Daily Trojan, Los Angeles, CA (2025)

03/21/2025

President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education Thursday morning.

“With today’s action, we take a significant step forward to give parents and states control over their children’s education,” McMahon wrote in a Department of Education press release Thursday. “Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars of waste on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing Thursday the order would move to “greatly minimize the agency.” The Department of Education’s student loan portfolio will be taken over by the Small Business Administration, and the Health and Human Services Department will take over nutritional programs and services for disabled students, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in a speech Friday morning.

Fully abolishing the Department of Education will require congressional approval. There are 53 Republican senators; 60 senatorial votes will be needed to completely shut down the department.

“[The] Department of Education, we’re going to eliminate it,” Trump said after the signing. “Everybody knows it’s right, and the Democrats know it’s right, and I hope they’re going to be voting for it.”

Kendrick Davis, a professor of research at the Rossier School of Education, said uncertainties about how the executive order will affect federal financial aid could impact current and prospective students at USC in a Feb. 11 interview with the Daily Trojan.

“When there is uncertainty, when students and families are unclear about what’s available to them, how to access it, if they’re not getting the proper support in order to do that, that can affect their ability to enroll in, get financial aid for and eventually show up on campus,” Davis said.

Read the full article at the link in bio.

Photo: Chris Zubak-Skees / Flikr

Design: Sean Campbell / Daily Trojan

03/21/2025

President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education Thursday morning.

“With today’s action, we take a significant step forward to give parents and states control over their children’s education,” McMahon wrote in a Department of Education press release Thursday. “Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars of waste on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing Thursday the order would move to “greatly minimize the agency.” The Department of Education’s student loan portfolio will be taken over by the Small Business Administration, and the Health and Human Services Department will take over nutritional programs and services for disabled students, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in a speech Friday morning.

Fully abolishing the Department of Education will require congressional approval. There are 53 Republican senators; 60 senatorial votes will be needed to completely shut down the department.

“[The] Department of Education, we’re going to eliminate it,” Trump said after the signing. “Everybody knows it’s right, and the Democrats know it’s right, and I hope they’re going to be voting for it.”

Kendrick Davis, a professor of research at the Rossier School of Education, said uncertainties about how the executive order will affect federal financial aid could impact current and prospective students at USC in a Feb. 11 interview with the Daily Trojan.

“When there is uncertainty, when students and families are unclear about what’s available to them, how to access it, if they’re not getting the proper support in order to do that, that can affect their ability to enroll in, get financial aid for and eventually show up on campus,” Davis said.

Photo: Chris Zubak-Skees / Flikr

Design: Sean Campbell / Daily Trojan

03/20/2025

The House of Representatives’ Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to President Carol Folt on Wednesday requesting information on the 5,993 Chinese national students at USC. The committee wrote that Chinese national students in research-based fields could pose a threat to national security.

“America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security,” the committee wrote.

The University wrote that it is reviewing the letter in a statement to the Daily Trojan.

The committee alleges that universities in the United States have become dependent on international students’ tuition, which allows “foreign adversaries” to use international students to access American research illegally.

As of March 19, similar letters from the committee had been sent to the presidents of Stanford University, Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The letter states that the committee has “broad authority to investigate and submit policy recommendations on countering the economic, technological, security, and ideological threats of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Read the full article at the link in bio.

Photo: Emma Silverstein / Daily Trojan file photo

03/17/2025

USC’s women’s basketball team will be a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year, the ESPN selection show revealed Sunday evening.

It is the second year in a row Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb’s squad has been on the top line of their region — the first time the Trojans (28-3, 17-1 Big Ten) have secured back-to-back top seeds since the 1982-83 and 1983-84 campaigns.

The other No. 1 teams are Texas (31-3, 15-1 SEC) in the Birmingham 3 region, South Carolina (30-3, 15-1 SEC) in the Birmingham 2 region and UCLA (30-2, 16-2 Big Ten) — the tournament’s top overall seed — in the Spokane 1 region.

USC is the top seed in the Spokane 4 region, which also features No. 2 seed UConn (31-3, 18-0 Big East) and No. 3 seed Oklahoma (25-7, 11-5 SEC). They will face off with No. 16 UNC Greensboro (25-6, 13-1 SoCon) in the opening round Saturday, with the winner taking on either No. 8 UC Berkeley (25-8, 12-6 ACC) or No. 9 Mississippi State (21-11, 7-9 SEC) on Monday.

