USC in the News 12/1/2009

Voice of America reported that reported that for the eighth consecutive year, USC enrolled the highest number of foreign students of any university in the country. USC had 7,482 international students in the 2008-09 school year, reported a study by the Institute of International Education. Gulf News (United Arab Emirates), Daily News & Analysis (India) and the Associated Press also covered the survey's findings. University World News (U.K.) reported that 22 percent of USC's students come from foreign countries.

San Diego Business Journal reported that USC Executive Vice President and Provost C.L. Max Nikias joined California Healthcare Institute Inc.'s board of directors. "He has been responsible for accelerating the academic momentum that the university has experienced in recent years, and oversees a vast academic community," the article stated.

Los Angeles Times reported that USC researchers discovered two distinct groups within the Jerusalem cricket species on Catalina Island. "While finding a new subspecies of insect wouldn't be a huge surprise, finding two subspecies within 22 miles of the mainland is unusual," said Suzanne Edmands of the USC College. "Jerusalem crickets drum the ground with their legs. So we really want to get more song data to see if they are drumming differently than those on the mainland, which would argue in favor of reproductive isolation."

Los Angeles Times reported that USC's Institute for Creative Technologies, which is under contract with the U.S. Army to develop virtual humans for training exercise, has agreed to move from Marina del Rey to new offices in Playa Vista.

Los Angeles Times highlighted the University of Southern California College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll, which found that while 51 percent of California voters favor marriage rights for gay couples, nearly 60 percent didn't want to revisit the same-sex marriage issue during the 2010 elections.

USA Today quoted Dan Schnur of the USC College in an article about San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who dropped out of the California governor's race. Schnur said that despite Newsom's failure in the governor's race, he could still have appeal statewide. "If he runs the city effectively for the next few years, then no one's going to remember these sorts of things," Schnur said.

CBS News' "CBS Evening News" interviewed Richard Green of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate for a story about homeowners who owe more money on their houses than the houses are worth. "For people who want to move in order to find a job, they find themselves really stuck," Green said.

Fox News cited Susan Estrich of the USC Gould School in a story about a group of Democrats, led by Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, who are trying to reduce government spending. "Democrats will listen to [Feingold] with half an ear. Especially those that are up for re-election," Estrich said.

San Francisco Chronicle reviewed "Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original" by Robin D.G. Kelley of the USC College. "Given Monk's lasting musical stature, it's surprising the authoritative and authorized biography has taken so long to arrive, but Robin D.G. Kelley has delivered it," the article stated. "Kelley, a respected historian at the University of Southern California, begins with some admirable genealogical work, tracing Monk's ancestry back generations, through slavery and pseudo-freedom in the South. This exhaustively researched work will undoubtedly now remain the definitive work on Monk, a rebel with a cause."

U.S. News & World Report cited a Daily Trojan story which asked whether classes should be held on the day before Thanksgiving. "The question has certainly been raised. But we're still trying to figure out if it is to the university's advantage if we have a short week before Thanksgiving," said Gene Bickers, USC vice provost for undergraduate programs.

Yahoo! News ran a widely carried op-ed by Richard Reeves of the USC Annenberg School, about the current situation in California. "The most devastating battle on California's political landscape has been old vs. young. And the old are winning big time," Reeves wrote. "Because of Prop 13 and later corollaries, old folks pay lower taxes and receive more medical care at the expense of new schools, more teachers and smaller class sizes. California's public schools, elementary and secondary, once the best by test scores in the nation, are now among the worst. That is part of a national struggle of young vs. old: The old get medical care and don't want to finance schooling for other people's children; the young get less attention and inherit more national debt."

Cape Breton Post (Canada) cited a USC study which suggests that the human brain needs eight seconds to recognize social pain and to respond with the emotions of empathy and compassion.

National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" interviewed David Carter of the USC Marshall School about golfer Tiger Woods' recent car accident and the media coverage surrounding it. Carter said that Woods' corporate endorsement partners know about crisis management and the need for public silence when legal matters may be involved. "These are his business partners, and you've got to believe that he and his management team have reached out to them and made those partners feel comfortable," Carter said. He said in a widely carried Los Angeles Times story that it's too early to predict any long-term effect on Woods' marketing power, though the line between the private and public lives of athletes often blurs.

