Issue: Summer 2006

[Editor’s note] Adieu 125

As USC’s 125th anniversary celebration comes to a close, it’s useful to look at some of the lasting effects it produced. In addition to a three-day “birthday party” (perhaps more memorable for its academic showcase events than for the Trojan warrior popping out of a gigantic cake), there was Conference 125, sub-titled “Global Horizons: America’s Challenge to Science and Innovation.” Jointly sponsored by USC and Science magazine (which celebrated its own 125th anniversary this year), the conference brought together a power team of scientists, thinkers and pundits, including MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews, who broadcast his show live from the center of the University Park campus, surrounded by a crowd of cheering students. (For more on Conference 125, see “Science Friction” on page 26.)

Two major additions to USC’s historical library were produced: USC’s First Ladies: A Trojan Family Album and The University of Southern California: 1880-2006 (due for release this fall). Both books are “firsts” – the first book ever to celebrate the extraordinary women who served as “first ladies” of the university; and the first comprehensive history of the university since 1969.

Three other books were also published during the jubilee years. USC’s First Book of Lists and Urban Legends is an amusing and fact-filled guide to little-known Trojan lore (including the number of fountains on the University Park campus and the real story behind Mudd Hall and the hunchback). A University and a Neighborhood: University of Southern California in Los Angeles, 1880-1984, written and compiled under the leadership of emeritus professor of geography Curt Roseman, is an “amazing mosaic depicting an interdependent community that has grown, and grown up, with one another” (from an introduction by USC President Steven B. Sample).

All these books were published by Figueroa Press, an academic reprint and specialty publication press that is the brainchild of Trojan Bookstores manager Mark Ewalt. They are available at www.trojanbookstores.com. For more Figueroa Press titles, see www.figueroapress.com.

– Susan Heitman