@WWWard have a great time with your D! Just last weekend my high school senior spent the weekend with my D at USC. They went to Disneyland on Friday and the USC/UCLA game on Saturday. My Claremont D met them in Disney. I’m so glad the three of them got to spend a fun weekend together before it all imploded.
USC just continues to impress me more and more. My D has been seeing a dermatologist at Keck for acne, nothing very serious. She had a follow-up appointment scheduled for today which she cancelled a couple of days ago because she didn’t want to go to the hospital and was going to call and ask for a higher dose of her medicine. Well, before she could do that, she received a phone call from the doctor himself who told her that she could have an online appointment, she could send him pics of her skin and he’ll adjust her meds accordingly. Both she and I, are super impressed that a doctor is making these calls himself and not a receptionist. She is sad to be heading home tomorrow but we are hopeful and grateful that she still has two years left at USC.
Thanks for the tips. We used the USC Housing storage last summer, and it worked well. But she is living off-campus next year, and, with a lease starting Aug. 1, she may want to move in earlier, depending on summer job plans. So that’s why I’m thinking that renting a storage unit with future apartment-mates may be a good solution. I’ll check into Public Storage. Thanks all!
University of Southern California Office of the President
March 16, 2020
Dear Trojan Community,
We know you are following the fast-changing reports about the COVID-19 pandemic. Just yesterday, California implemented a number of new measures and the CDC recommended halting all gatherings larger than 50 for the next eight weeks. We are writing today to share some important new actions we are taking in response. Social distancing and increased hygiene continue to be the best ways to reduce exposure and spread. To enforce social distancing, cities throughout California and beyond have closed schools, public events and places where people gather. Hospitals are increasing their capacity to help those in need.
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NEW ACTIONS: We are taking several significant new actions based on the evolving situation and informed by questions and concerns you’ve been sharing. To fully implement each of these will take some time, but we will make information available as quickly as we can.
- We made the decision last night to finish the academic semester online or remotely. We will be using this week, which is Spring Recess, to work out the many details with the deans and faculty, and to develop a website for questions and information. The opportunity to test our online capacities last week was very helpful.
- Graduation: Students will be able to complete the semester and graduate. International students with specific concerns about travel, visas, and online capability should contact the Office of International Services at (213) 740-2666 or ois@usc.edu; other students concerned about online capability should contact (213) 740-6291 or covid19@usc.edu.
- Commencement: We have not made a decision about how and when to celebrate Commencement 2020. The new CDC guidance and the spread of the pandemic will certainly affect our planning. We will get back to you on this after we have taken care of the pressing issues associated with completing the current semester.
- University housing: a. The majority of students living in university housing left for Spring Recess, but many did not or were unable to for a range of reasons. For those who stayed in university housing, please be assured, we will continue to provide housing, food and support as we work with each of you to find a solution that fits your circumstances. We appreciate your understanding – we are here to help: housing@usc.edu.
b. We will be determining a process for pro-rating refunds for university room and board, and are working through how best to do this. We will not have a specific plan or answers for a couple of weeks.
c. If you left university housing, do not return to retrieve your belongings until we establish a safe and orderly process to do this. We have limited access to many places on campus in order to meet social distancing requirements and to protect the health and safety of those who are still living and working on campus. We’re keeping your rooms locked and your belongings safe. We know this is important to you and we’ll have more information in the coming days.
- Clinics: We will be temporarily closing non-essential clinics and postponing some other clinical services. Please see individual school information for details as they are continually updated. We are reevaluating these services on a daily basis to ensure we continue to provide the highest quality inpatient and outpatient care. We are committed to continuing to support our clinical students through this time of uncertainty and change.
- Other buildings on campus: Most buildings, including the libraries, the bookstore and recreational facilities will not be publicly accessible until further notice. Library resources and services will be available online to assist with your studies and research here; items can still be purchased from the USC Bookstore online by visiting here . While key-card access will still be available for those who are required to be in the office for work or research, we emphasize the need to exercise social distancing and hygiene as recommended in every location.
USC Hospitality will remain open to provide food options, but in a reduced capacity. Please check USC Hospitality hours of operation for the latest information.
- Working at home or on campus: Human Resources Partners and units are continuing to meet and give guidance to managers and supervisors as we move to implement the business continuity plans already in place. In addition to information included in the Employee FAQ, Human Resources Partners and the HR Service Center (uschr@usc.edu) are available to answer questions to ensure your health, safety, and peace of mind.
a. Working at home officially begins today, March 16. We appreciate that this is new for most of us, and that the transition will take patience and flexibility. Even at home, we urge you to practice social distancing and good hygiene to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.
b. Many of you will still be working on campus to provide services that are essential during this challenging period. We are grateful to you and want to reassure everyone that we will be following social distancing guidelines, and have already taken measures to enhance cleaning and limit public access.
