Online survey reveals what alums value most about USC – and what they want from their alma mater.

What do USC alumni really think of their alma mater? In search of answers, the USC Alumni Association recently embarked on a cyberspace “listening tour” of the Trojan Family – an online survey conducted by the organizational development consulting firm Performance Enhancement Group Ltd., of Houston, Texas.

According to Scott M. Mory, USC associate senior vice president for alumni relations, the survey yielded a wealth of useful, enlightening and occasionally surprising information about what our alums value most – and how the alumni association can better serve the needs and goals of the more than 300,000 Trojan Family members worldwide.

Nearly 8,000 USC alumni, representing different generations, ethnicities, regions and schools of USC, responded to the survey, which asked them to rate their college education and alumni experience. Schools with the highest percentage of respondents were the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences (28 percent), the USC Marshall School of Business (21 percent), the USC Viterbi School of Engineering (14 percent) and the USC Annenberg School for Communication (7 percent). In other respects, the survey respondents were representative of the overall alumni population.

The firm compared the responses of USC alumni with those of graduates from 10 other universities, including UCLA. The fact that 95 percent of the USC alumni have an “excellent” or “good” opinion of the university – and 80 percent describe their alumni experience in the same way – reaffirms what is apparent to anyone who’s seen a USC Homecoming: Trojans are intensely loyal to their alma mater.

They’re also quite vocal about their bond with USC. More than 40 percent of the Trojans surveyed say they promote the university “all the time,” versus just over 20 percent of alumni from the other universities. This overwhelmingly positive opinion of USC derives primarily from three “triggers”: the increasing “equity value” of a USC degree, the accomplishments of other USC alumni, and USC history and Trojan Family traditions.

Although the survey results for USC are mostly encouraging, they suggest that the alumni association can improve its connections with USC alumni worldwide. To emphasize how USC degrees have improved in value, the alumni association is working to boost awareness of today’s USC, an internationally renowned research university with a rich history of scholarship and a legacy of alumni who excel.

Participating Trojans also indicated that they want increased access to alumni benefits such as regional programming, career services, invitations to programs on campus and access to library and other university services. And while nearly half of the respondents live in close proximity to USC, the alumni association is stepping up efforts to engage Trojans outside Southern California by expanding program offerings.

How the alumni association connects with alumni is also at issue, given the number of recent graduates who have come of age in the era of cell phones, e-mail and texting. Many respondents asked for enhancements to the online alumni directory, and stated a strong preference for being contacted by e-mail.

The survey has provided the university’s alumni relations leaders with data to guide them in modifying and expanding alumni association programs and services. Earlier this year, Mory and survey administrator Rob Shoss presented the findings to an audience of 175 university leaders, members of the Alumni Association Board of Governors and university trustees.

– Timothy O. Knight

Belated Recognition

USC Honors its Nisei Students

Japanese Americans forced to leave USC during World War II are welcomed back to the Trojan Family.

Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi was a junior at USC when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

A little over two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which allowed American citizens of Japanese descent to be removed from their homes along the Pacific coast.

By spring, Nishi was an internee at the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, awaiting clearance to continue her studies in the Midwest.

Hers is but one of many moving stories of Nisei (“second generation” in Japanese, though it refers to first-generation Japanese Americans) students, at universities all along the West Coast, forced to interrupt their schooling during World War II.

At downtown L.A.’s Millennium Biltmore on April 25, USC honored these students during the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association’s 2008 Scholarship and Awards Gala.

On behalf of USC President Steven B. Sample, and following a standing ovation, Martha Harris, senior vice president for university relations, presented certificates of recognition to a small group of survivors and surviving family members, making them honorary alumni of USC.

According to Harris, “roughly 130 USC students of Japanese heritage were affected (by the forced internment). Looking back now, 66 years later,” she continued, “we understand the frustration, disappointment and pain suffered by our Japanese-American students … [but] despite the upheaval in their lives, their suffering from injustice on so many fronts, many of our Nisei students remained devoted Trojans and embodied those supreme Trojan values of courage, faithfulness and loyalty.”

