USC business dean quits abruptly *

Yash Gupta, dean of USC's Marshall School of Business just since July 2004, will remain on campus as a professor of information and operations management, the LAT website reports. Not mentioned by the Times is Gupta's recent candidacy to be president of the Unversity of Arizona. He spoke to students there just last week, before the university selected another candidate to be president. One of Gupta's rivals for that post had been Tom Campbell, the former California congressman and Schwarzenegger Administration official who is dean of the Haas School of Business at Berkeley.

* Morning story adds the details. Plus, Kate Berry speculates in the new L.A. Business Journal that the Marshall School's plunge in the U.S. News and World Report rankings—to 27th from 17th—may have contributed to Gupta's move.