c. Those at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 include those over the age of 65, those with severe chronic health conditions – heart, lung, or kidney disease, or immune suppression, and those who are pregnant. If you are an employee in this higher risk category and have concerns, please contact your personal health care provider and follow-up with your supervisor and Human Resources Partner to discuss your specific situation.
d. With the severe restriction in university operations necessitated by the pandemic, some of our employees will not be able to perform their jobs. We know how difficult this is for people, and we don’t know how long it will last. Starting March 16, these employees will be eligible to access two weeks (10 work days) paid administrative leave before needing to access accrued vacation for additional pay during this period of restricted operations.
e. Detailed information about health care and sick leave for all employees is available here. Additionally, the Employee Gateway pages for each of the four health plans offered to USC employees have been updated with information related to COVID-19 coverage.
f. We will continue to evaluate all of these plans as we understand more fully the extent of the pandemic.
- Events: All university-sponsored on and off campus events have already been canceled or postponed through April 12. With the most recent national and local guidance from health and government agencies, it would be prudent to assume that it is likely this will extend until at least May 1.
QUESTIONS AND INFORMATION: We have a dedicated team of people working to answer thousands of emails and calls. We understand how worrisome and difficult this is for everyone, and that our decisions affect each of you differently.
We also understand that financial uncertainties are increasing the burden of this situation on so many of you. We are taking actions to lessen the financial impact on people whose work hours are directly affected by closures, cancellations and immediate work stoppages, and we are working on plans to provide some sort of pro-rata refund for university housing room and board. We do not have all of the answers yet because the situation itself is still changing, but we will continue to do our best to answer your questions as soon as we are able.
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Yours,
Carol Folt signature
Carol L. Folt
President
Charles Zukovski
Provost
cc:
President’s Senior Leadership Team
Provost’s Leadership Team
Academic Deans
Academic Senate
Staff Assembly
GSG President
USG President
@Marcie123 Thanks. We did. Thousands and thousands of people were simply ignoring the reality of the outside world. It was still fairly crowded. We did notice almost everyone taking extra precautions. I have never washed my hands or applied as much hand sanitizer in my life. Basically… any and every time we touched anything. She and I are basically planning to self-quarantine for the next 14 days or so… just to be safe.
Well, we are in “shelter in place” at midnight tonight - I guess just out for essentials. Hardware, gas, grocery to remain open and take out food only from restaurants. Non-essential small businesses being asked to close. Buckle up, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride for awhile.
Thanks, @Marcie 123 and @CADREAMIN, for your notes. My daughter did not end up flying to Hawaii for spring break. The coronavirus crisis has moved far more quickly than any of us expected, and she and her roommates opted to stay put. The rest of our family are in the eye of the storm in the Seattle area and have begun sheltering in place, probably only a day or two ahead of official orders to do so.
Our son, the current USC applicant, is in his second week of online learning; the other day he told us he dreamed he’d been admitted to USC, but everyone was too worried about the coronavirus to care. I promised him that would not be the case! He asked this morning when I thought he might hear from USC. Thanks to this group, I have a general answer for him.
About storage options: Our daughter has used two, US Storage Centers in Vernon, CA; and StorQuest - Los Angeles/Hill.
US Storage Centers in Vernon (323-231-2362) is a 20-minute drive from campus. Storage units are not air-conditioned, and the building is not new. But the management was very responsive and her rooming group’s belongings were fine there for 2 summers.
StorQuest - Los Angeles - Hill (213-747-8787) was closer, walkable from campus, though a longish walk, and more expensive than the one in Vernon. My daughter and her rooming group used this storage while several of the group were studying abroad. Also reasonably responsive.
Hope this helps.
Take good care, everyone. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, protect people you don’t know and will never meet. By following guidelines now, somewhere out there, someone else may live…
My son, a freshman, was going to ride things out in McCarthy, until word came out that students were encouraged to leave campus if they could. We booked him a flight from LAX to JFK yesterday. But we followed the instructions at the time, which was to leave belongings locked in dorm rooms. He was midflight when word came out yesterday that they were done for the semester. So, he is safely home in NY, but much of his stuff has been left behind in his dorm. He took home all the essentials, but now at a loss to see how we will get the rest of his stuff since none of us will be flying back to LA anytime soon.
Ok tried to post a link that I guess isn’t allowed, apparently USC students are stuck in Peru after they closed it’s borders. Not sure they can do anything at this point but wait it out, ugh. Lucas M Hu put out tweets to raise awareness.
(Sorry mod, wasn’t sure if previous post with that particular link was allowed, after I submitted I see it isn’t)
@ikbux64
Well that’s a pickle. Obiously can’t fly back just to pick up stuff. I suppose they will have packers box it if not so they have room ready for school to start? Or maybe they will allow student to authorize someone on their behalf once things settle? If so, let me know, my D is apartment right across from Village, I could send her over to help you if it would work out. She is also a Thornton major, just fyi.
We’ll just have to see what happens. idk, just one of the millions of details that has to be worked through.