If the Trojans can pull out two victories at home, they will head to the Spokane regional for the Sweet 16. To clinch a berth at the Final Four in Tampa Bay, Gottlieb’s squad will need to one-up its performance at the Portland regional last season — when they fell 80-73 to UConn in the Elite Eight. It will be an apt opportunity for Trojan revenge if USC and the Huskies both advance to the same stage once again.

USC’s 72-67 loss to UCLA in the Big Ten Championship has left a bitter taste in the Trojans’ mouths heading into the big dance, but Gottlieb’s squad still remains one of the favorites to take home the trophy in April. The madness will kick off on Friday, when USC takes on UNC Greensboro at Galen Center.

Design: Nathan Elias / Daily Trojan

Photo: / Daily Trojan

03/14/2025

Filmmaker and USC alum Jon M. Chu will speak at the Class of 2025 commencement ceremony May 15 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the University announced in a press release Friday morning.

Chu was slated to speak last spring before the University canceled its main commencement speeches amid backlash against Class of 2024 Valedictorian Asna Tabassum for interacting with pro-Palestinian content and after the cancellation of her commencement address.

“I can’t wait to stand in the Coliseum among tens of thousands of people, feeling the energy of the Trojan spirit — the same spirit I once cheered on the football team with. I know that spirit lives on far beyond the school’s walls and campus,” Chu said in the press release.

Chu, who graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts in 2003, comes off directing the Oscar-winning film adaptation, “Wicked” (2024). The director, screenwriter and producer counts “In the Heights” (2021), “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018) and the “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” (2011) documentary among his credits.

Outside of filmmaking, Chu created the Jon M. Chu Endowed Student Fund. Its two inaugural scholars, both master’s students from SCA, will explore “human connection through themes of identity and belonging,” according to the press release. SCA also features a scholarship established in Chu’s honor which supports students that feature Asian Pacific culture in film, television or interactive media.

Photo: Etienne Laurent / The Academy

03/12/2025

BREAKING: The total estimated undergraduate cost of attendance for the 2025-2026 academic year will increase by 4.11% to $99,139, according to the University's Cost of Attendance webpage. Undergraduate tuition for the 2025-26 academic year will increase by 4.80% to $73,260.

USC has increased tuition by roughly 5% each of the past three years. The change comes one day after the University announced it will implement a $292 fee to cover access to mandatory course materials, which students may opt out of, beginning in Fall 2025.

The next academic year will also see the cost of dining more than double for students previously under the apartment meal plan, the minimum required plan for sophomores, juniors and seniors living in University apartments.

This is a developing story.

03/10/2025

Test your Trojan knowledge in Troydle, our new puzzle game. See how quickly you can guess a song played by the Trojan Marching Band each day. Share your results with your friends to see who could guess it quicker!

Play Troydle at the link in our bio.

Graphic: Noah Pinales / Daily Trojan

03/10/2025

April Cartoon of the Month submissions are open! Create a piece that captures April Fools’ Day!

Any USC student can create and submit an original cartoon which will be featured in the Daily Trojan print edition. The winner will also receive a $15 Dulce gift card.

Submit your work through the link in our bio by March 24 at 11:59 p.m. to be considered. Cartoons must be a maximum of four panels long.

Graphic: .noland / Daily Trojan

03/10/2025

THE WEEKLY FRAME III: Week 6, LA Graffiti

The City of Angels is home to many artistic and creative minds. While some of these brilliant artists’ works are shown in galleries and museums, it is just as common for them to be showcased on the public streets of Los Angeles. Graffiti, in its many different styles, lives around countless corners of the city and contributes to L.A.’s vibrant, gritty energy while offering artists the opportunity to express themselves and communicate messages they want to share with the world.

In this week’s “The Weekly Frame,” staff photographers Jake Berg and Curtis Luong captured the many different works of graffiti artists scattered throughout L.A.

See all the photos at the link in our bio.

Slide 1: University of Snazzy Characters. (.photo / Daily Trojan)
Slide 2: Caged Art. ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 3: Revolutionary Xylophone Instrumentalists. (.photo/ Daily Trojan)
Slide 4: Hometown Pride. ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 5:No way this thing can drive. (.photo / Daily Trojan)
Slide 6: Greatness. ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 7: Bathroom break. (.photo / Daily Trojan)
Slide 8: The G Spot. ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 9: Shoot your shot. ( / Daily Trojan)

03/06/2025

For the first time, the Daily Trojan Magazine is coming to print, and you can order a copy! The Daily Trojan’s monthly addendum includes in-depth and long-form stories found nowhere else.

