USC Living History Project
The USC Emeriti Center is the campus locus of retired faculty and staff who are the living embodiment of the university’s historical evolution. Since the 1980’s the USC Living History Project has recorded many key campus contributors and to date, we have almost 80 interviews capturing major campus initiatives and events from the 1940s to the present. These are eclectic remembrances of: the evolving academic environment, administrative restructuring, and research/teaching accomplishments. We continue to record faculty and administrators, both retired and not, to celebrate our evolving University.
The Emeriti Center is the campus locus of retired faculty and staff who are the living embodiment of the historical evolution of the university. Their minds are the repositories of the past and their talents created it. To preserve and codify this historical mosaic, the Emeriti Center, and the H. Dale Hilton Living History Project has videotaped many key campus contributors over the past 25 years. Those who are videotaped are retired faculty and staff of USC who have collectively made the university what it is today. The interviews are eclectic remembrances of major campus events from the 1940s to the present: the evolving academic environment, administrative restructuring, and research/teaching accomplishments.
When the funding for the H. Dale Hilton Living History Project ran out in 2005, Louise Ball took a leadership role in securing an unused USC endowment established in her son’s honor and had it transferred to the USC Emeriti Center so that the interest would help fund Living History interviews. The endowment funds approximately two to three interviews per year. We are indebted to Louise for helping to establish this special endowment.
The selection committee consisted of Chair Louise Ball; Interview Coordinator Christine Shade; Campus Facilitator Claude Zachary, University Archivist; and a board of seven emeritus staff and faculty during the years prior to 2010. Currently, the Emeriti Center is generating new members for the committee in conjunction with Jerry Walker, Dick Martin, Jean Ewing, Claude Zachary, Casey Kazlauskas, and many others. All interviews are recorded with the assistance of the staff of TrojanVision and the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and we are very grateful for their technical expertise.
Most of the interview collection was digitized in 2006, and current protocol calls for the immediate digitization of any new interviews to make sure that all interviews are available in the DVD format.
A select number of Living History interviews can also be viewed online at USC’s YouTube channel. USC Employee Gateway has posted 33 of the 75 videos online: bit.ly/USClivinghistory