In 1958, Dr. Norman Topping became Fagg's successor, beginning two of the most dynamic decades in USC's history. Topping established a comprehensive planning commission which produced, in May 1961, the Master Plan for Enterprise and Excellence in Education. This courageous and forward-looking academic blueprint included a fund raising goal of $106,675,000 in new funds. Though Topping predicted the goal might take 20 years to accomplish, it was reached and surpassed in little more than five.
The crowning achievement of the Topping years was USC's election to the Association of American Universities, an organization made up today of 58 leading public and private universities. The AAU bases membership on general excellence with an emphasis on graduate and research programs.
When Topping stepped down in 1970, the mantle of leadership was passed to John R. Hubbard.
Hubbard charted his priorities as bringing USC to the highest level of academic excellence and distinction possible. Toward these ends, he launched an overwhelmingly successful fund-raising effort.
Though American higher education in the 1970s was characterized by lowered enrollments and a drop-off in funding, USC rose to new heights. Ten major buildings were begun or completed, USC's total number of endowed chairs and professorships rose to 67; applications for admission soared from 4,100 in 1970 to over 11,000 in 1979; and the mean grade point average for admitted freshmen rose to 3.4 on a 4.0 scale.
Building on an academic planning process that began early in his tenure, Zumberge was instrumental in defining the goals that became the basis for The Campaign for USC, the biggest fund-raising program in the university's history. When the campaign concluded in June 1990, it had raised $641.6 million in support of a wide variety of capital projects, had contributed more than $188 million to the university's endowment and boosted annual support of university programs to unprecedented levels.
USC also made major strides in funding for research during the Zumberge years. Sponsored research funding grew from $71.5 million in 1981 to $174.5 million in 1990 - a 144 percent increase. Major research efforts, such as the USC-based National Center for Integrated Photonic Technology and the Southern California Earthquake Center, contributed significantly to USC's emergence as one of the nation's premier research universities.
Among the more than a dozen major new buildings completed during Zumberge's tenure were the Hedco Neurosciences Building, the General William Lyon University Center, the Cinema-Television Complex, the University Bookstore and Zohrab A. Kaprielian Hall, as well as major additions to the Architecture and Fine Arts Library and Law Center. A new Teaching Library was in advanced stages of planning.
USC's Health Sciences Campus also underwent dramatic transformations during the Zumberge Decade. It nearly doubled in size with the acquisition of land and existing buildings from Los Angeles County. As Zumberge stepped down, the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, which opened in 1983, was in the final stages of fund-raising for a major building addition, and construction was nearing completion on the Richard K. Eamer Medical Plaza, a cooperative project of the university and National Medical Enterprises. The plaza includes the 275-bed USC University Hospital and the USC Healthcare Consultation Center.
Produced by the USC Division of Student Affairs, Office of University Publications, May 1, 1995