USC Annenberg Media

10/29/2025

USC has hidden the classroom locations for Gender and Sexuality Studies courses from public view out of safety concerns, according to a Dornsife spokesperson.

Since late September, the locations of Gender and Sexuality Studies classes have been hidden from the publicly facing Schedule of Classes website. The same change was also made to Web Registration, the internal class enrollment system for students.

A Dornsife spokesperson told Annenberg Media the change was not due to any specific incident but “out of an abundance of caution.”

DPS Assistant Chief David Carlisle confirmed this, saying they have not heard reports of increased hostilities towards gender-based studies students.

“Faculty and students in the Gender and Sexuality Studies Department recently shared general safety concerns in light of heightened rhetoric nationwide,” a Dornsife spokesperson said. “This is a precautionary step to support our community’s safety and well-being. We continue to work closely with university colleagues, including the Department of Public Safety, to foster a supportive learning environment for students and faculty.”

Read more at the link in our bio.

📝 Jiali Yuan
📸 Jiali Yuan

10/29/2025

Jim Deboo, a senior advisor of Yes on 50, told Annenberg Media that he believed Democrats would not win a majority in the House of Representatives without passing Proposition 50.

Yes on 50 is the campaign aimed at passing Proposition 50, which would redraw California’s congressional district lines to favor electing Democrats to the House of Representatives. If passed, the new map would be in effect until the next census, taken in 2030, when the current redistricting process would resume. Currently, an independent redistricting commission draws districts for the whole state.

This proposition was put on the ballot as a response to Texas’s mid-decade redistricting that likely gives Republicans five more House seats.

“The unfortunate part of this is the other side, they don’t play by those rules, and it’s not just Texas, it’s Florida, it’s Indiana, it’s Ohio, it’s Utah,” Deboo said. “So if we continue to play by the same rules — or want to play by the rules that make us the moral compass choice – we’re ceding completely the country.”

You can vote on Proposition 50 on November 4, 2025. Early in-person voting sites are open between October 25 and November 3. All California voters are also eligible to vote by mail.

Read more at the link in bio.

📝 Benjamin Gamson
📸 Benjamin Gamson

10/29/2025

Gould School of Law Professor Camille Rich is suing the university for ignoring her Title IX complaints that her ex-husband was having an extramarital affair with a student. The lawsuit alleges her complaints then led to the school retaliating by denying her disability accommodations.

In a complaint filed on June 26, Rich alleges that the university demonstrated a “callous disregard of the Tyndall Resolution provisions” through its alleged mishandling of and lack of investigation into her 2019 Title IX complaint. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs. Her claim was against her ex-husband, Professor Stephen M. Rich, who is now a vice dean of the school.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights developed the Tyndall Resolution after finding USC violated Title IX regulations in its handling of sexual abuse claims against Dr. George Tyndall. Tyndall was a gynecologist who worked in the school’s student health center for nearly 30 years and was investigated as the largest perpetrator of sexual abuse in Los Angeles history. The university was forced to pay more than $1 billion in a settlement.

The resolution forced the university to move Title IX operations out of the Office of Legal Affairs and Professionalism, requiring Title IX complaints to be evaluated and resolved independently from the university council. Additionally, the university was required to track Title IX reports, expand sexual harassment training and be monitored by the Civil Rights office for three years.

Read more at the link in our bio.

✍️ Breeana Greenberg, Ariel Schuyler Ehrlich
📸 Bryce Dechert

10/20/2025

President Donald Trump praised multi-billionaire Miriam Adelson during his speech in Tel Aviv last Monday, thanking her and her late husband Sheldon Adelson for their contributions to his two presidential administrations over the last decade.

Miriam Adelson, an honorary trustee at USC, has donated $170 million to Trump over his three campaigns, remaining one of his top donors throughout.

The other USC trustees have collectively donated a little over $45 million to political causes for both Democrats and Republicans over the past 40 years. Including Adelson’s donations, that number jumps tenfold to $475 million.

Adelson’s contributions alone — which went almost entirely to Republicans — mean that collectively, more than 90% of the trustees’ overall contributions have gone toward right-leaning causes. More than a third went to Trump, an Annenberg Media analysis of federal campaign finance records found.

Read more at the link in bio.

✍️ Reo, Malik Gamble, John Millsap, and Tamara Almoayed (.almoayed)
📸 Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

10/16/2025

In an email statement, Interim President Beong-Soo Kim announced that USC will not sign the Trump Administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.

10/16/2025

10/16/2025

The USC Graduate Student Government (GSG) urged the university to reject the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education in a letter addressed to Interim President Beong-Soo Kim and other administration officials on Tuesday.

