<p>I can say that I’ve never seen whitewashed walls green with mildew at USC. And in many dimensions–except for what they pay their employees–USC has improved a lot over the past two decades, academics included. I was thinking about this after my last post: there are many well respected colleges whose academic environment is no better than USC’s. It’s USC’s pretensions to being among the elite that make me guffaw, and the adamant nature of its adherents that provoke even more of a response. One USC booster–to be fair, it was a student–once boasted that “USC was going to become the Stanford of the West.” That boast kinda sums it up.</p>
<p>But I’d have no problem squiring wife and daughter around campus at 10pm at night. And but little thought of them squiring themselves.</p>