Trojans at the University of Southern California honor the many cultures and backgrounds that make up the Trojan Family by recognizing heritage months. As some of the most significant symbols of the university’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, these commemorative events are celebrated with community engagement, discussions, music, dance and food.

 

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In April, USC held its largest Arab American Heritage Month celebration, with more than 200 people kicking off festivities at Hahn Plaza.

 

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USC’s Bovard Auditorium had a rapt audience of more than 1,200 people when Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones talked about the legacy of slavery and the ways it still influences contemporary life in the United States. The event was part of USC’s Black History Month celebration.

 

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Nationwide, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is observed in May, but at USC, where 24% of USC’s undergraduate students and more than 16% of its graduate and professional students identify as AAPI, the celebration takes place throughout April when all students are still on campus. Pictured are members of USC Troy Philippines performing a traditional Filipino folk dance known as tinikling, involving bamboo poles.

 

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Nicole Pompilio (left) of USC Dornsife’s Center for the Political Future joins students Gabe Romero (center) and Jamilah Muhammad (right) for a quick photo session during the wrap-up of USC’s Black History Month observance in February.

 

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Student Syrah Johnson (center) competes in double dutch during the University’s closing celebration of this year’s Black History Month.

 

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Trojans sported every color of the rainbow at Holi, inspired by the Hindu spring festival celebrated in many parts of southern Asia and other parts of the world with significant populations of Hindus or people of Indian origin. Participants doused each other with dry powder and colored water; some used water guns or water balloons, resulting in a fun, multicolored mess. Holi was presented by USC’s Association of Indian Students.

 

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In October 2022, Noche de Cultura closed USC’s Latinx Heritage Month at Founders Park with a powerful dance by Danza Azteca Toyaacan followed by joyful music from Mariachi Los Troyanos de USC. The event drew more than 1,200 attendees, who watched performances, visited various community booths, participated in raffles, and enjoyed free food, desserts and aguas frescas.

 

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Hannah Gardiner performs in drag as Daisy Darling during LGBTQ+ Student Center’s PrideFest in September 2022.

 

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Amelia Jasti (left), Jazmin Gallegos (center) and Mel Persell (right) pose for a picture at one of the booths in September 2022, when the first live LGBTQ+ History Month festival since 2019 featured drag performers and a safe space for all.

 

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Singer Alondra Santos performs with Mariachi Los Troyanos de USC at the Amy King Dundon-Berchtold University Club of USC at King Stoops Hall. Mariachi Los Troyanos de USC is heavily booked, with gigs on campus, at major city events and on television.

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Editor’s note: Title IX — the landmark legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding — was signed into law on June 23, 1972. In recognition of this anniversary, we’ll be profiling Trojan trailblazers throughout the year.

A version of this story originally published on Dec. 2, 2022.

To some who knew her, Rosalind “Roz” Wiener Wyman was ahead of her time. To others, she was a stalwart, a go-getter and even an icon.

She was absolutely a trailblazer. In the 1950s, just a year out of USC, she became the youngest person and only the second woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council — years before the women’s movement of the 1960s or the enactment of landmark Title IX legislation banned sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding. She laid the groundwork for the women who followed her.

But perhaps most importantly, to her son Bob Wyman, she was simply “Mom.”

“Looking back, I was probably in college when I realized how different my experience was and the extent of what Mom did,” Wyman said. “As I got older, I had a broader perspective from outside the house that this was a remarkable woman.”

The USC alumna spearheaded the Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles during a time when few major professional sports teams played on the West Coast and brought a wave of other professional sports teams west.

But her contributions to sports only tell a fraction of her story. A dedicated public servant, she served on the City Council for more than a decade before becoming an influential voice in the Democratic Party, serving as chair and chief executive officer of the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

In a public statement issued after Wyman passed away in October 2022, then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Wyman “a godmother of the Democratic Party” who “nurtured young people, mentored candidates and helped elect dozens of women to office.”

One of those women is former U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, who served California’s 36th congressional district from 1993 to 1999, and from 2001 to 2011.

