Rick Caruso is USC’s new president, JuJu Watkins is transferring and USC is rebranding as the University of South Carolina.
April Fools!
Many students like Sabrina Dela Barre, a freshman biomedical engineering major, fell for these pranks.
Dela Barre said it all started when she opened her phone and went to the USC Barstool page on Instagram.
“The first thing that I saw was that JuJu Watkins had transferred,” Dela Barre said. “But then I scrolled, and I was like: ‘Wait, an Erewhon is not coming to TCC.’”
Cash Sanchez, an international relations and legal studies double major, also got tricked by the JuJu Watkins prank.
“That one got me a little bit. I was like, ‘Wow I can’t believe she did that to us right after our loss,’” Sanchez said.
While that prank reached some students who followed the USC Barstool Instagram account, another prank reached nearly the entire student body.
“Dear Trojan students, I am pleased to announce that Rick Caruso has been selected the next USC President, effective fall 2025,” read the fake email sent out by two students.
The email seemed to have an official letterhead and resembled many other emails that USC has sent students in the past. Except it was signed by Levi?
“I just thought it was hilarious. I don’t know who Levi is, but I thought he was funny,” Sanchez said.
In an interview with Morning, Trojan, the pranksters were revealed as seniors screenwriting major Levi Elias and business major Josh Wolk.
Some students found the joke funny and could see that it was a prank. But others thought it was real up until Wednesday morning.
“Oh wait, that was a prank?” Dela Barre said. “I guess I did fall for it. You got me, you got me.”
Alex Gaspar, a junior themed entertainment major, believed it at first but said she had to fact-check the announcement.
“I had second thoughts. And then I saw on Reddit that it was just a joke.” Gaspar said.
However, his friend didn’t know it was a joke because he was studying abroad in Belgium, so he saw the email on April 2, rather than on April Fools’ Day.
“He’s studying abroad in Brussels,” Gaspar said. “He fell for the Caruso thing because of the time change.”
It wasn’t only students who fell for the prank, but a local news station as well.
During the Los Angeles-based television station’s morning broadcast, KTLA anchors announced a live correction to their previous reporting that Caruso had become the next USC president, saying they had been fooled by Elias and Wolk’s email.
The reason why people seemed to fall for it? Hank Korneffel, a senior business administration major, had an answer.
“I could see people falling for it because of how news feels these days, especially USC, but thank God it’s not [real],” Korneffel said.
In an emailed statement, USC PR said the April Fools’ joke was “clever” and that students can get involved with selecting USC’s next president by filling out the presidential search survey.
The last prank that fooled some was when the USC Instagram page changed its profile to look like South Carolina.
“I was on the Instagram page, and I saw it,” said Jana Alnajjar, a freshman philosophy, politics and law major. “I had to refresh, and I was like, this doesn’t feel right.”
On April 1, anything can be a prank, but some wished other things were April Fools’ Day pranks.
“The fact that there’s not guaranteed housing. I wish that was an April Fools’ Day prank,” Sanchez said.
Alnajjar added, “Or that the meal plan didn’t go up next year.”