The university seems to have a very organized and structured idea of what they want to accomplish with this plan. It discusses improving traffic and bringing in business to the area. The plan consists of many things that seem to be beneficial mainly for the school. The project on Jefferson Boulevard seems like it could be a interesting in the sense that it may bring jobs to the community, but when the community tries to use this resource along with the students and faculty there may be issues. Overall the plan does not seem very good to me. It seems like the focus of it is to improve the school and bring the spotlight to the university rather than involve the community. The plan did mention the community, but not in a sense that made me feel like the community and neighborhood around the school was really that important. The feeling I got from reading the plan was that the university just mentions the surrounding neighborhoods so it looks good and seems like it's doing something for the surrounding community. However, when I read the whole plan I didn't get the feeling that the community really was that important and that rather the main goal was to make the university better first and then maybe help out the community.
http://www.usc.edu/community/upcmasterplan/
I think USC will try their hardest to help the area surrounding campus but it's also a two way road. Hand outs can't be expected and everyone MUST work together to better the area around us. It's not entirely the University's responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your position of the USC master plan. I believe that the urban neighborhood around us needs to be revitalized. I am glad that USC has recognized this problem because I have personally know prospective students who declined their acceptance to SC solely based on the surrounding neighborhood. Also, with a better surrounding community, USC will become a much more appealing school to students from around the nation.
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