USC has received a gift of $120 million - the largest cash gift ever made to an
American university - from the Annenberg Foundation to establish a new center for
the development, study and teaching of communication.

On June 20, Walter H. Annenberg, chairman and president of the Annenberg
Foundation, announced foundation grants totaling $365 million, all payable prior
to Dec. 31, 1993, to four educational institutions - USC, the University of
Pennsylvania, Harvard University and the Peddie School of Hightstown, N.J. The
grants respond to the rising costs of education with scholarship programs open to
students from middle-income as well as low-income families. They also provide for
major innovations to widen the scope of education in the increasingly dynamic
area of communication.

At USC, the gift - plus the interest it will generate in the first few years -
will provide a $150 million endowment to launch the Annenberg Center for
Communication, according to president Steven B. Sample.

"This is an exciting moment, not only in the 113-year history of the University
of Southern California, but in the history of the city of Los Angeles as well,"
Sample said. "In a very real sense, Ambassador Annenberg's gift is an
investment in Southern California that is likely to help fuel our regional
economy with new jobs and whole new enterprises. I predict that, within a decade,
this gift will have made a major impact on our region of the state, as well as on
the developme nt and understanding of communication throughout the world." Wallis
Annenberg, daughter of Walter H. Annenberg and a USC trustee since 1971 as well
as a trustee of the Annenberg Foundation, said of the gift: "The Annenberg
Foundation has long been involved with the University of Southern California and
believes that the strengths of the university in both the arts and sciences of
communication, plus its location in one of the great media centers of the world,
will make it an ideal place to study communication on a global basis."

The Annenberg Foundation was founded by Walter H. Annenberg, ambassador to Great
Britain from 1968 to 1974, former editor and publisher of the Philadelphia
Inquirer and former chairman of Triangle Publications Inc. In 1953, he
established TV Guide as a national publication.

The Annenberg Center for Communication will be an interdisciplinary entity
drawing faculty and resources initially from five separate USC academic programs
- the Annenberg School for Communication, the School of Cinema-Television, the
School of Engineering, the School of Journalism and the Department of
Communication Arts and Sciences in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Addressing every element of modern communication, the center will serve as a
national focal point for understanding the ethical, social, technological and
economic opportunities and responsibilities relating to communication in the 21st
century. The university has opened a national search for a director of the new
center.

According to Sample, the center's mission will be threefold:

* To draw upon and develop USC's extensive resources in the field of
communication to create the world's foremost academic center for communication.

* To address the ethical, social, technological and economic opportunities and
challenges related to communication in the 21st century.

* To focus on the experimental, cultural and global aspects of communication
in an interdisciplinary and integrative way.

The center will offer interdisciplinary Ph.D., postdoctoral and joint master's
degree programs, an undergraduate residential honors college, visiting
scholarships and mid-career fellowships, and wide-ranging support for
collaborative research projects.


The Annenberg family's close relationship with USC spans more than a quarter
century. Prior to this gift, Walter Annenberg had contributed more than $50
million in cash to the university since 1966.

His commitments to USC's 1970s fundraising drive, Toward Century II, established
the Annenberg School for Communication at USC as a first-rate graduate program in
communication theory.

Annenberg's gifts to The Campaign for USC, the university's 1980s fundraising
drive, totaled more than $26.5 million, making him the largest single donor to
that campaign.

The Campaign for USC, which began in 1984 and ended in 1990, raised more than
$640 million, surpassing the university's original target of $557 million.
Annenberg gave both the first gift of the campaign and the gift that put USC over
the $557 million mark, and he served on The Campaign for USC's senior advisory
committee.

Wallis Annenberg has been a member of the USC Board of Trustees since 1971. She
currently serves on the board's Student Affairs and Public Affairs committees.

In 1992, Wallis Annenberg was instrumental in an Annenberg Foundation grant that
gave USC $500,000 to create a scholarship fund for women age 35 and older. The
grant, payable over four years, established the Wallis Annenberg Fund for women
earning an undergraduate degree, professional degree or Ph.D. degree.


Annenberg has donated more money to American higher education than any other
individual. In 1990, he gave a $50 million challenge grant to the United Negro
College Fund, an organization comprising 41 black colleges and universities; at
the time, it was the 14th largest gift in the history of American higher
education.

Annenberg has been honored repeatedly for his work in media and education as well
as for his philanthropy. In 1951, he received the Alfred I. DuPont Award for
pioneering education via television. In 1958, he received the Marshall Field
Award for excellence in communication. In 1983, he received the Ralph Lowell
Medal for outstanding contributions to public television. In 1984, he was named
Publisher of the Year by the Magazine Publishers Association, and in 1989, he
received the George Foster Peabody award.

In 1986, President Reagan presented Annenberg with the Presidential Medal of
Freedom for his pioneering use of television for educational purposes and his
philanthropy. USC awarded him a doctor of laws degree at Commencement ceremonies
in 1977. Annenberg was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1978.