@CADREAMIN oh my gosh, that’s a stressful situation, the students stuck in Peru. I found an article about it by googling - it’s in USCAnnenbergmedia dot com so people who are interested can probably find it that way.
Thank you @CADREAMIN. I appreciate your kind offer! I’ll let you know if we need the help. I have to believe that the school will offer some workable options. I imagine that hundreds, if not thousands, are in the same boat. Thankfully, he did lock two guitars and an amplifier in a Thornton locker, so at least that will be safe for the summer.
@CAtransplant
Fingers so crossed for you!
post edit - will jump over to PM 
Well, with remote learning/classes announced for the balance of this semester, we simply changed my daughter’s return flight for the second time… now to August. And now she has enlisted a friend who remains there to box up her stuff so that USC Storage can come get it next week and deliver it to University Gateway in August. And unless things change dramatically and soon, she will also likely forgo the internship opportunity in L.A. for the summer.
Luckily, she is a junior. She will endure and overcome. And hopefully her senior year will not be dramatically impacted negatively. I just feel so bad for the current seniors. It is all just so unfair that their Trojan journey concludes in this manner.
What a strange reality. 2020 has certainly waded into uncharted waters. Here’s hoping for a return to normalcy as soon as possible and especially before the Fall semester starts.
I was thinking of you @WWWard - the only consolation is the world will understand what each other went through, so when she says she couldn’t do her internship (or insert so many things here) there will be immediate acknowledgement not judgement. But very disappointing! Spending their summer with us was not their plan, that’s for sure. I just realized hs seniors will miss school visits after they get in certain colleges - we had seen ours well before the April blitz, but I know that is a pilgrimage that many enjoy - then of course graduation, ugh.
We are likely bopping down to LA in next day or two. Apparently there are still kids looking for housing that got booted out of the on campus housing (I think from Claremont) but can’t go home for various reasons. From what I understand, USC did allow kids to stay if they asked, as we know students still there. Anyway, D is gonna tidy her place up for someone to use till summer schools starts (if it does). She is taking classes and working - well that is/was the plan, we will see.
Thanks. Yes… true. Everyone will likely be very forgiving or take such into consideration. And yes… very disappointing. It took my daughter a lot of effort to get the right internship lined up. Oh well… she may try to do it in the fall instead. Summer will be unscripted and likely less than satisfying, but such is the new reality.
In 2014, we actually visited USC twice after my older daughter’s admission, as she had never visited before… for the admitted students’ day + orientation. That’s another huge set-back this cycle for this year’s admits who would have liked to visit.
My daughter’s sorority also abruptly decided yesterday that everyone has to move out in ten days. So unfair. It does not affect my daughter, but it does for those still there who thought that they had a place to live through mid-May.
We just received a super long email - here’s a couple of the biggies:
- Residential housing and student health center access: Students who left university housing during Spring Recess cannot return to campus to retrieve their belongings until we contact you with details for a safe and orderly process.
- Commencement planning: We know how important an in-person commencement is to our seniors, other graduates, and their families and friends. You’ve been planning for years for the special moments of celebration and gratitude that commencement provides for friends, teachers, and loved ones. We also know how special commencement is at USC, bringing upwards of 65,000 to 80,000 people of all ages from around the world—Trojans together—to celebrate in joyful ceremonies and events across the university.
That is why we are writing today to tell you that we have decided to postpone but not eliminate all USC in-person commencement 2020 activities. Given that our commencement is scheduled for May 15 – just eight weeks from today – an in-person commencement at that time won’t be possible. We are urging people to cancel travel plans and other arrangements they have made in order to attend commencement on that date.
Here is what we are thinking for commencement 2020: to begin, we will hold a virtual conferring of degrees in May—comprised of a series of online events and speakers—and we will make sure you receive your diplomas by mail.
We plan to have an in-person, on-campus celebration that will take place once travel and large group events become safe and permitted. Firm plans for the on-campus event will not be possible until more is known about the advance of the pandemic. We will continue to be in communication about this in the coming weeks and are determined to make this happen.
- Course grading options: Many of you have written with suggestions and concerns about grading in the spring semester. While our plans are not yet formalized, we want you to know that we have talked with the Academic Senate and the deans, and all are in agreement that students will have the option to take courses either as pass/fail or for a letter grade, with the choice to be determined by the student. We will alter the dates for applying for this option and adjust some requirements to make this possible; we are in the process of doing this and you will be notified with more details shortly.
I have been really impressed at USC quick reactions to this crazy situation we are in. And the most recent update to the pass/fail is amazing. Guess they figured kids are dealing with enought chaos, they do seem to be making it easy.
Also appreciate that they let kids stay at USC and didn’t toss them out.
So far, the new prez is impressing me. Communication has been stellar.
^^^ Agree completely.
@CADREAMIN ; @WWWard : Do either of you know if there are many kids on or around campus after the Spring Break? Mine is still home doing the on line classes. He wants to go back.