Return of the tech-free classroom
Tomo Chien
February 12, 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 growing number of professors are implementing tech-free classroom policies to battle an apparent uptick in student disengagement and AI use. Writing professor Sarah Mesle said she bans phones, “so they have to sit around awkwardly before class starts. If you don’t have that awkward time, you never learn how to deal with awkwardness.”
2.
State regulators permanently sealed an abandoned oil facility just north of campus, ending a years-long battle over the fate of the site. In 2013, University Park residents sued Allenco Energy, alleging that noxious fumes from the facility were making them sick. The company has since battled regulators’ attempts to plug the wells.
3.
New data released by the federal government shows that USC ranks 10th among U.S. universities in receiving funding from “countries of concern” — largely thanks to gifts and contracts from China. The Department of Education portal aggregates self-reported data that colleges are required to disclose by law.
4.
A small group of protesters briefly disrupted the Village Target yesterday as part of an anti-ICE demonstration. The roughly two dozen protesters, who did not appear to be USC students, were urging the Minnesota-based retailer to take a public stand against immigration enforcement.
5.
A dude who went on a viral, seven-day chainsaw rampage last year and felled a dozen trees in downtown will serve two years in county jail after pleading no contest to vandalism charges. Samuel Groft, 45, allegedly told police “I love trees, I love bark, I’m an arborist” when he was arrested.
