USC Media and Public Relations

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Education Week ran an op-ed by USC President C. L. Max Nikias and William Tierney of the USC Rossier School about the role universities can play in K-12 education. They wrote that in the coming century, higher education can do more to ensure that students are prepared for college. They can achieve this by collaborating with state elementary and high schools, setting goals to reduce dropout rates, and allowing faculty from different disciplines to collaborate. "Rather than continue to wring our hands in our ivory towers over sobering student-achievement data, we should instead bring our greatest minds to bear on one of our most vital organizations: the public school," Nikias and Tierney wrote.

Los Angeles Times featured the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll, which found that the majority of Californians worry about data collected on the Internet and by smart phone companies. Poll respondents were asked to rate how much they trusted six tech companies with their personal information, using a scale of zero to 10. No company scored above five. A quarter of respondents worried that data was being collected without their knowledge. Los Angeles Times reported that 65 percent of respondents think tech businesses are more economically important to California than entertainment businesses. The poll was also covered by a third Los Angeles Times story, CNN, MSNBC, San Francisco Chronicle and Asian News International.

U.S. News & World Report ran a Q&A with USC Marshall School admissions staff on how applicants can set themselves apart during the admissions process. They said that the Marshall School stands out from other universities because of its international relationships, the fruit of 30 years of relationship-building in the Pacific Rim. "These international networks and overseas relationships are critical — they open doors and allow our students to have access to businesses and organizations across the globe," the admissions staff said. They added that the school allows students to customize their degrees and that USC's campus is located in a cosmopolitan center of creativity.

CBS News Los Angeles affiliate KCAL-TV featured research by Sonya Negriff of the USC School of Social Work on whether social media promotes risky teen behavior. Negriff has received a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study whether teens are influenced to drink or engage in risky sexual behavior based on encouragement from their Facebook and Twitter friends. "Things that you do, or you say that you do online, you have to do those same things in person in order to keep up that persona that you've built for yourself online," Negriff said. L.A. Weekly also featured the research.

The San Diego Union-Tribune featured its collaboration with the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting, which is spearheaded by the USC Annenberg School. The project studied frequent emergency room visitors, who cost taxpayers close to $20 million per year. KPCC-FM's "Patt Morrison" highlighted the collaboration, noting that most of those frequent visitors are homeless. "It's cheaper to provide these folks coordinated care and housing than it is to leave them free on the street to call 911 over and over again," said John Gonzales of the Center for Health Reporting.

The Wrap highlighted the USC School of Cinematic Arts' Interactive Media Division, noting that enrollment has grown to 100 graduate and undergraduate students and that a new building is scheduled to open next year. "We're really thinking about what it means for our students to become media makers in this new world," said Tracy Fullerton of the School of Cinematic Arts. Fullerton added that a new class brings animation and interactive media students together with students of traditional disciplines in order to broaden their experience.