The coolest class at USC
Tomo Chien
April 08, 2025
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, and the USG social team has been cooking. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Legendary football coach Pete Carroll is teaching a class at USC — and it’s been an undeniable hit. “Those are the two most valuable hours of my life,” senior Ari Naiman said of the once-weekly “Game of Life” class, which preaches success in life. Guest speakers in the application-based class have included Steve Kerr, Jason Sudeikis, and Rainn Wilson.
2.
Many of the international students whose visas the Trump administration recently revoked appeared not to have any connection to pro-Palestinian protests. Instead, they committed long-ago traffic violations and DUIs. At least 83 students in California were affected, though there are no reports of revocations at USC.
3.
A new so-called Trojan Caucus is the first-ever university-based caucus in the U.S. Congress. It’s unclear how effective the group could be in steering federal policy — or whether it’ll even look to do that. Instead, students may rejoice in knowing that one of the group’s primary purposes is to help them find political internships.
4.
LA County will pay a mind-boggling $4 billion to thousands of people who were sexually abused in juvenile detention and foster care facilities in cases dating back to 1959. The county warned that the record-breaking settlement could very well bankrupt it. Survivors say it has brought them some measure of justice.
5.
USC has produced the 11th-most billionaires of any university in the world, according to a new report. The school’s 17 billionaires — including developer Rick Caruso, entrepreneur Marc Benioff, and director George Lucas — beat out several Ivy League institutions and California mainstays like UCLA, but were dwarfed by Harvard’s 104.