Iconic is such a great word for Roz, iconic to the city and iconic to women.

Jane Harman, USC Price scholar-in-residence

“Iconic is such a great word for Roz, iconic to the city and iconic to women,” said Harman, Presidential Scholar-in-Residence at the USC Price School of Public Policy and an honorary USC trustee.

“Back in the day, it’s hard to imagine how a woman could have done what she did. I can’t imagine another woman that I know, including the most powerful, that at age 22 could have done what she did.”

Roz Wyman: Early life, path to USC and political career

A native Angeleno, Wyman attended Los Angeles High School, where she was a student government leader. She became well known by the vice principal for regularly presenting “crazy ideas,” like bringing lonely students together for lunch mixers and hosting school dances for those who couldn’t afford country club gatherings.

After high school, Wyman majored in public administration at what was then called the USC School of Citizenship and Public Administration, graduating in 1952. A year later, she was elected to the L.A. City Council at only 22 years old, making her the youngest elected legislator in a major U.S. city.

While running for office as a student at USC, Wyman recruited numerous student volunteers and used her own living room as her campaign headquarters. That early experience would prepare her for not only her role on the City Council, but also when she served as acting mayor of L.A. She then led a campaign to create more parks in the city and became the first woman to run a national political convention.

Roz was a force of nature.

Nancy Pelosi, former U.S. House speaker

“Roz was a force of nature: breaking down barriers for women in California politics, while forging new ways to bring people together through politics, the arts, and baseball,” Pelosi said. “Her leadership helped draw her beloved Dodgers to Los Angeles — and my Giants to San Francisco — so that California families could experience the thrill of America’s pastime.”

According to Wyman’s son Bob, that love for baseball was engrained in his mother from the moment she was born. The story goes that his grandmother, originally from Chicago, asked the doctor one question when Roz was born: “What’s the Cubs score?”

“I assume that’s where my mother’s love of baseball was inherited,” he chuckled.

Bringing pro sports to L.A.

One of her biggest campaign promises when she first ran for office was to bring major league sports to L.A., during a time when the West Coast was still an untapped market.

“She always felt that major cities needed major sports,” her son said.

She contacted then-Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, who initially refused to speak with a young city council member from across the country.

“I didn’t quit,” Wyman told USC News in 2018.

Ultimately, Wyman was able to convince O’Malley to visit L.A., where during a helicopter tour of the city the latter saw the perfect site for a baseball stadium. O’Malley moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn, and the team played its first game in L.A. on April 18, 1958. A year later, construction began on the new stadium — not without controversy from the surrounding community — and in 1962 Dodger Stadium opened to fans.

O’Malley and Wyman remained lifelong friends, and when the former died in 1979, his family — at his request — gifted Wyman a key that fits into every door at Dodger Stadium.

“Tommy Lasorda would yell at Mom from the dugout,” Bob Wyman said. “That’s a pretty cool experience for a young kid.”

Her efforts also had a ripple effect that saw the New York Giants move to San Francisco in 1958. Two years later, L.A. received another pro franchise when the Lakers moved to town from Minneapolis, another project Wyman had a hand in.

Remembering L.A. icon Roz Wyman

In addition to Pelosi, other well-known political figures and celebrities paid their respects to Wyman on social media after her death.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Wyman a friend and “someone who made a real difference for Los Angeles and for Democratic politics.”

“Roz was a real force of nature whenever she set her mind to something,” Feinstein said. “Whether it was politics or dragging a baseball team 3,000 miles across the country, Roz had a passion that was infectious, and she really got things done.”

Tennis legend and activist Billie Jean King took to Twitter to pay respect to a friend and source of inspiration.

“One of my Sheroes has passed away,” King said in a tweet.

“Roz Wyman was the youngest person ever elected to the Los Angeles City Council, at age 22, in 1953 and the reason we have the @Dodgers in LA. May she Rest in Power. Thank you, Roz.”

Harman hopes that Wyman’s impact can continue into the next generation of women in politics, and that Los Angeles remembers the icon it lost.

“She was my role model in politics,” Harman said. “She was just the North Star, not just to me, but to so many people.”

