The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, leased and operated by USC, will be a showcase site for the 2028 Olympics. A recent $200-million gift is fueling a university-wide push into artificial intelligence. USC admitted 12.6% of first-year applicants this fall for sought-after slots.<\/p>\n
![\"Beong-Soo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792190768_132_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Beong-Soo Kim was formally installed as USC\u2019s 13th president during an investiture ceremony Friday.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Yet, his hurdles are steep. The former federal prosecutor who spent five years as USC\u2019s general counsel inherited a deficit of more than $200 million. Among his first actions, Kim approved the layoffs of more than 900 workers and ordered deep cost-saving measures. USC is still recovering from years of scandal and controversy that scarred its national reputation, including a $1.1-billion payout<\/a> to settle sexual abuse allegations against a campus gynecologist, its involvement in the \u201cVarsity Blues\u201d<\/a> admissions bribery scheme and its handling of pro-Palestinian protests<\/a>. <\/p>\n Then there is Trojan football. <\/p>\n Fans chanted this month<\/a> for the firing of football coach Lincoln Riley \u2014 after years of underachieving \u2014 though the Trojans have defeated Washington and Penn State after an Oregon loss.<\/p>\n Although fans and analysts have soured at times on Riley \u2014 whose pay is more than $11 million while buying him out is reported to be about $70 million \u2014 Kim declined to say whether USC could afford a coaching change, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re not thinking about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n \u201cWe are laser-focused on the next game, and then the game after that, and really having the best possible season that we can have in football,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n After the stinging rounds of layoffs, Kim said, the university expects to \u201csignificantly exceed\u201d the roughly $30-million surplus he forecast for USC earlier this year during his state-of-the-university speech, though final numbers are pending.<\/p>\n In his speech, Kim said that public trust in universities has declined and \u201cwe must regain trust by earning it.\u201d USC is among the elite universities targeted last year by the Trump administration over alleged campus antisemitism, though it has not faced major federal funding freezes or lawsuits as the UC system has.<\/p>\n On Friday, deans and faculty in academic regalia processed into Alumni Park, where the Trojan Marching Band accompanied the national anthem as temperatures climbed toward the 90s during the nearly two-hour ceremony.<\/p>\n USC religious life dean Varun Soni opened an invocation by describing the cello\u2019s sound post \u2014 a small wooden piece called its \u201csoul\u201d in Italian and French \u2014 and comparing it to the soul of a university. Kim, a cellist, later joined USC Thornton School of Music students to play \u201cPrelude,\u201d the first movement of Grieg\u2019s \u201cHolberg Suite,\u201d Op. 40, as Kaufman School of Dance students performed. <\/p>\n Morton Schapiro, Northwestern\u2019s president emeritus and a former USC dean, represented visiting academic delegates and praised Kim\u2019s \u201ccreativity, character and commitment to community\u201d before Suzanne Nora Johnson, chair of the Board of Trustees, formally installed Kim. Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and humanist blessings closed the ceremony. In the afternoon, a \u201cTrojan Family celebration\u201d in McCarthy Quad was scheduled to feature food stalls and performances by singer-songwriters Aloe Blacc, a USC alumnus, and Allen Stone.<\/p>\n Money, medicine and priorities<\/p>\n When he took over as interim president in 2025, upon the departure of Carol Folt, Kim immediately confronted the university\u2019s financial crisis<\/a>. The campus had long spent more than it brought in, driven by rising athletics costs, pandemic expenses and major legal settlements. A weak year for USC\u2019s health system deepened the shortfall. Kim maintained a hiring pause, stopped merit raises and took \u201ca hard look at a lot of our administrative expenses and our operations,\u201d he told The Times.<\/p>\n Keck Medicine of USC<\/a> took a significant hit in the layoffs after running a deficit in the tens of millions in recent years. Last month, dozens of layoffs took place at the Viterbi School of Engineering. <\/p>\n Kim said Keck\u2019s performance \u201chas been good, but it can get better.\u201d The health system is \u201cmaking very positive progress\u201d to cut expenses while focusing on \u201cpatient care, patient quality.\u201d<\/p>\n Across campus, he credited staff and faculty with \u201cstepping up, asking how can we do more with less.\u201d<\/p>\n USC is also challenging a faculty union before the National Labor Relations Board. Non-tenure-track faculty voted in June<\/a> to join United Faculty-UAW, with about 70% in favor. USC has asked the labor board to review the decision that allowed the vote, arguing the union is too broad. Faculty leafleted Friday during Kim\u2019s event.<\/p>\n Kim said he wants USC to build strong partnerships with Los Angeles industries, including entertainment, biotechnology, sports and \u201cthe new space economy.