KPCC-FM's "Patt Morrison" interviewed Richard Green of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate about contradictory numbers about the United States housing market. "One thing that has happened over the last five or six months is prices seem to have stabilized," Green said. "We aren't seeing these huge declines -- 20 percent, 25 percent year-over-year declines -- that we were a year ago. And so that reflects that there's some real stabilization in the overall housing market."

BNET cited Warren Bennis of the USC Marshall School in an article by Noel Tichy, who co-wrote "Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls" with Bennis. "I've written 12 books on leadership and my co-author, Warren Bennis, has written 37. What we've learned after spending all this time with CEOs is that judgment is a process. Business leaders don't make decisions in a blink; that's for firefighters and ER nurses," Tichy wrote.

The Virginian-Pilot reported that Alelo, a company born out of a research project by USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI), has expanded to the East Coast with an office in Suffolk, Va. Alelo was founded in 2004 with the help of research funding provided to USC by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the story noted. The company's original program was built to help users learn Arabic dialects specific to Lebanon and Palestine, said Andre Valente of ISI, the company's co-founder and CEO. DARPA subsequently requested an Iraq version, and the military has continued to take notice of Alelo's products, he said.

Portsmouth Herald ran an op-ed by Susan Estrich of the USC Gould School about shopping. "It's a slow process, with all the coupons. And it's hard not to think, as you stand there watching the person in front of you pay less for each item, that you are paying way too much," Estrich wrote. "And then you wonder: What kind of an idiot would pay full price for everything? Gotta be a complete fool."

The Charleston Gazette cited Richard Reeves of the USC Annenberg School in an article about the war in Afghanistan. Reeves said that former Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the United States ambassador to Afghanistan, "told the president there might be no point in sending more young men and women in uniform to win an unwinnable war in a vast country largely ungoverned or governed by unfathomable corruption."

Jewish Journal ran an op-ed by Martin Kaplan of the USC Annenberg School about recent middle school incidents dubbed "Kick a Ginger Day" (in which redheaded children were attacked) and "Kick a Jew Day." "These people are our neighbors, and ourselves," Kaplan wrote. "The message of 'Lord of the Flies' is that the vaunted civilization that separates us from savagery is only a thin veneer: just below the surface, we are all ginger-kickers. The message of 'Kick a Jew Day' is that we are all gingers."

DailyFinance cited research by Antonio Damasio of the USC College which found that people who have difficulty feeling fear or greed will make riskier financial investments, sometimes to their benefit.

La Opinion reported that the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center will hold a community health fair at which attendees can get free health information, as well as HIV, blood, and blood pressure tests.

Daily Breeze quoted Lars Perner of the USC Marshall School about the holiday shopping season. "Many times on Black Friday, people will go out and they hope to find good deals, but much of it is a family-type experience and people may end up buying things that were not as low-priced as they had counted on," Perner said. "I suspect people will be more looking for the bottom line with the way the economy is at the moment." Perner told Contra Costa Times that shoppers may be more aggressive this year, as retailers limit the time during which low prices are in effect. "In the past, if you didn't get a good deal, that was fine, you might buy something else," Perner said. "But this year when money is tighter and people are counting to a greater extent to finding low prices, I think there can be more frustration." Perner was also quoted by the Glendale News-Press.

Los Angeles Daily News quoted Daniel Durbin of the USC Annenberg School in an article about the media coverage of golfer Tiger Woods' car accident. It's the major media that helped Woods build his image, Durbin said. "But now you have sports-talk hosts who have to fill three hours of time, leading to implications that he has something to hide," Durbin added. "They exist by setting up controversy and lighting up phone lines and engaging fans into the conversation. The same is true for bloggers and online sources giving them more to chew on."

PaidContent cited an article written by Geoffrey Cowan and David Westphal of the USC Annenberg School for USC's Online Journalism Review. Cowan and Westphal wrote that government intervention to aid the journalism industry isn't a new idea.

The Signal quoted Gerard Tellis of the USC Marshall School about holiday shopping. Tellis said that retailers usually have a few good deals on a limited supply of products that run out quickly, and most people end up spending more money than they expected. Black Friday is even less of a bargain when one factors in costs like time spent in lines and looking for parking, Tellis said.

The Desert Sun reported that The Trojan League Associates of the Desert raised $75,000 for USC scholarships at its annual scholarship fundraising luncheon. The USC Trojan Marching Band and Traveler made appearances at the event, the story noted.