page_title: University of Southern California
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: University of Southern California / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Widney 1903
context_page_description: The University of Southern California is a private research university in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in California. For the 2019–20 academic year, there were 20,500 students enrolled in four-year undergraduate programs, and 28,000 graduate and professional students in a number of programs, including business, law, film, engineering, occupational therapy, pharmacy, and medicine. USC is the largest private employer in the city of Los Angeles and generates $8 billion in economic impact on Los Angeles and California.
  USC was one of the earliest nodes on ARPANET and is the birthplace of the Domain Name System. Other technologies invented at USC include DNA computing, dynamic programming, image compression, VoIP, and antivirus software.
  USC's alumni include a total of 11 Rhodes Scholars and 12 Marshall Scholars. As of October 2018, nine Nobel laureates, six MacArthur Fellows, and one Turing Award winner have been affiliated with the university. As of May 2018, USC has conferred degrees upon 29 alumni who became billionaires.
context_section_description: The University of Southern California was founded following the efforts of Judge Robert M. Widney, who helped secure donations from several key figures in early Los Angeles history: a Protestant nurseryman, Ozro Childs, an Irish Catholic former-Governor, John Gately Downey, and a German Jewish banker, Isaias W. Hellman. The three donated 308 lots of land to establish the campus and provided the necessary seed money for the construction of the first buildings. Originally operated in affiliation with the Methodist Church, the school mandated from the start that "no student would be denied admission because of race". The university is no longer affiliated with any church, having severed formal ties in 1952.
  When USC opened in 1880, tuition was $15.00 per term and students were not allowed to leave town without the knowledge and consent of the university president. The school had an enrollment of 53 students and a faculty of 10. The city lacked paved streets, electric lights, telephones, and a reliable fire alarm system. Its first graduating class in 1884 was a class of three—two males and female valedictorian Minnie C. Miltimore.
  The colors of USC are cardinal and gold, which were approved by USC's third president, the Reverend George W. White, in 1896. In 1958, the shade of gold, which was originally more of an orange color, was changed to a more yellow shade. The letterman's awards were the first to make the change.
  USC students and athletes are known as Trojans, epitomized by the Trojan Shrine, nicknamed "Tommy Trojan", near the center of campus. Until 1912, USC students (especially athletes) were known as Fighting Methodists or Wesleyans, though neither name was approved by the university. During a fateful track and field meet with Stanford University, the USC team was beaten early and seemingly conclusively. After only the first few events, it seemed implausible USC would ever win; however, the team fought back, winning many of the later events, to lose only by a slight margin. After this contest, Los Angeles Times sportswriter Owen Bird reported the USC athletes "fought on like the Trojans of antiquity", and the president of the university at the time, George F. Bovard, approved the name officially.
  During World War II, USC was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
  USC is responsible for $8 billion in economic output in Los Angeles County; USC students spend $563 million yearly in the local economy and visitors to the campus add another $37.9 million.
  Recognizing that China–United States relations would play a great role in shaping the 21st century, in 2006, USC established the USC U.S.-China Institute (USCI). Known for its conferences, speakers series, training programs, publications and documentaries, USCI works to inform public discussion with policy-relevant research and timely programming. It publishes US-China Today and is widely known for its twelve-part Assignment:China documentary series on how China has been covered by American journalists since the 1940s. In 2010, the U.S. government and the USA Pavilion organizers asked USCI to manage the recruitment, selection, training and supervision of the students selected to staff the pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.
caption: The Widney Alumni House, the campus's first building
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