Home / Winter 2011 / USC Celebrates Historic Campaign Launch
USC Celebrates Historic Campaign Launch
Photographs by Steve Cohn
Amid a festive atmosphere, the university kicks off its $6 billion fundraising drive.
President C. L. Max Nikias and first lady Niki C. Nikias, center, and USC supporters celebrate amid fireworks above Widney Alumni House. Photo by Steve Cohn 
THE TROJAN FAMILY celebrated the launch of the Campaign for the University of Southern California, the largest campaign in the history of USC and of American higher education, at two events in September.
On Sept. 15, more than 1,000 USC alumni and friends gathered for “Dinner Under the Stars,” a concert performance and gala at Widney Alumni House.
Before the festivities, USC president C. L. Max Nikias asked the audience to reflect on the university’s extraordinary journey, which began as the dream of Judge Robert Maclay Widney in what was once a remote outpost of the American West.
“A global university was humbly born, as 53 students and nine teachers made their way into this building in early October of 1880,” Nikias said. “Judge Widney could not have imagined, even in his wildest dreams, what USC is today – a rising global powerhouse in the cultivation of the human mind, body and spirit.”
Standing not far from the iconic statue of Tommy Trojan, and borrowing its Latin motto, Fas Regna Trojae – “the destined reign of Troy” – Nikias exhorted the university community to reach higher and farther than may seem possible.
“Ours today are times of uncertainty, but uncertainty is always the beginning of adventure,” he said. “With this $6 billion campaign goal, we are embarking on our own adventure of a lifetime – one that will allow our university to maximize its presence both locally and globally, setting the standard for community service and global academic outreach and collaboration.
“This campaign is ultimately an investment in people – faculty and students of unmatched ability and ambition,” Nikias continued. “It will allow USC to move tothe vanguard in the sciences and the social sciences, in the humanities and engineering and medicine and patient care, in professional practice and athletic and cultural excellence.”
Nikias highlighted USC’s history of implementing ambitious and successful fundraising campaigns, beginning in the 1960s under President Norman H. Topping. At the time, national media wrote off the university’s chances and some predicted that 20 years would pass before USC reached its goal. Instead, the university raised close to $1 billion in today’s dollars in only five years. Subsequent campaigns culminated in President Steven B. Sample’s historic $3 billion drive, which cemented USC’s status as a leading national research university.
The next step for USC, Nikias said, is to build its endowment. “It must rank in the top tier of private institutions, if we want our university to have the resources to compete for the long term.”
On Sept. 16, USC trustees, faculty, staff, students and friends gathered at Bovard Auditorium to celebrate the university’s academic achievements with student performances and faculty presentations, as well as remarks by Nikias, USC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs Elizabeth Garrett and USC senior vice president for University Advancement Al Checcio.
Addressing a full house, Nikias announced that USC raised a record $1.2 billion in the past 12 months. He emphasized that this figure was made possible not just because of the kind of large gifts that make headlines, but also because of the support the university receives at all levels. “You have shown that every gift, no matter how small and humble, makes a bold statement about what we value,” Nikias said.
Provost Garrett outlined how the campaign will build the university: by recruiting and retaining more exceptional researchers, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; by increasing financial aid and reducing student debt; by funding pressing academic priorities in all schools and units; and by funding capital projects, including new research offices and laboratories, buildings for patient care, and residential housing for graduate and international students.
“What happens at USC has an impact that resonates far beyond Los Angeles and Southern California,” Garrett said.
Checcio concluded by noting that the campaign is an initiative to accelerate the academic ascent of the university.
“The campaign will touch each and every area of USC, and it will touch each and every one of us,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”