 

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Editor’s note: Title IX — the landmark legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding — was signed into law on June 23, 1972. In recognition of this anniversary, we’ll be profiling Trojan Title IX trailblazers throughout the year.

As associate vice president of USC government programs and University Relations initiatives, Theda Douglas is a tour de force. She oversees nine federally funded TRiO College Access Programs and the School for Early Childhood Education Head Start Programs. These programs touch and improve the lives of over a thousand K-12 students each year in the neighborhoods surrounding USC’s University Park Campus.

When Douglas began her career in education, she didn’t envision going into an administrative role. Yet she found the ones that have had a positive effect on students and the community, and she credits Title IX legislation for giving her the confidence and support to make the transition from the classroom to the administrative office.

“If Title IX wasn’t a force, if it didn’t have impact, then I wouldn’t be here. Women like myself, particularly women of color, we were afraid before,” said Douglas. “We wouldn’t apply out of fear or because we thought we wouldn’t be chosen.”

If Title IX wasn’t a force, if it didn’t have impact, then I wouldn’t be here.

Theda Douglas, University Relations

Douglas started her career teaching high school before moving to Los Angeles Trade Technical-College to work in higher education. It was there that her dynamic personality and the ability to get the most from students caught the attention of Evelyn Wong, the school dean who approached her with the idea of becoming associate dean.

Leaving the classroom: A tough choice

Convincing Douglas to leave the classroom wasn’t an easy task. “It was tough for me. I loved my students,” said Douglas. She ultimately embraced the opportunity and funneled her passion for helping those in need into her new role. In time, she rose to interim vice president of student services, where she boosted funding for low-income students, first-generation students and students with disabilities, and was instrumental in building LATTC’s student services programs.

It wasn’t long after that she was approached to return to her alma mater and lead USC’s TRiO and School for Early Childhood Education programs. Again, Douglas was hesitant until she realized that “the community is now my classroom” and that the expanded responsibilities in this new job would allow her to change the lives of thousands.

At USC, Douglas became a fierce champion for the underserved, turning over every rock to find funding to support her programs and ensure every participant’s success.

USC TRiO serves over 800 high school students annually, providing counseling, tutoring and assistance completing college and financial aid applications. It also offers academic support at its Saturday academies, and the summer residential program allows students to live and take classes at the University Park Campus.

The program has a 97% high-school graduation rate, and most go on to community colleges or four-year universities. Approximately 100 students graduate from the program each year, with a dozen students accepted to USC.

The need to do more

Despite the program’s success, and its near-perfect graduation rate, Douglas saw a profound need to do more.

I was seeing high school students in our TRiO program, and wondering, ‘Where will they go after high school if they don’t go to college?’

Theda Douglas, University Relations

“I was seeing high school students in our TRiO program, and wondering, ‘Where will they go after high school if they don’t go to college?'” She recognized the program wasn’t introducing career opportunities and pathways to students not interested in attending or unable to attend college, and that was a problem.

So, in 2015, Douglas reached out to her vast professional network and leveraged her valuable community college experience to launch the Concurrent Enrollment program, a partnership between USC, West Los Angeles College and Allied Health. The program is a 15-week course that offers entry-level health care certification for high school graduates interested in dental assistant, medical assistant and pharmacy technician careers.

Since its launch, over 400 students have received health care workforce certificates qualifying them immediately for paid entry-level positions in health-related fields.

Douglas became a teacher to improve the world, and even though her career in education and administration has spanned over 30 years, she’s far from considering retirement. She was recently on Capitol Hill, advocating for additional TRiO funding. She’s also focused on USC’s eighth Head Start child care center, at the historic Casa de Rosas facility.

Reflecting on her career and the impact of Title IX, Douglas said, “Title IX has been our support, our foundation. It has given us the ability to know that there is a strong force that’s on our side.”

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Editor’s note: Title IX — the landmark legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding — was signed into law on June 23, 1972. In recognition of this anniversary, we’ll be profiling Trojan Title IX trailblazers throughout the year.

