The University of Southern California (USC) decided to break ground on a campus village that will cost upwards of $650 million. Paid for entirely by the school and donations, the new campus village is expected to be completed in 2017.

The school began construction on the new village on September 15th. To be able to build the new village, they tore down a shopping center that doubled as the old university village. With this new addition, USC is gaining plazas, a grocery store, salons, boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants, a bank, a gym, and on-campus housing. The housing will be able to accommodate 2700 students, raising the number of students able to live on campus to a total of 10,000 students.

The village will also be open to the public except between the hours of 9pm and 6am. During that time, only students, faculty, and approved visitors will be allowed. It is also said that it “will not only transform the campus but also the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood surrounding it,” according to the school’s website. The village it is expected to create 8000 permanent jobs and 4000 temporary jobs. It is estimated that 30 percent of the jobs will be filled by local residents.

While the $650 million is going toward building a new village, this project is also getting rid of the old university building that has been apart of the campus for a while. The school will lose the history the building brings to the campus, but according to the official USC website, they will be gaining “the amenities and comforts of a town center”.

”USC Village will replace the nearly 50-year-old University Village and will sit on 15 acres of land the university has owned for several years,” stated a post on USC’s official website.

The new village is going to be a great incentive for students here at RHS who are thinking of going to USC. It will allow more of them to live there and have all the necessary amenities at the tip of their fingers. The best part is it will save time and money, which all college students like to hear. Students will be able to walk to stores that they previously had to take a light rail or cab to, saving money that would have been spent on transportation.

Along with the new village, Wallis Annenberg Hall officially opens this year. The media center is the newest and most advanced of the two buildings that make up the school for Journalism and Communication.

Annenberg Hall is technologically advanced with all its equipment and it will allow students to converge the many facets of the student media into a more cohesive unit of multimedia. With this new media center, Annenberg is an even more effective option for students who are thinking of studying journalism.

By creating the new campus village and the new hall, USC seems to be providing a very attractive option for prospective students.