“We call on USC’s leadership to stand firm alongside other institutions, explore legal and financial options to protect our community, and defend the principles that make our university a place of learning and innovation,” GSG leaders wrote in the letter.

USC is among eight other universities to receive this compact proposal from the federal government. In exchange for federal funding, the compact requires universities to change their policies on international student admission, diversity and ideology, and tuition, among other demands.

MIT and Brown University rejected the compact, but USC is still considering it.

“We’re a community that’s usually leading with courage, compassion, purpose and all [USC] values, and so the USC mission is also at stake here,” said GSG president Janielle Cuala.

USC is home to the most international students in California and graduate students constitute more than half of the total student population.

Read more at the link in our bio.

📝 Emma Ibrahim ()
📸 Ling Luo

10/16/2025

An initiative developing accessible tools for detecting dementia-related brain changes, co-led by USC professor Duke Han, received a $39 million grant in September. The funding is from the National Institute on Aging, one of the research centers within the National Institutes of Health.

The Open Measures Network Initiative for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Research and Prevention is co-led by USC, along with the Pennsylvania State University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The initiative aims to build an accessible, open-source digital platform.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s journal, “Alzheimer’s and Dementia,” 6.9 million Americans above the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease, and the number is projected to double in 2060.

This network, which plans to deliver a website with publicly available tools, seeks to establish resources to help assess cognitive ability, said Han, who has been conducting Alzheimer’s dementia research for his entire twenty-year career.

“Since there’s not a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, then really the best way to address it is early detection and prevention,” he said.

Read more at the link in our bio.

📝 Laury Li
📸 Jason Goode

10/16/2025

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday a former USC student was charged with eight felony counts of sexual assault that occurred between 2021 and 2025.

The student, identified by officials as Sizhe Weng, 30, was arraigned on September 2. He is accused of drugging and raping three women while enrolled as a student at USC, according to the D.A.’s office.

“Providing a safe environment for learning, teaching, and research is our top priority. The university has been fully cooperating with the Los Angeles Police Department in this matter,” the University said in a statement to Annenberg Media. “Although we cannot discuss individual cases due to student privacy laws, we can confirm that the university had already taken appropriate steps to bar the individual in question from campus pending resolution of the criminal proceedings.”

The USC Viterbi Cronin Research Lab’s webpage shows Weng graduated from USC with an M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2020. He worked as a research assistant at the Cronin Lab, according to the webpage, which also includes a notice from May 16 congratulating Weng on completing his Ph.D.

Annenberg Media has reached out to Weng and the Cronin Lab for comment.

The announcement of Weng’s arrest was made during a news conference at the LAPD’s headquarters in downtown L.A., during which the department asked for help in identifying additional victims.

Read more at the link in our bio.

📝 Noelle Villaseñor
📸 Photo by Tomoki Chien

10/15/2025

A survey put out by the Undergraduate Student Government was shared with Interim President Beong-Soo Kim Tuesday, saying a “resounding no” to the Trump Administration’s recent compact, USG Vice President Emma Fallon said. 

“A lot of it had to do with USC values and not wanting to stray away from those values – a lot of worries surrounding international students and our queer students and what that would mean for them. Others were worried about state funding and Cal State grants,” Fallon said. “A lot of concerns regarding different personal stories, but also just the university as a whole.”

The compact asks USC to change its policies on international students, tuition and diversity definitions in exchange for federal funding. USC has until Oct. 20 to give feedback, and until Nov. 21 to make a final decision. 

Read more at the link in bio.

📝 Lindsay Augustine
📸 Emma Fallon

10/09/2025

Nine months later, Pacific Palisades residents are continuing to rebuild their community after a suspect was arrested in connection to the deadly January fire on Tuesday.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, has been charged with destruction of property by means of fire, Bill Essayli, the acting U.S. attorney for Southern California, announced in a press conference Wednesday morning.

Some Palisades residents who lost their homes in the fire found solace in the arrest but are still left with a slow rebuilding process and many unanswered questions about the response to the fire. Tuesday’s arrest is “part a sense of relief, but there is just a simmering anger behind all of it,” said Traci Park, a Councilwoman for District 11.

Other Palisades residents showed less interest in the fire’s cause, instead focusing their efforts on restoring their community. “What caused the fire is kind of an afterthought at this point,” said J.D. Stuart, a Palisades resident.

Rinderknecht, who was arrested in Florida, lived in the Palisades neighborhood at the time of the fire. Working as an Uber driver on the night of New Year’s Eve, Rinderknecht dropped off a passenger at a residence in the Palisades before walking up a nearby trail and setting a fire, according to officials.

The suspect’s motive remains unknown.

Read more at the link in our bio.

📝 Malcolm Caminero, Evie Milias, Jaclyn Jacques, and Aidan Pham
📸 Malcolm Caminero