Archinect - News

USC eliminates undergraduate tuition for families making less than $80,000 per year

2020-02-20T14:02:00-05:00

University of Southern California (USC) President Carol Folt has announced that the institution will eliminate tuition costs for students whose families make less than $80,000. In addition, the private university will no longer consider home equity when making financial aid calculations for students.

The changes, according to The Los Angeles Times, come as part of an effort to make the USC's tuition competitive with those offered by public universities, like the University of California system. In-state tuition for local rival University of California, Los Angeles runs at about $12,570 per year. The change applies only to undergraduate students and to those matriculating into the university directly from high school. According to reports, the university will continue to offer its existing financial aid packages for transfer and graduate students.

The change in policy mirrors recent efforts undertaken at other elite higher education institutions like Harvard University and Stanford...

Penn State announces new endowment for student study abroad

2016-06-02T15:37:00-04:00

In the early 1960s, [Penn State's] international studies were confined mainly to books and photos — until George Ehringer and his classmates organized a semester in London, the department’s first official study abroad trip. Ehringer, who earned his bachelor of science in architecture from Penn State in 1964, recently made a $25,000 gift to create the George D. Ehringer, Class of 1964, Award for Study Abroad in the Department Architecture...

According to this warmhearted account, from unwittingly meeting Buckminster Fuller ("He was never introduced. It was only later we learned it was Buckminster Fuller!”) to developing relationships that lasted for decades, studying abroad in London ultimately benefitted the 1964 Penn State architecture students in ways they could not have anticipated. Anyone who wants to donate to the newly created endowment can do so either via snail mail (Penn State to the A&A Development office, 107 Borland Building, University Park, PA 16802) or online.

For more on the benefits of travel in architectural education:

Who pays for the new private museums after the death of their aging founders?

2015-01-08T15:16:00-05:00

From the opening of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in October to the construction of The Broad in Los Angeles now set to open this autumn, the model of the single-donor museum is thriving. [...] what will happen to these new institutions on the death of the founder or the decline in their collecting activity. [...] To what extent have these museum founders made plans to ensure the vitality and flexibility of their prized institutions beyond their own lifetimes?

Frank Gehry establishes annual "Gehry Prize" for SCI-Arc

2012-09-05T19:20:00-04:00

Gift Will Endow an Annual Prize to Recognize Outstanding SCI-Arc Graduate Thesis Projects

The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) today announced it has received a transformative $100,000 gift from world-renowned architect and SCI-Arc trustee Frank Gehry, and his wife, Berta. The noteworthy contribution will go toward the establishment of the Gehry Prize, to be awarded annually to the best thesis projects selected by critics and jurors in the Graduate Thesis Weekend hosted in September.

SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss suggested a quote from Thucydides which conveys the spirit in which the prize is given: “They were born never to live in peace and quiet themselves and to prevent the rest of the world from doing so.” He also praised the donors, after whom the graduate thesis prize will be named, for the generosity of the donation and its prestigious nature. “The entire school community, including students, faculty, staff, administration and board, is extremel...