Felicia Washington, an alumna of the University of Virginia School of Law, had always known that strides toward preventing discrimination based on sex were enshrined in Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts. However, as her professional career advanced from private legal practice at a multinational law firm, leading her to become the first vice chancellor for workforce strategy, equity and engagement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she witnessed Title IX furthering gender equity as it applied directly to institutions of higher learning.

Washington then brought that knowledge to USC. As USC’s first senior vice president whose portfolio includes the Human Resources, Equity and Compliance division, she aligns the university’s HR, equity and compliance functions to form a division that services, supports and safeguards the university community.

“A regulation like Title IX reminds everyone to think about gender equity in all that we do,” Washington said. “When forming committees, when planning events, when determining who’s going to be on a team — my hope is that we all demonstrate through our actions that inclusivity is something that matters. It’s how we get to the best outcomes.”

Forming a division that drives culture and compliance

Since her appointment in June 2019, Washington has been leading the design of a world-class HR division at USC, which has the structure, resources and training to elevate the experience of the university’s more than 28,000 employees.

Her expertise in employment law and regulatory responsibilities, along with her experience in university administration, led Washington to spot an opportunity at USC: to align functions related to HR, equity and compliance to ensure that the university fosters a service-oriented, welcoming and inclusive environment for all.

The fusion of these functions in 2020 resulted in the HR, Equity and Compliance division, and Washington’s role expanded to oversee the people-focused offices of Culture, Ethics and Compliance; Equity, Equal Opportunity and Title IX; and Professionalism and Ethics.

One significant result of this alignment also occurred in 2020, when Washington introduced the Office for Equity, Equal Opportunity and Title IX (EEO-TIX), a consolidation of two previous offices to create a caring and high-performing equity office that is proactive and responsive to the concerns of the USC community.

We wanted to see care at all levels impacting people for the better.

Felicia Washington, USC senior vice president

“Accompanying this decision,” Washington said, “was a question: What changes do we want to see in our community, in the ways we serve our community and in the ways we honor ourselves? The answer that arose was care. We wanted to see care at all levels impacting people for the better.”

Under her leadership, the formation of EEO-TIX ended the previous “blizzard of confusion” — a phrase she heard during her USC listening tour used to describe under-resourced, unconnected and misaligned efforts — and USC’s first omnibus Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation, covering faculty, staff, students, visitors, patients and clinicians, was drafted and adopted.

The 50th anniversary of Title IX provided Washington with an opportunity to reflect on the journey of EEO-TIX’s maturity and growth. Since the office’s establishment, USC has strategically invested in onboarding team members to not only enforce and respond to concerns, but also to provide care to reporting and responding parties and to engage in outreach to provide resources following a reported concern, as well as to provide training and education on prevention. And in December 2022 (with runway provided by USC President Carol L. Folt), Washington and Catherine Spear, vice president for EEO-TIX, were able to oversee the relocation of the office to a welcoming and accessible location on campus, complete with a lactation room and gender-neutral bathroom.

As Washington continues to champion Title IX at USC in collaboration with EEO-TIX, she can also recall moments in her life and career when that same care was less prevalent, moments that motivated her people-focused mission.

The power of self-advocacy

At the top of her class as a high school sophomore, Washington remembers a significant moment. Two of her male classmates of diverse backgrounds were nominated to attend a new public boarding school for science and mathematics. Although the accomplishment was laudable, the nominations overlooked Washington’s top of the class position.

The woman who inspires me the most is my mother. She encouraged me to march to the beat of my own drum, and I grew up believing that opportunities were limitless.

Felicia Washington, USC senior vice president

But growing up, Washington’s mother had impressed upon her to always aspire to be the best she could be.

“The woman who inspires me the most is my mother,” Washington said. “She encouraged me to march to the beat of my own drum, and I grew up believing that opportunities were limitless.”

That day in high school, she used the situation as an opportunity to self-advocate. “I nominated myself and was selected,” she said. “Today, I’m a proud alumna of the school and believe that experience ultimately led me to a degree in economics from UNC-Chapel Hill.”

Years later, Washington continues to practice self-advocacy so that she can empower and encourage others to do the same.