Order your own to help raise funds for the Daily Trojan by filling out the form in our bio, following the instructions and confirming payment by March 11 at 11:59 p.m. You can also visit our table on Trousdale Parkway near Alumni Park on March 10 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Design: Nathan Elias / Daily Trojan

03/04/2025

OPINIÓN: “Las estadísticas de diversidad racial de la Universidad pueden parecer impresionantes en papel, pero a menudo no se traducen en experiencias significativas para los grupos subrepresentados”, escribe Amara Mathew. “Además, el alto costo de casi $100.000 por la matrícula exacerba las disparidades socioeconómicas, creando un entorno donde no todos los estudiantes pueden prosperar por igual”.

“Las comunidades de aprendizaje y convivencia como el Latine Floor demuestran que cuando se proporcionan entornos de apoyo adaptados a las experiencias únicas de los estudiantes, estos pueden florecer. Estas comunidades fomentan la comprensión compartida y la exploración cultural, permitiendo que los estudiantes se conecten con compañeros que comparten antecedentes y desafíos similares”.

“La Universidad puede ampliar el número de comunidades de aprendizaje y convivencia para abarcar una gama más amplia de identidades y experiencias. Implementar capacitaciones obligatorias sobre competencia cultural para todos los estudiantes, profesores y personal ayudaría a cultivar una cultura universitaria más respetuosa y consciente”.

“Aunque el Latine Floor destaca como una iniciativa exitosa dentro del panorama general de USC, también resalta el trabajo que queda por hacer. Al aprender de este modelo e implementar estrategias integrales para la inclusividad en toda la vida del campus, la Universidad tiene la oportunidad de convertirse en una institución verdaderamente acogedora para todos sus estudiantes”.

Foto: Alia Chand / Daily Trojan
Diseño: Isabella Mancinas / Daily Trojan

03/02/2025

No. 4 USC has completed a regular season sweep of crosstown rival No. 2 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, and it’s impossible to overstate the importance of tonight’s 80-67 victory for the Trojans.

USC clinched the regular season Big Ten title in its inaugural season in the conference, just about locked up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and sophomore guard JuJu Watkins probably sealed a National Player of the Year Trophy.

Watkins, who was taunted relentlessly by a rowdy Bruin crowd, got the last laugh — finishing with 30 points, five assists and three rebounds in enemy territory.

But it was the Trojan supporting cast that came through in the second half. Watkins scored just seven points after halftime, and it did not matter. USC played balanced basketball on offense, and graduate forward Kiki Iriafen led the charge with 15 second half points.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Bruin student section began to clear out one by one as it became clear that while UCLA beat everybody else they played this season, they still didn’t have an answer for Watkins and the Trojans.

Photo: .jpg / Daily Trojan

03/01/2025

The Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will visit USC to assess if the University violated federal law by failing to protect Jewish students and faculty from discrimination, the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs announced in a statement Friday.

The task force will meet with University leadership, impacted students and staff, local law enforcement and community members to determine if USC requires “remedial action,” though it didn’t specify what action would be taken.

USC was informed of the decision yesterday, the statement read. The task force identified ten universities as having experienced antisemitic incidents since October 2023, including UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley. The task force was developed from an executive order by President Donald Trump on Jan. 29, created with the goal of “eradicat[ing] antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

Leo Terrell, the leading task force member, said the Trump administration is committed to ensuring “no one should feel unsafe or unwelcome on college campuses because of their religion.”

Photo: / Daily Trojan

02/28/2025

THE WEEKLY FRAME III: Week 5, Wheels on Campus

Every day, the USC community zips around campus in many ways. With its fast-paced environment, the campus is a hub of constant movement, and it’s common to see students on skateboards, bicycles and even roller skates. It’s not uncommon to feel a gust of wind as an electric scooter narrowly avoids a crash.

In this “Weekly Frame,” photo editor Ethan Thai and staff photographer Chris Black highlight the different means in which the USC community gets around: the wheels on campus.

See all photos at the link in our bio.

