University of Southern California tentatively settles false advertising lawsuit by graduates of certificate programs, raising issues of how colleges value different students. Who gets to claim alumni status at the University of Southern California and benefit from its powerful network? For years, Brian Ralston, who earned a graduate certificate in music scoring for motion pictures and television from USC in 2002, thought he did. They learned the university had updated its bylaws sometime in the 2010s—without notifying affected graduates—to no longer grant alumni status to graduate certificate holders who don’t otherwise have a traditional bachelor’s or graduate degree from USC.
