Luna v. USC

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On April 2, 2024, the Los Angeles Superior Court denied most of USC’s requests to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims and strike certain allegations regarding USC’s misrepresentations about the online MSW program. The case will now proceed to discovery, where the plaintiffs will be able to request documents and take depositions from USC. The court granted USC’s request to dismiss plaintiffs’ claim for racial discrimination under California’s Unruh Act, but gave the plaintiffs an opportunity to amend their complaint to make additional allegations to support this claim.

On September 17, 2024, the court officially entered its order allowing the discrimination claim to move forward.

If you are a current or former USC online MSW student and would like to contact us about your experience, please visit our Get Help page.

About Luna v. USC

  • On May 4, 2023, students of the University of Southern California’s (USC) online Master of Social Work (MSW) program filed a class action lawsuit against USC for misrepresentation, false advertising, and other deceptive, unfair and unlawful business practices.  

    The complaint states that USC deliberately deceives students by claiming that its online MSW program is the “same” academic program as USC’s long-standing on-campus program other than in format, including by charging the same very high tuition (over $100,000) for both programs. In fact, USC hides that its online MSW program is outsourced almost entirely to a for-profit education company, 2U, Inc. The plaintiff students are seeking a return of money they overpaid and to stop USC from engaging in these behaviors moving forward.

    Not only does the complaint detail how USC targeted and misled students, but it also alleges that in its partnership with 2U, Inc., USC turned its online MSW program into a large-scale diploma mill marketed specifically to people of color. USC’s MSW program has grown from enrolling 300 total students per cohort prior to 2010, to currently enrolling over 3,000 students, almost entirely through online growth, creating tremendous revenue for USC.

    • May 4, 2023: Plaintiffs’ filed their complaint in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

    • Sept. 13, 2023: Plaintiffs file First Amended Complaint

    • Nov. 2, 2023: USC files demurrer (motion to dismiss) against some, but not all, of plaintiffs’ claims, and motion to strike certain allegations regarding misrepresentations

    • Dec. 8, 2023: Plaintiffs file oppositions to demurrer and motion to strike

    • March 27, 2024: Oral argument to be held on USC’s demurrer and motion to strike

  • The case, Stephanie Luna v. University of Southern California, was filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The plaintiff students are represented by attorneys from the Project on Predatory Student Lending and the San Francisco-based public interest law firm Altshuler Berzon LLP. The putative class includes all California citizens who are or have been USC online MSW students at any time from four years before the filing of the complaint up through when final judgment is entered in the case.

    The filing details several ways in which USC targeted and misled students about its online MSW program, including:

    • USC repeatedly, to this day, describes its online MSW program as exactly “the same” as the on-campus program, when in fact the instructors, content, curriculum, advising, externships, and placement are different, inferior, and outsourced.

    • USC sells its program by claiming that the online students will be taught by its esteemed faculty, when in reality students are taught by contingent employees who have been retained specifically to teach online courses.

    • USC sells its program by claiming that students will receive the same curriculum and coursework as its cutting-edge and respected on-campus program, when in reality online students are given pre-recorded, outdated coursework.

    • USC tells students they will have access to USC’s respected and well-resourced clinical placement programs and staff, but online students’ clinical placements and career counseling are run by 2U, Inc.

    • Students interact with “counselors” and other staff they believed to be employees of USC, with USC email addresses, who are actually employees of 2U, Inc.

    • USC permits recruiters, employed by 2U, Inc. to pose as USC employees when they are not and to use high-pressure sales tactics to drive up enrollment (and thus revenue to USC and its corporate partner). These tactics have included outright lies about the program, about scholarships and clinical placements that were not available to online students, and other misrepresentations.

    • Finally, the program has been deliberately marketed toward people of color, as USC viewed these prospective students as better marks for “conversion”—that is, more likely to enroll once they were in touch with an “admissions counselor” (recruiter).

“When I found out the truth about this program and just how much USC lied to us, I was livid. The fact that the MSW program was used as a moneymaker and to deceive people like myself and the communities that I come from is not okay, and something needs to be done because people continue to be recruited," said Stephanie Luna, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Luna is Mexican-American and a first generation college student. "We were taught that as social workers, our job is to advocate for people who don't have voices and who are from underserved communities, so to have USC preach these values while lying to our faces and taking advantage of us is so hypocritical.”