USC interim president is ‘optimistic’ regardless of unprecedented monetary disaster

The College of Southern California is within the throes of its most aggressive cost-cutting drive in reminiscence — a grinding interval of economic austerity that has shaken the college’s moneyed status and raised doubts amongst college and employees in regards to the college’s means to maintain itself as a top-tier establishment.

Aiming to remove a funds deficit that ballooned to greater than $200 million, the non-public college has lower practically 1,000 positions, or virtually 4% of its workforce.

College and employees mentioned that the layoffs have been particularly hectic as a result of they’ve been ongoing for months, though the college mentioned final week that they’re practically full — and that as many as 200 of those that misplaced their jobs might discover new positions on the college. Different cost-saving measures have included restrictions on discretionary spending, akin to journey for conferences.

“There’s a way of simply worry and nervousness amongst all employees. Even those that are secure don’t know if that is simply the primary part of many future cuts,” mentioned Phil Turner, affiliate director of USC Housing, who spoke to The Instances as an worker and never in an official capability.

In a wide-ranging Oct. 29 interview, USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim defined how the college discovered itself in such dire monetary straits, detailed the austerity measures and pushed again in opposition to the notion that college management didn’t talk to employees and college about how its plan would unfold.

Kim, who took over for former President Carol Folt in July, described a number of “inside” and “exterior” components that contributed to the deficit, amongst them the bills related to the COVID-19 pandemic, rising prices for athletics and the paying of main authorized settlements.

The belt-tightening has come amid President Trump’s push to remake larger training in a way reflecting his conservative political agenda. His efforts have included slashing billions of {dollars} in funding to universities nationwide.

In early October, the White Home offered USC and eight different colleges with an training compact promising precedence entry to analysis funding in alternate for following Trump’s imaginative and prescient. USC rejected the compact about two weeks later, and it’s not but clear how — or if — Trump will reply.

Nonetheless, in his interview with The Instances, Kim, 52, sounded an upbeat be aware.

“We are able to’t predict the longer term,” he mentioned, “however we’re feeling very optimistic that we’ve met the funds problem that was going through us, and might now give attention to transferring ahead.”

What USC says about its deficit

Kim had signaled in July that layoffs could be forthcoming, writing a letter to the college group that mentioned USC’s bills had “considerably outpaced” its income for a number of years, resulting in a funds deficit that, through the closing 12 months of Folt’s tenure as president, mushroomed from $158 million to greater than $200 million.

Notably, in explaining to The Instances how the college discovered itself in such a big gap, Kim didn’t cite two tasks that college and alumni have usually lambasted as monetary albatrosses: the Bloom Soccer Efficiency Middle, which broke floor in November; and the Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., which opened in 2023 and included the acquisition of a constructing for about $49 million.

“I really feel like we’re paying for the opulence of the final decade,” mentioned Turner, who additionally serves as president of the USC Employees Meeting, which advocates for workers.

However Kim informed The Instances that the Bloom Soccer undertaking could be “largely … supported by way of philanthropy” and that the campus in Washington would present a “optimistic working margin after you calculate all of the revenues we’re producing in opposition to bills.” He touted a number of packages and establishments with a presence on the Washington campus, together with the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Institute for Public Coverage & Authorities Service and the Shoah Basis.

In July, Kim described a brand new problem: “Vital shifts in federal help” for USC’s analysis and different packages stemming from the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to chop billions of {dollars} in grants to universities throughout the nation.

USC has additionally been girding for decreases in worldwide pupil enrollment. The Trump administration has elevated its scrutiny of pupil visas and enacted a journey ban that has prevented 1000’s from learning within the U.S. Worldwide college students usually pay full freight, and as of the autumn, USC had 11,959 of them — the largest inhabitants in California and one of many largest within the U.S.

Kim mentioned that for this tutorial 12 months, enrollment of worldwide undergraduate and graduate college students is down 3% from a 12 months earlier. “This was truly lower than what we have been anticipating,” he mentioned. “That’s an actual testomony, I believe, to USC’s model throughout the globe.”

However, Kim mentioned, “I don’t know what’s going to occur subsequent 12 months.”

The nine-digit deficit and avalanche of layoffs have come as USC has steadily raised tuition and costs to change into one in every of the most costly schools within the U.S. The college tasks the price of attendance for the present tutorial 12 months to be $99,139, inclusive of housing, although many college students obtain strong monetary support.

Requested whether or not the determine would enhance, Kim mentioned, “We haven’t decided about that.”

“Let me simply say this: controlling the expansion in tuition is unquestionably a spotlight of ours,” he added. “Folks give attention to the sticker worth, however the precise annual price of attendance is lower than half of that.”

Who’s accountable?

Traditionally, layoffs at USC have been uncommon. The Nineteen Nineties, marked by a recession introduced on by the collapse of the area’s aerospace business, included two notable rounds of job cuts. In a single wave, 58 folks have been laid off and 31 vacant positions eradicated to pare down a $15-million deficit. Three years later, no less than 100 college members on the medical college took pay cuts and an undisclosed quantity have been dismissed as a part of a plan to deal with an $11-million deficit.

This time is totally different. Not solely are the cuts deeper, however their scale and scope have shattered a way at USC that it was proof against monetary points plaguing different colleges. They usually’ve come after years of being battered by different crises, amongst them the Varsity Blues admissions bribery instances and the scandals involving former medical college dean Carmen A. Puliafito and former college gynecologist George Tyndall.

