Second Chance for U.S.C.

The startling thing about the 16,000-student University of Southern California, the nation's fifth biggest private university, is its poverty. Crowded onto a 78-acre Los Angeles campus, U.S.C. has an endowment of only $8,300,000. Incomparably richer is northern California's Stanford University, which has only 8,786 students and a $98 million endowment. Incomparably better is the state-run University of California at Los Angeles, which has stiffer academic standards and higher faculty salaries. To U.S.C. remains the past glory of nine Rose Bowl triumphs,* which the school went broke achieving, and the dubious honor (snapped one professor) "of having a sweaty jersey as the university symbol."

Last week U.S.C. launched what may be the most overdue "master plan" fund drive in the land. Passing the hat for $107 million over the next two decades, U.S.C. seeks a fast infusion of $30 million in four years and a 50% boost in endowment. From now on, vowed energetic President Norman H. Topping, a physician who took over in late 1958, the prescription for U.S.C. is "excellence with vigor and without compromise."

In a Mustard Field. Founded by Methodists, U.S.C, started off with high goals one sweltering day in 1880 when 1,000 people, a tenth of the population of Los Angeles at the time, buggied out to dedicate the "university"--a small frame building in a wild mustard field. But the promise was elusive; even in 1927, U.S.C.'s endowment income was only $21,000. Still, U.S.C. managed to train most of its area's doctors, lawyers and teachers until the late 1940s, when mushrooming U.C.L.A. overtook it.

U.S.C. fell to "footballism," a blend of pep rallies and fraternity frivolities--"the undergraduate mating dance," in one professor's words. The faculty fared worse. Presiding for 25 years was miserly, grandiloquent "Rufus Rex"--President Rufus von KleinSmid, who claimed to be paying professors between $4,200 and $7,500 a year while a faculty canvass showed the average to be $3,600 and the lowest to be only $2,600. "Lord, those were dreadful years," recalls one survivor. "You couldn't discuss ideas with anybody. Nobody had any."

Pilot Light. The faculty rebelled in 1946, got the trustees to "elevate" Von KleinSmid to chancellor, which he still is. His successor, President Fred Fagg Jr., was popular, but he resigned in discouragement after U.S.C. stood still in the postwar decade that transformed most universities. U.S.C, was so dormant that in 1955, when it grandly announced a drive for $75 million, the plan never really got off the ground.

The new plan has a better chance, thanks to Fagg's able successor, Physician Topping, 53, former vice president of the University of Pennsylvania. In his 2 1/2 years. President Topping has relit the pilot light. Under way are 1,000 research projects. Already moving into the trimester system, the school has a new $660,000 Ford grant to speed up teacher training by one year. Football is played down, and U.S.C. is actually recruiting bright students.

On the Move. If he gets the cash, Topping's master plan could revolutionize U.S.C. To improve the already good teacher-student ratio (1 to 11), the faculty will be increased by 50%, and salaries will be raised. Enrollment will rise only 25%, compared with the 100% expected in many schools. To double the number of graduate students, new buildings will go up for everything from international relations to solid-state physics.

Last month Topping got city approval to expand U.S.C.'s tight campus to a roomier 138 acres. This week he will dedicate two new medical buildings, costing $3,000,000. But more impressive than buildings is the lift in faculty morale. "Topping has infused the whole outfit with new vigor and direction." glows veteran English Professor Frank Baxter. "Now other schools are raiding our staff. That didn't happen before."

* Five of them during the long (1925-40) tenure of Coach Howard Jones. U.S.C. has had only one Rose Bowl victory since 1945-

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