AT GL A NCE
Hudhail Al-Amir: 47 Years as “Doctor Proctor” By Cristy Lytal
Hudhail Al-Amir, who recently retired as director of the Testing Bureau, started working at USC on July 1, 1962, and he owes it all to number 2 pencils. “When I was a student, I went to the Testing Bureau to visit a friend who was working there, and he asked me to sharpen some pencils while I was visiting with him,” Al-Amir recalled. “The following week, I received a call from the Testing Bureau saying I had to fill out a payroll form so they could pay me for sharpening pencils. They said it’s a state law: if you work, you have to get paid. And so I filled out the forms, and then I started working there as a student worker.” Born in Baghdad, Al-Amir chose to attend USC as an undergraduate due to the influence of the American Jesuits who ran the high school he attended in Iraq. Although his brothers and cousins earned their degrees abroad at European universities, he was the first member of his family to study in the United States. He joined a fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, which helped him adapt quickly to life at USC. “I don’t think anyone before me who was in a fraternity was a foreign student,” he said. “At the time, all foreign students would gather at the cafeteria. They would have their own tables, and they never really picked up on the American way of life. So joining the
fraternity was fantastic. I really enjoyed it, and it helped me assimilate so much quicker.” The Pacific Ocean also agreed with AlAmir, who became an avid scuba diver. He caught lobsters with his bare hands and gave them to his friends, and also took up deepsea fishing, a hobby he continues to enjoy. “I have a picture of me on the front cover of the Daily Trojan by the track field, and I am holding two huge lobsters on my shoulders,” he said. “The caption below reads something about Hudhail Al-Amir with his pets.” Following graduation, Al-Amir landed a position as a testing supervisor and, after a series of promotions, became director of the Testing Bureau in the mid-1980s. Students dubbed Al-Amir USC’s “Doctor Proctor.” His duties included giving placement tests for incoming freshmen, scoring and statistically analyzing classroom exams with scannable answer sheets, drawing up the final exam schedule, administering national tests like the SAT and ensuring security through methods ranging from alternate testing forms to a walk-in exam storage vault. Testing even launched Al-Amir’s career in Hollywood: filmmaker and USC alumnus John Singleton approached him to play “S.A.T. Man” in 1991’s “Boyz n the Hood.” Al-Amir recalled the casting process: “Singleton said, ‘I took some placement test from you. You probably don’t remember me.’ I said, ‘The truth is I see about 20,000 people every testing year. I really don’t remember you. But did you use a number 2 pencil?’ He said, ‘Yes, yes.’ ” In addition to Singleton and legions of other test-takers, Al-Amir’s Trojan family includes his wife, two daughters, who are both USC alumnae, and granddaughter. In his free time, he enjoys his 50-yard-line seats at Trojan football games, traveling and watching CBS’s “The Mentalist.” But one place you won’t see Al-Amir these days is at the pencil sharpener. “I don’t need to sharpen any more,” he said. “We have enough.”
For more information, visit sait.usc.edu/testing_bureau.
5
• The Hollywood awards season extended to Trojan Vision — the university’s television station — which received five Ava Awards from an international competition that recognizes exceptional audiovisual work. Though Trojan Vision has won several gold awards in the past, 2011 is the first year the station received platinum awards — one for directing and the other for being one of the top “tribute” entries. • The Office of Student Life and Involvement encouraged students to “Study On!” during finals by opening several rooms in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center for non-stop, 24-hour-a-day student use. USC Hospitality also kept the food court and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf open. • KXSC, USC’s student radio station, started the year fresh with a new call sign and professional quality studio in the basement of the Ronald Tutor Campus Center. A digital audio rig connected to Tommy’s Place, the adjacent campus performance venue, allows the station to broadcast live performances by local and student artists.