bad that genocide followed. The same can be said today for tribes in the […]

Cankles: the biggest threat since swine flu


There were a lot of things to worry about this summer, for the anxiety-prone. A recessed economy, a miserable job market, the persistent recurrence of swine flu cases and the death of our nation’s most beloved crazy person made lounging on the global warming-heated beach almost stressful. As though worrying about whether the cabana boy […]

Letters to the Editor


Fighting for our children On May 15, 2009, I graduated from the University of Southern California and earned a doctorate degree in education. While this graduation was going on, thousands of my education colleagues were protesting against impending state and local budget cuts that, if approved, would terminate their employment at schools located across California. […]

A step forward for tours


USC would do well to follow the example of many colleges who promote conversational tours.

Reality TV viewers perpetuate broken ideals


We, the public, demand a lot from our Hollywood stars. We’ve certainly had our way with the buxom blonde songstresses and ditzy heiresses, and we’ve preyed unremittingly on the clean-cut, sexually-curious boy banders, A-list couples in hiding and, of course, the young, physically abusive R&B entertainers. But somewhere on this path of unreasonable privacy invasion, […]

2001 – 2010: An on-campus ’SCodyssey


Since it was founded in 1880 with 53 students and 10 teachers, USC has expanded far beyond even the wildest dreams of its founders. In its seminal year, the university only managed to give diplomas to three people at the first graduation — how could they have known that someday, a USC alum would walk […]

Help promote another ten years of change


When USC graduates of decades past return to visit their alma mater, the reality that sets in as they step onto campus must be staggering. As they stroll along Trousdale, remembering the places where they learned or lived, they realize that the USC they attended no longer exists. In just 10 years, widespread growth and […]