LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- George Lucas' recent $175 million pledge to the University of Southern California seeks to elevate the status of U.S. film schools in general.
The "Star Wars" creator spoke at Wednesday's groundbreaking for a new Cinema Arts building at his alma mater and called the gift a signal to the rest of academia that movies are "an important discipline and should be taken seriously."
The Los Angeles Times said Lucas believes movie-making schools should be thought of on the same level as medical and law schools as well as schools of architecture and even journalism.
The record donation to USC will pay for a new building that will replace the original film school building that opened on the Los Angeles campus in 1929.
USC is consistently rated among the top film schools in the United States.