Slide 1: Skateboarding through USC Village (.jpg / Daily Trojan)
Slide 2: Wheels through wheels on campus ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 3: One wheel locked onto the bike rack (.jpg / Daily Trojan)
Slide 4: Biking down Downey Way with phone in hand ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 5: The scooters and bikes of students (.jpg / Daily Trojan)
Slide 6: Big smile from the Department of Public Safety in the car ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 7: Getting around campus (.jpg / Daily Trojan)
Slide 8: Behind the wheel (.jpg / Daily Trojan)
Slide 9: USC’s School of Cinematic Arts on the go (.jpg / Daily Trojan)
Slide 10: Getting stuck on the road ( / Daily Trojan)

02/26/2025

BREAKING: Mikaela Bautista and Emma Fallon have been elected president and vice president of the 2025-26 Undergraduate Student Government with 1,327 votes, securing 36.7% of the total votes, after all rounds of ranked choice voting.

The pair ran on a platform focused on starting, continuing and concluding initiatives to create meaningful and lasting benefits for the student body. Their proposals included acquiring an opt-in ChatGPT+ account for all students, extending Doheny Memorial Library hours and increasing USG transparency.

Bautista and Fallon won in the third round of USG’s ranked-choice voting system — first implemented in last year’s general election — where the ticket with the least amount of votes is eliminated and their votes get redistributed each round until a pair earns a majority of the remaining votes.

3,620 undergraduate students voted this year — 17.2% of the undergraduate student body — compared to 4,306 voters last year.

Jeremiah Boisrond, Sudeepta Murthy, Andrew Cardenas, Justin Shih, Sabeeh Mirza, Jad Kilani, Kevin Hoang, Kian Salek, Dakota Driemeyer, Karim Debian, Zehran Muqtadir and Moy Valdez were elected as senators by default as the only 12 remaining candidates after Mason Yonover was disqualified from the race in a Feb. 20 opinion from the judicial council.

Photo: Henry Kofman / Daily Trojan

Design: / Daily Trojan

Graphs: Sean Campbell / Daily Trojan

02/24/2025

Roughly $10.6 million in National Science Foundation grants to USC researchers across 19 research projects are featured on a list of “woke DEI” research compiled by Sen. Ted Cruz and his team.

The database, published Feb. 11, targets grants funding projects in some way related to social justice, environmental justice, status, race or gender.

The report is part of the senator’s stated aim to w**d out DEI and “neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda,” according to a press release from the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation.

Up to $4.4 million of USC's total funding targeted by the database is undistributed, and could be taken away if the Trump Administration cuts funding for DEI-related initiatives.

Several USC researchers whose projects appear on Cruz’s list said they haven’t heard anything from the NSF yet and are continuing their work as planned. Some were puzzled to see their projects in the database, saying their work isn’t directly related to DEI.

Cruz’s list names more than 3,400 grants totaling $2 billion across hundreds of private and public universities.

Of the USC-based research projects, the database labeled almost all as having been selected “not due to the strength of the application but because the applicant identified a group of people as a discriminated, oppressed class,” according to Cruz’s team.

On Jan. 27, the White House issued an executive order pausing federal funding for DEI-related activities. The NSF froze payouts for active grants the next day, but two federal courts issued opinions within the week temporarily blocking the freeze.

The future of funding for existing grants flagged in Cruz’s database remains uncertain.

Read the full article at the link in bio.

Photo: Mallory Snyder / Daily Trojan file photo
Design: / Daily Trojan

02/22/2025

THE WEEKLY FRAME III: Week 4, Food

While food is considered one of life’s simplest pleasures, it has the potential to go beyond simplicity. Each meal allows us to connect with others and escape life’s hurdles for a minute. Each dish has a unique identity in its flavors, textures and cultural influences, which combine to create harmony. However, for university students, food’s potential often stays simple.

For this “Weekly Frame,” staff photographers Marissa Ding and Fin Liu capture more than just the simplicity of dishes that university students consume — they give a glimpse into the diet, details and emotions of the collegiate dining experience.

See all photos at the link in bio.

Slide 1: Kimchi fried rice from Postmates ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 2: Pasta contemplation ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 3: Fresh slices of Triple Beam Pizza ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 4: The cereal stash on top of our fridge ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 5: Seaw**d packets from H Mart ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 6: Pizza for visitors to enjoy ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 7: Wrapped in pita ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 8: Mediterranean food ( / Daily Trojan)
Slide 9: A box of pizza ready to be opened ( / Daily Trojan)

02/21/2025

Cartoonist Sam Myerson comments on how USC will select a commencement speaker — instead of having the typical valedictorian speech — in “Can’t we talk about something more pleasant?”

Cartoon: .myersonn / Daily Trojan

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