Wonderfully diverse student body and great camaraderie on campus. I only had one foreign born roommate but got to know many others at the Daily Trojan.
In covering all the sports teams for that student newspaper I don't remember one incident of racial tension. I don't even remember one off color joke. Contrast to when I moved to Las Vegas and was immersed in a heavily southern non-educated crowd within the sportsbook scene. That was a stunning indoctrination to right wing fear fear and bigotry.
There were academic scandals when I was at USC. Professors were allowing athletes to do nothing and pass. I had one baseball player roommate who said on the first day of class his professor told all athletes to meet him outside in the hall. Once there he told them they wouldn't have to attend class at all. Just write one paper at term's end. Sure enough, my roommate blew off the entire semester until asking his girlfriend to help write the paper over the final weekend before it was due. They were copying sections from books word for word.
That scandal blew up so badly it received national attention circa 1980. One member of the track team received credit for supposedly attending two classes that were going on simultaneously. It led to probation for the football team. The following year I had two water polo roommates. The situation had over rotated so badly I actually felt sorry for them. The assistant water polo coach was calling them at all hours of the day to make sure they were attending class or studying.
But now we've had a recent water polo scandal. Folt has her hands full.
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