University of Southern California - El Rodeo Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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rly 225,000 pe Los Angeles area alone its contribution was even more evident. If every USC graduate living in the county were to stay at home one day, two-thirds of the county ' s courtrooms would be dark because the judges weren ' t there; one-third of the people who had legal business to transact wouldn ' t be able to talk to their lawyers; one-half of the city ' s pharmacists would be off duty; two-thirds of the dentists wouldn ' t be at their chairs; one-half of the county ' s social workers would be absent and two-thirds of the county ' s school administrators would be gone. The county would also miss vast numbers of doctors, journalists, business- men, motion picture technicians and citizens in every walk of life; there would be few, if any, people in the county who would be entirely unaffected by the strike. It was estimated that more than 72 per cent of USC ' s alumni lived within the radius of 100 miles of Tommy Trojan. USC also had a proud record of trailblazing in many areas of education. Its specialist-teacher program stood as the only one of its kind in the nation ; its aerospace safety division offered the world ' s only course in the safe handling of ballistic missiles (among its graduates, astronaut Walter Schirra). USC ' s School of Pharmacy was the first in the nation to require six years of train- ing and a doctoral degree for graduation. USC surgeons, using the Kay-Anderson heart-lung machine, performed the world ' s first successful operation for the removal of a tumor from the lower chamber of the heart. KUSC-FAA was one of the earliest FAA sta- tions, and USC s cinema department was both the first established on a university campus and the first to win an Oscar (for the movie short Face of Lincoln ). For almost half a century the university was the only institution — whether private or tax-supported — of- fering training in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy to the people of Southern California. Eight years after the inception of the USC Law School, its graduates were considered so well trained that they were admitted to the bar without examination; in 1885 the Medical School was the first in the country to require a three-year curriculum. There was one faculty member for each 1 1 regular daytime students, a better than average ratio. But if the university was to become an outpost of educational excellence, the key had to be planning. Where was the money going to cpme from, and how would it be spent? Which ranked hiahest on the list of urgent necessities — higher faculty salarip buried in substandard housing 1 1

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us, our every step will be a stride — our every stride will be sure — and our ascent toward academic excellence will end in triumph. This guide is our Master Plan for a new era of enterprise and excellence in education. Response to the announcement of the Master Plan was immediate. President John F. Kennedy and United States Senators cabled congratulations, and other telegrams were received from as far afield as the Embassy of the Philippines, Tokyo, the Minister of Planning in Beirut and the University of Heidelberg. The Univer- sity also received the first joint proclamation ever issued by the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, commending the educa- tional program of the University of Southern California to all citi- zens. Every major communication medium responded with inter- est and encouragement, and the Los Angeles City Council un- animously approved the campus physical and development Plan. ■ On that evening — May 17, 1961 — USC had promise. But it also had problems. As the very fact of having to launch an all-out drive for excellence might indicate, there was much about USC that was far from exemplary at the time of the Master Plan an- nouncement. The university still suffered from a dual public image as a school for the less-than-brilliant children of wealthy parents and as an institution where football was more important than physics. The average USC student, most people thought, was either a frater- nity man with a lavish allowance, a gentleman ' s C average, or a burly and brainless football player with a car from the alumni, advance copies of tests and a tendency to forget his own name. Both images were, of course, myths, but they also held a small grain of truth. USC also suffered from a notoriously under- paid faculty and a campus that was almost as much wooden shacks as it was Renaissance brick. The great facilities of the West ' s biggest city — the museums, the Coliseum and the Sports Arena, freeways and downtown — were close at hand, but the immediate campus area was buried in substandard housing, high crime rates and one of the busiest police and fire divisions in the city. In addition, though USC ' s alumni were numerous, many were disinterested. The university did not establish an organized full-time alumni annual giving program until 1949; its $8 