This year, USC hired 120 new faculty members, the first wave of increased efforts to bring in top-notch professors from all over the United States and from all over the world. This large feat marks USC's first major attempt to restructure the quality of our instruction, and as students who know the value of a good education, we are appreciative of that. 
For a that university in constant need of quality professors for our growing student population, we are glad to see USC is finally working hard to bring them to us. In past years, USC has been more "bottom heavy" than we would like, meaning we've been short on upper-level professors with long-term experience.
But USC plans to change that in the next few years, with goals of expanding the number of tenured professors from 1,000 to 1,250, which is a huge increase. Competent professors breed competent students, and in the present state of our economy, where competition is high and knowledge is valuable, a good professor can make all the difference.
However, such benefits require great sacrifices, too, and in this case, the sacrifice is the annual cost of around $5 million that USC is spending on this endeavor. In order to attract these professors, USC has offered salaries that could ultimately average between $80,000 and $100,000, funded by increased student enrollment and raised tuition prices. But that's OK with us. If there's anything we would want to see our tuition dollars spent on, it would be improving our education and seeing new programs created. Better professors should not only enhance our classroom experience, but also enhance the reputation of a university we're proud of and better equip us for life.