In a serious growth of its Washington footprint, USC is opening a public coverage institute — simply in time for the 2024 elections — the place college students can immerse themselves in studying concerning the nationwide and political points that may have an effect on their lives.
USC President Carol Folt mentioned the second has come for the college to cross a bridge from the West, the place USC is well-known, to the nation’s capital, the place college students can examine within the coronary heart of democracy.
“They’re deeply, deeply keen on attempting to be a part of the good democracy they’re in,” Folt mentioned. “Greater than that, universities have a duty to take the unbelievable work of our college, employees and packages and use it for public good.”
The opening of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Institute for Public Coverage & Authorities, set for July 1, comes one 12 months after USC opened its Capital Campus within the metropolis’s Dupont Circle neighborhood. The institute is funded with a $59-million reward from Leonard Schaeffer and his late spouse, Pamela.
The mission of the institute might be to coach new generations of public leaders and advance evidence-based analysis to form coverage, a college assertion mentioned. Folt emphasised the crucial of addressing the nation’s political divide with college students.
“Probably the greatest issues that we are able to do is prepare residents for tomorrow and construct democracy all of us consider in,” she mentioned.
The institute’s announcement is being made through the 2024 election 12 months, which Folt mentioned is vital for college students to have firsthand expertise in a spot the place “nice thinkers are working with policymakers to handle nationwide points” and debate them.
As with the campus USC Schaeffer Heart, the Washington Schaeffer Institute might be a collaboration between the USC Value College and the USC Mann College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, to broaden research into health-related matters.
Leonard Schaeffer is chairman and chief govt of WellPoint, now Elevance, a medicare insurance coverage agency. The philanthropist additionally established the Schaeffer Heart for Well being Coverage and Economics in 2009 and the Schaeffer Fellows in Authorities Service program in 2014.
Dana Goldman, dean of the USC Value College, will turn out to be the director and lead the Schaeffer Institute.
At a time when science is beneath assault, the institute will delve into nonpartisan, evidence-based coverage points, Goldman mentioned, whereas serving to forge a brand new understanding about how authorities works.
Younger folks, he mentioned, “have an unlimited mistrust of presidency and but, authorities is accountable for the way forward for our nation.”
He mentioned the institute will delve into the intricacies of policymaking.
A pupil spoke to Goldman about their concern with the general public well being disaster of weight problems, for instance. The scholar recommended that weight problems may very well be addressed by passing legal guidelines to remove merchandising machines in colleges or making fast-food chains unlawful, Goldman mentioned.
“There’s a extra refined coverage round what we do a couple of public well being disaster like weight problems. You possibly can’t simply take away merchandising machines as a result of it depends upon what’s within the surrounding neighborhood,” he mentioned. “So one coverage with out the opposite gained’t do any good.”
He believes fashionable areas of curiosity for college students might be sustainability, local weather change and healthcare.