\u201d <\/p>\n He cautioned in his speech that \u201cgreat universities do not become greater by trying to do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n During the interview, he did not say which university programs need to shrink but said such decisions will come through a strategic plan that will \u201cengage the whole community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that I frankly pride myself on as a university president is that I readily admit that I don\u2019t have all the answers, and certainly not the best answers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Admissions Beong-Soo Kim speaks at USC\u2019s commencement in May.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n A pressing debate \u2014 particularly within the University of California system \u2014 is whether standardized tests should be required for admissions. Many of the nation\u2019s most elite institutions have recently turned away from test-blind or test-optional admission policies. UC, which does not consider SAT scores in admissions, is reviewing whether to resume SAT and ACT requirements.<\/p>\n Kim said USC, which is test-optional, is studying the issue too. USC considers SAT and ACT scores if applicants submit them but does not require them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely something that has been under discussion, particularly with respect to STEM students,\u201d he said, referring to science, technology, engineering and math majors. He cautioned that no final decision has been made and that the new provost, David Madigan, will be looking at the issue. <\/p>\n Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n Kim said UC\u2019s test-blind policy is \u201cone of the contextual factors that we have to consider.\u201d Many California students who plan to apply to UC skip the tests, and many of them also apply to USC, he said.<\/p>\n USC said last year it would keep weighing applicants\u2019 family ties to the university despite a state ban on legacy and donor preferences. In 2024, while the ban was pending, USC said it would \u201ccomply with state law\u201d<\/a> if it were signed. Schools that keep the preferences are listed publicly as out of compliance<\/a> and must report more admissions data to the state.<\/p>\n Kim said USC chose to keep \u201cconsidering whether someone is a member of the Trojan family\u201d as one of many factors. He said he is \u201cactually quite proud\u201d that USC maintained its \u201cholistic admissions practices\u201d in a way that \u201cprovides more transparency about our admissions.\u201d<\/p>\n Image and trust<\/p>\n Legacy preferences have fed a stereotype of USC as a college for the wealthy and well connected. Kim disputed that image.<\/p>\n He pointed to USC\u2019s transfer students, Pell Grant recipients and first-generation students. USC opens its doors to \u201cso many people in California, throughout the country, and throughout the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Still, Kim acknowledged that trust in education has fallen, though he said that trust in American institutions \u201cacross the board has been declining.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSome might have to do with events from several years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Share via Close extra sharing options <\/p>\n He did not say which events, though USC has had its share. As general counsel, Kim helped steer it through the aftermath of the national Varsity Blues admissions bribery scandal and the sex abuse payout to former patients of campus gynecologist George Tyndall, the largest in higher education history.<\/p>\n His answer to falling trust has been the Open Dialogue Project, which he launched in October 2025 to bring clashing views to campus. Guests have included National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and legal scholar Jonathan Turley.<\/p>\n In September, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gave USC its top \u201cgreen light\u201d rating for several speech policies. After the group recalculated its college free speech rankings, USC rose from 198th to 37th out of 261 schools.<\/p>\n White House pressure<\/p>\n Last fall, the Trump administration invited USC and eight other universities to sign a higher education compact offering favorable access to federal research grants. Signers would cap international undergraduates at 15%, require the SAT or ACT and freeze tuition for five years.<\/p>\n USC rejected the compact last October \u2014 about two weeks after its offering.<\/p>\n Some faculty viewed USC\u2019s initial reluctance to reject the overture as a sign it was unwilling to openly challenge Trump\u2019s education demands. They also point to USC\u2019s closure<\/a> of its university-wide Office of Inclusion and Diversity last year amid a federal anti-DEI push and its removal of pages for cultural heritage months from its \u201cCulture Journey\u201d website earlier this year.<\/p>\n Kim disagreed that USC bends quickly to the White House. <\/p>\n \u201cIt would have been highly presumptuous for me just to make a rash decision about what we were going to do without listening,\u201d he said of the compact.<\/p>\n International students have also faced pressures, as the government restricts visa programs and increases costs significantly for others. <\/p>\n About 26% of USC students are international, with 15% of the undergraduate population coming from other nations. Kim said international students \u201chave been part of USC for decades\u201d and called their presence \u201ca win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n AI risks<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792190769_253_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Beong-Soo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792190769_735_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792190769_731_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792190770_925_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n