Recognizing the impact of women

Along with her mother, Washington also derives strength from other inspirational people advancing gender equity in our society. Whether it is a woman who has succeeded or has failed, Washington believes, “the fact that they were in play is a positive example and encouragement for others to go after whatever they’re interested in doing. I don’t believe that failure is the end of any story.”

The concept of being one’s best illuminates another element of Title IX that Washington finds compelling: It ensures that women receive equal benefits, privileges, opportunities and programming in educational opportunities and in higher education.

For Washington, the equal inclusion of women — bolstered by Title IX — has had a huge, positive impact on others and the university environment.

Today and tomorrow

Known for her people-focused decision-making, Washington is clear about Title IX’s role in her day-to-day life. “You can’t unknow it,” Washington said. “It influences my lens on many, many things, and I’m happy it’s there because it helps people understand the need to be inclusive.”

Together with her teams in the HR, Equity and Compliance division, Washington hopes to continue to create sustainable systems so that when Title IX or other concerns emerge, resources and services can be provided, as well as resolutions.

“Ultimately,” she said, “we do not want to have anything impeding the educational experience, goals and success of our students or the work environment for our employees.”

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The triumphs of Black Americans and the continuing fight for racial equality will be the focus when the Trojan community gathers virtually on Monday to commemorate Juneteenth, a 157-year tradition of celebrating the emancipation of enslaved Americans.

“It’s an opportunity for folks to do some self-reflection and to think about the impact Black people have had on our country,” said Damarea Parker, one of the event’s organizers and supervisor of USC’s Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs. “It’s a time to be celebrating and for folks to learn allyship and to really be supportive.”

The celebration gets its name from combining the words “June” and “nineteenth.” It was on that day in 1865 that Union forces finally reached Texas to announce and enforce the end of slavery there — more than two months after the end of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery in Confederate-controlled states had come 2 1/2 years earlier.

Despite its long history, Juneteenth only gained major mainstream attention and became a federal holiday following the nationwide protests that erupted in 2020 after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans by police.

President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in 2021, which made Juneteenth the first new federal holiday since the addition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

More than a Texas tradition

Francille Rusan Wilson, an associate professor of American studies and ethnicity, history, and gender and sexuality studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, pointed out that the first Juneteenth celebration took place in Galveston, Texas, in 1866. The popularity of the celebrations has ebbed and flowed throughout the decades, but the observances have had a consistent presence in Texas from the beginning.

Wilson described the holiday as an opportunity for honest dialogue.

“Black Americans have had continuous desire to commemorate important events in their history,” Wilson said. “I think it’s a good thing to think about emancipation, about the world enslaved people were in and were making for themselves — the struggles that they had.”

But the current rise in celebrations comes at a time when a growing number of conservative-led states and school districts in the United States have introduced measures or passed laws to limit how race and discrimination can be discussed in public schools.

“For every reverent celebration, I am reminded that there are growing campaigns against even teaching about slavery and its brutal systems in schools across the country,” said Associate Professor Allissa V. Richardson of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “What we lose when we deny this history is incalculable. If we are serious about the work of racial equality in America, then we must continue to study slavery’s legacy in every discipline, in every grade level and in every state in the U.S.”

Pushing back through celebration

Richardson, founding director of the USC Annenberg Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab, finds the uptick in Juneteenth observances to be an “inspiring pushback” against the recent efforts to curtail public discussions of slavery and its lasting effects on American society.

“As a Black woman, it has been especially joyful to see other Black people gathering to express joy communally, instead of grief,” she said.

The USC Juneteenth online event will feature welcome remarks from USC President Carol L. Folt and a roster of speakers that includes Christopher Manning, USC chief inclusion and diversity officer; Cynthia Brass, Black Staff and Faculty Caucus president; Tonisha Jester, senior associate director of the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the USC Marshall School of Business; and Shannon Bradley, Keck Medicine of USC chief diversity and inclusion officer, among others. There will also be a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (often referred to as the Black national anthem).

The virtual event begins at noon and can be accessed through a Zoom link on the university calendar.

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