Grammarly raises the dead
Tomo Chien
March 05, 2026
Good morning. It’s Thursday, and these are the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
A new Grammarly feature offers writing feedback from AI avatars of leading academics and authors. Except, the company apparently didn’t get permission to use their likenesses, and some are long dead. Academics are outraged. “I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the most cursed,” wrote one scholar.
2.
For decades, universities including USC have shifted their endowment money to private equity funds. But in recent years, schools that stuck with publicly traded stocks and bonds have seen stronger returns — leaving private-equity-heavy schools exposed as Trump-era endowment taxes and funding cuts hit.
3.
In nerd news: USC’s mock trial team is apparently one of the best in the country this year. The squad dominated a regional competition in Claremont last weekend and is now headed to the national tourney in Phoenix. “It definitely took a lot of sacrifice,” said one senior. “But it all paid off in the end.”
4.
Harvard-Westlake, the elite LA private school, was rocked last week by a lawsuit that says it covered up rampant sexual assault and racist harassment by a star water polo player. The alleged victim, who is Black, said a white teammate repeatedly digitally penetrated him and called him racist slurs — and the school didn’t do anything.
5.
Forbes named its first-ever list of “America’s Greatest Innovators” and six USC grads are among them. They are: filmmaker George Lucas, showrunner Shonda Rhimes, investor Cathie Wood, engineer Marian Croak, recently controversial tech exec Marc Benioff, and Andrew Viterbi, the namesake of USC’s engineering school.
