Dauterive Hall Grand Opening Wednesday, Sept. 3

The six-story, 98,000-square-foot building was made possible by Verna Dauterive’s $30 million gift

Contact: Eddie North-Hager at 213-740-2215 or edwardnh@usc.edu

WHAT: Grand opening of Dr. Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall, a six-level, 98,000-square-foot building that is USC’s first interdisciplinary social sciences building.

Among the initial programs slated to be housed in Dauterive Hall are the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, which promotes health and value in health care delivery, the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, which focuses on the responsibility of leaders to transcend partisanship, the Center for Economic and Social Research, which conducts research in behavioral and social sciences, the Sol Price Center for Social Innovation, which develops ideas and social entrepreneurs to improve the quality of life for low-income, urban communities, and the newly created USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center.

“The building will function under the president and provost, providing a home for multidisciplinary centers focused on developing solutions to pressing problems facing the world,” USC Provost Elizabeth Garrett has said.

WHO:

• USC Trustee Verna Dauterive, whose $30 million gift is among the largest to an American university by an African American
• USC President C. L. Max Nikias
• USC Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Elizabeth Garrett
• USC Trustee Leonard Schaeffer

WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3

WHERE: Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall, USC University Park Campus

PARKING: RSVP for information

MORE: Verna Dauterive has been a pioneer in education since she came to USC in 1943 to study for her master’s degree. While she taught in the public schools, she earned her doctorate at USC, writing her dissertation on the integration of public schools in 1966. For 62 years she taught and was a principal in the LA Unified School District.

Her gift was announced in 2008 to honor her late husband, Peter W. Dauterive, founding president and CEO of Founders Savings and Loan Association. The two met in the Doheny Memorial Library while attending USC.

Dauterive has a long history with USC. In 1975, she helped form what would become the USC Black Alumni Association and in 1985 she and her husband created the USC Rossier School of Education’s first endowed scholarship to attract minority doctoral students in education.