million endowment was one of the smallest among private American colleges and universities. (In comparison, Harvard had a $322 million endowment; Yale, $204 million,- Chicago, $133 million,- California, $98 million; Stanford, $90 million; and Caltech, $45 million). In face of this, however, observers were quick to recognize the assets that would stand USC in good stead in its $107 million climb to the pinnacle of excellence. In its 81 years as one of the country ' s few major, independent, privately controlled and financed metropolitan universities, nearly 225,000 persons had been its students. It had granted more than 83,000 degrees and its graduates had assumed places of im- portance in the community and in the nation. Seventeen college and university presidents held degrees from USC, and in the 10

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more scholarships, better facilities — when all were needed im- mediately? Was it more important to expand the campus area or clean up the makeshift buildings already inside the grounds? These were the questions President Topping and the planning committees had pondered for two an d a half years, and out of their debates came a clear-cut plan for growth that charted step by step the rocky road to academic excellence. Phase I of the Master Plan, as Hoffman, national chairman for the Plan, explained it, aimed at raising approximately $30 mil- lion in the first four years. And, as Dr. Topping emphasized in his announcement speech, the university intended to make each dollar of this money do the work of three. Of this sum (in itself less than a third of the expected total Master Plan cost) $4 million would be allotted for academic enrichment — for graduate fellowships, faculty salary supplementation, faculty research and publication, distinguished visiting scholars, scholarships and loan funds. Other money was earmarked for new buildings, all to be erected on a priority scale. To contain these buildings — expected to cost more than $48 million — the area was to be ex- panded from 78 acres to 150, bounded by Jeffe rson, Figueroa, Exposition and Vermont. The university already owned about 85 per cent of this land; the rest would be gradually purchased. Architect William Pereira and his staff took to their drawing boards to plan carefully what this new USC might look like. Following Dr. Topping ' s prerequisite for a carefully oriented and genuinely purposeful use for every square foot of campus land, they en- visioned a campus patterned on the quadrangle concept of England ' s Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Buildings would be grouped in quads according to their related functions — the campus heart quads (Doheny, Bovard, the Student Union, the Hancock Foundation and the Von KleinSmid Center), the liberal arts complex, the science quad, the engineering quad, the busi- ness-law quad, the student activities center and the physical education center. Some of these areas would have buildings with breezeways under them, with pillars supporting the struc- tures, so that the green courts of the quads would be visible from a distance, enhancing the feeling of spaciousness within a limited area. Pereira, a former visiting art lecturer at USC ' s School of Architecture, also proposed that each quad have its jewel — a small building designed as a focal point, reflecting the most creative architectural thinking of its period and the academic disciplines sharing the quad. Interlacing the campus would be a system of greenbelts, land- scaped pedestrian and bicycle thruways. All automobiles would be parked on the periphery of the campus; streets within the cam- pus area would be gradually closed and turned into tree-lined malls. Pereira also considered the redevelopment of areas sur- rounding the campus as important to the objectives of the uni- versity. His research indicated that historically and without ex- ception, an urban university can achieve the level of scholarship which will make it internationally prominent only through bring- ing its family of scholars into residence near campus. The Hoover Urban Renewal Project of the Community Redevelopment Agency hopes to clear the way for such a situation through up- grading the 103 acres west, north and east of the campus. Pereira sees here eventually a new commercial district to serve the shopping tastes and requirements of the university com- munity and a residential district varied in character and price and organized to accommodate a high density population without losing the feeling of open space created in the campus area. Ar- tists ' sketches and scale models indicated the scope and dimen- sions of the new campus look. The dream took shape, aloof but approachable. (above) Posing during Olin Hall dedication ceremonies are James O. Wynn of the Olin Foundation; William Pereira, architect for the $2.3 million Olin Hall and many of the Master Plan buildings; President Topping; Gin Wong of William Pereira and Associates; Dr. Alfred Ingersoll, Engineering School Dean; and Charles L. Horn, president of the Olin Foundation, Inc. (middle) The