USC is a “rich establishment … and there’s a way of confusion from college as to the way it bought this unhealthy,” mentioned Ryan Boyd, an affiliate professor of writing. “This can be a college that ought to be well-capitalized.”

The roles which have been eradicated embrace each pupil tutorial adviser within the Viterbi Faculty of Engineering and many others in the identical function on the Dornsife School of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Different cuts have included adjunct and medical instructors.

Turner, who has labored on the college since 2009, mentioned the “stringing alongside” of layoffs has despatched morale plummeting, which “inevitably goes to trickle all the way down to the scholars.”

However Kim mentioned that “earlier than we despatched a single layoff discover,” he attended about 40 city hall-style occasions with college and employees to debate the monetary points.

“We have been capable of compress an amazing quantity of motion into a really, very quick time frame,” he mentioned. “That was one other one in every of our objectives, to not solely simply do that as soon as, however to do it as shortly as potential, so it’s not hanging over folks any longer than is required.”

Kim mentioned that other than “strange workforce changes that occur yearly,” the college has no plans to ship extra layoff notices.

Some folks have blamed Folt, whose multimillion-dollar university-owned Santa Monica house was put up on the market in October. (She now not lives on the property, which is listed for about $10 million.)

“I’m all for USC having … names on buildings and being world-renowned. However the monetary gap that you simply go away if you don’t correctly plan for an funding like a constructing — it’s the employees which are paying for these selections,” mentioned Turner, referring to the Washington acquisition, which Folt trumpeted in her 2025 State of the College tackle.

In an announcement to The Instances, Folt mentioned that when she grew to become president in 2019, the college confronted a litany of points, amongst them “a big deficit, pricey authorized challenges, and vital gaps in monetary support.”

Folt mentioned that below her management, the college took steps to deal with these and different points and tackled an sudden one — the pandemic — whereas specializing in “securing a sustainable monetary future for USC.”

“Six years later, the outcomes are clear,” mentioned Folt, who touted many successes, amongst them the Capital Campus.

As for the more moderen financial woes, “we additionally have been near closing the monetary hole,” however “exterior pressures” — together with inflation and better insurance coverage and well being system prices — necessitated “even larger and quicker changes,” she mentioned.

A number of folks mentioned they didn’t blame Kim, a former federal prosecutor and the son of Korean immigrants. He joined USC in 2020 as common counsel, serving to the college navigate the Tyndall scandal, which resulted in $1.1 billion in settlement funds to the gynecologist’s former sufferers — the largest intercourse abuse payout within the historical past of upper training.

Some USC stakeholders mentioned they admire Kim’s willingness to have interaction in a dialogue in regards to the funds.

“He’s met with Employees Meeting, together with assembly with me,” Turner mentioned. “And we’re grateful, as a result of that’s one thing we didn’t see over the previous six years.”

A gradual stream of cuts

Along with the layoffs, the college has sought financial savings through a hiring freeze, the sale of unused buildings and the discretionary spending cuts.

These trims, which have included paring again budgets for catering, skilled improvement and journey — and requiring extra approvals for bills — have shocked some folks, as a result of the financial savings would seem like negligible in sure instances.

Sanjay Madhav, an affiliate professor of observe on the engineering college, mentioned that when his division beforehand held daylong college conferences, $25 to $30 could be allotted for a light-weight breakfast and lunch for every individual, and there was not a “strict higher restrict.” Now, below newly imposed guidelines, solely $15 could also be spent per individual.

“At our final assembly, our boss purchased the espresso,” he mentioned.

In an interview, James Bullock, the dean of Dornsife School, mentioned he understood that such cuts “are annoying.”

“However one of many issues that we’ve talked about in my workplace and all through the dean suite — and once I exit and speak to folks — if it can save you $10,000 10 occasions, that’s a job,” he mentioned. “And we’re prioritizing jobs.”

Madhav and others mentioned they’re extra involved with the lack of pupil advisers, who usually meet one-on-one with undergraduates and postgraduates to assist them chart their tutorial paths.

“Within the short-term, certain, it saves cash, however it doesn’t in the long term, and take into consideration all of the institutional information that’s being misplaced — and likewise the affect on college students,” mentioned Madhav, who together with Boyd is concerned in a union organizing effort for non-tenure monitor professors.

Bullock mentioned that at Dornsife, a brand new “hub and spoke mannequin” — to be launched in December — offers college students “extra entry to advisers than that they had earlier than.” Groups of “clustered advisers” will serve college students, every of whom will nonetheless have a major one.

Trump administration pressures

USC has discovered itself in a monetary quagmire at an unsettled second.

The college’s rejection of Trump’s training compact was trigger for celebration at a campus rally on Oct. 17, although the members have been bracing for extra Trump hassle.

“This can be a longer warfare in opposition to larger training, and we should be ready for this,” affiliate historical past professor Aro Velmet mentioned on the rally.

Turner cautioned that any try by Trump to deprive USC of funding shouldn’t be conflated with the financial ache introduced on by a funds deficit.

“We walked into this gap all by ourselves, properly earlier than the election was even determined,” he mentioned.

Kim argued that shoring up the college’s funds might put it on a greater footing to cope with Trump.

“We wished to be as ready as we may very well be for what’s coming down the pike,” Kim mentioned, “in order that we don’t need to take our group by way of what they’ve skilled once more.”