Harris told the story of the late Jiro Oishi, a USC senior at the time Pearl Harbor was bombed. On the way to take the last final exam he needed to graduate, Oishi was taken away by the FBI and sent to federal prison in Montana. The authorities ultimately acknowledged arresting the wrong man, but after the war, when Oishi applied to USC to finish his degree, he was denied readmission.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Yukata Kody Kodama’s father also was arrested by the FBI, not to be heard from again until fall 1942.

Kodama, in his first year at USC, soon found himself behind barbed wire at the Gila River Relocation Camp in Arizona. His life had changed in an instant – his dream of becoming an attorney shattered.

Frank F. Chuman was already in the USC Law School when Executive Order 9066 came down. Shocked that Japanese-ancestry citizens and aliens alike were to be interned, he ended up at Manzanar, Calif., east of the Sierra, with 10,000 other evacuees.

Thanks principally to the efforts of Jonathan T. Kaji ’76, president of the Asian Pacific Alumni Association’s board of directors, USC has now joined several other West Coast universities that have recognized their World War II-impacted Nisei students.

At the awards gala, USC athletic director Mike Garrett ’67 announced that an upcoming football halftime would be dedicated to the Nisei students. Senior director for alumni relations Grace Shiba ’77 declared that an Honorary Nisei Student Scholarship would be established.

“It’s a very nice thing, of course, and it’s hard to know what else the university can do,” said Setsuko Nishi, about the honorary certificate. “Still, there is no assurance it could never happen again…. I think the people of the United States have to understand what was wrong and why it happened and be absolutely sure to take steps that it won’t happen again.”

– Ross M. Levine

AlumniADVANTAGES

›› BOOK IT The USC Alumni Association and the USC Libraries are cosponsoring a new service to USC alumni – electronic access to the ProQuest Research Library – one of the libraries’ most popular and requested databases. Through ProQuest, alumni doing educational or personal research can log on and search a database that includes approximately 4,000 newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, trade publications, reference books and reports. For any Trojan with Internet access, it’s almost like having Doheny Library in your own home.

›› ESCAPES USC Trojan Travel, a division of the USC Alumni Association, is expanding its reach to help fulfill the travel needs of more diverse members of the Trojan Family. Included under the eSCapes banner is the Young Alumni Travel Program, which seeks to tailor the travel experience to alumni and friends between the ages of 25 and 40. The program has already sent young Trojans to Tuscany and Costa Rica, with this year’s program featuring Peru and the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.

›› LIFECYCLE PROGRAM The association is ramping up its efforts to offer programming to keep Trojans engaged, from their freshman year to their 50th reunion and beyond. Programs include the Young Alumni Council, events sponsored by the association’s regional organizations, USC special interest groups and, for those who graduated in 1958 or before, the Half Century Trojans. The goal is to provide career assistance, volunteer opportunities and financial benefits designed to improve the lives of Trojans of all ages.

›› HOME TAILGATES For the first time in anyone’s memory, the USC Alumni Association, in addition to its weekender program at away games, will host tailgates at five home games this football season: Ohio State (Sept 13), Oregon (Oct. 4), Arizona State (Oct. 11/ Trojan Parents Weekend), Cal (Nov. 8/USC Reunion Weekend), and Notre Dame (Nov. 29). The tailgates will be professionally catered – think barbecue – and feature Trojan-themed entertainment. They will take place adjacent to Widney Alumni House in Argue Plaza and on Pardee Lawn. Online registration is available at http://alumni.usc.edu.

For details on these and other USC Alumni Association programs, visit http://alumni.usc.edu

Awards and Rewards

The Alumni SCene

A season of giving and receiving

Event honoree Wallis Annenberg (at podium) stole the show at Town and Gown of USC’s annual Benefit Luncheon and Fashion Show at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in April. Accepting the alumnae group’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Annenberg capped her speech with a surprise pledge of $1 million for Town and Gown’s programs. The group also honored famed artist LeRoy Neiman, this year’s recipient of the Town and Gown of USC Lifetime Scholarship Award. Pictured here, from left, are Town and Gown president Linda Givvin ’71, Annenberg and – a bit overwhelmed – benefit chair Jan Artenian. The longest serving member of the USC Board of Trustees, Annenberg is also a member of the USC Shoah Foundation Board of Councilors.