David Petraeus, the retired Army general, disgraced CIA director, and embattled CUNY professor, recently started teaching at USC in Los Angeles, where he will lecture about international relations and mentor student-veterans and Trojans participating in ROTC.

Thankfully Petraeus, the commander of two significant troop surges in Iraq and Afghanistan, seems right at home. Under the headline “Petraeus leads a surge across campus,” USC’s news service reports:

“USC is in the middle of a surge,” Petraeus said, noting the university’s rise in prominence. “USC has a great faculty, great students and the weather’s fantastic. It’s hard to beat.”

Yes, right at home. USC’s photography department captured Petraeus rallying the student body during a campus visit in March:

Hooah!

Of course, not everyone at USC is thrilled with Petraeus’ new position. One student writing for the campus paper The Daily Trojan protested at length:

It is a scandal that so many veterans had to suffer under Petraeus’ leadership, a sentiment shared by Ian Daily, president of the Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Southern California and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He told the Daily Trojan, “He was so political and out-of-touch, and so far disconnected from the men and women who had to carry out his orders in Afghanistan. And now he wants to advise veterans?”

Meanwhile, Petraeus continues to teach at the City University of New York on a secluded floor in a fortified Midtown office building in order to escape the school’s energetic protestors. Hopefully USC is a bit more welcoming.

[Photo credit: Getty Images]