USC settles $2 million trapeze debacle
Tomo Chien
January 12, 2026
Good morning. It’s Monday, and I hope you had a restful winter break. I’m excited to get back into it. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles, and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
USC will pay nearly $2 million to settle a lawsuit by a former student who was injured during a trapeze activity in a business school elective class. The student alleged her professor knew she exceeded the weight limit but still encouraged her to participate — resulting in a serious leg injury.
2.
In other legal news: If you paid USC tuition during the spring 2020 semester, you may be entitled to a chunk of a $10 million settlement. A class-action suit alleged USC owes students a partial refund because the pandemic semester was remote. Claims are due Feb. 20.
3.
Corporate recruiters are increasingly hiring from elite colleges as they scrap DEI goals and contend with a wave of AI-written applications. That may come as welcome news to USC students but, as one recruiter put it, “God help you” if you don’t attend a top university.
4.
Pour one out for the Sprinkles cupcake ATM at the bookstore, which is apparently non-operational after the chain abruptly shuttered its bakeries in December. The ATM at USC, which opened in 2016 to much fanfare, was Sprinkles’ first-ever standalone cupcake dispenser.
5.
Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, paid a visit to LA last week. The main stop on his tour was a Long Beach rocket plant. But the fitness-obsessed former Fox News host instead went viral at UCLA, when he flailed through a set of kettlebell swings with the school’s ROTC program, to much internet ridicule.
