Students make or break relations with community
Back in Arizona when I was senior in high school, my calculus teacher surveyed the class about what colleges they wanted to attend. About 40 percent raised their hands when he asked if anyone was interested in Arizona State University.
He then handed each student with their hands up what he said was ASU’s application. Inside was a coloring book. If you stayed inside the line, you were accepted.
USC’s reputation has been similarly colored by stereotypes, which the university has worked hard in the past two decades to eradicate. While USC has focused in part on boosting its academics, the school’s push for community service has won it acclamations like Time magazine’s “College of the Year” in 2000.
As USC faces a transitional period in the course of the university’s 30-year Master Plan, it faces the challenge of helping the surrounding the community without overtaking it.
USC’s reputation is a doubled-edged sword. On one side, USC boasts a distinct level of prestige and accomplishment that every student should take pride in. It’s what sets USC apart and what students highlight when they talk about their educational experience to friends, families and employers.
On the other hand, though, USC students are often stereotyped as spoiled and unconcerned about the struggling community around them. The reputation of the self-absorbed rich kid hasn’t quite disappeared.
USC should be acknowledged for reaching out to its neighbors while it tries to expand, but the next decade will be pivotal in keeping a neighborly reputation.
It is primarily up to students — and secondarily the school officials — to sustain their community efforts and continue building partnerships in the community.
USC shares the neighborhood with its residents. Unchecked development and disregard for the community could destroy the school’s carefully built relationship with the area.
Fortunately, some USC students already understand this predicament and are taking the right steps to ensure the community grows with USC and is not just pushed aside.
USG community affairs committee has been holding forums between the students, school officials and local community figures, in which everyone has an equal opportunity to discuss their feelings on USC’s expansion.
Community forums are definitely the right approach, but higher student participation is needed to continue building relations with the community.
USC students have made another notable effort to improve community relations. Recently, two USC students, Daniel Wu and Samantha Foley, were appointed to a local neighborhood council.
This forms a direct partnership between the community and school by letting students personally facilitate the needs and concerns for the university and the community, rather than school officials.
This is the exact type of developments the university must continue to foster to overcome its prior reputation.
No one can create change overnight, but the best approach for USC is to continue building relations with the neighboring community through outreach and involvement. USC has already worked to establish trust within the community through volunteer programs, economic support and community boards that bring in local people to discuss their concerns about USC’s effect on its neighbors.
USC should be commended for its efforts, but it still has a lot of work to do to reconcile its interests with the community and improve its reputation.
Robert Fragoza is junior majoring in chemical engineering. His column, “Reality Check,” runs Fridays.