Facing huge deficit, USC leader 'optimistic'

The University of Southern California is in the throes of its most aggressive cost-cutting drive in memory — a grinding period of financial austerity that has shaken the university's moneyed reputation and raised doubts among faculty and staff about the school’s ability to sustain itself as a top-tier institution.

- BY DANIEL MILLER

A VIEW of the USC campus on Dec. 7, 2023. The wealthy private university is experiencing a financial crisis.

Aiming to eliminate a budget deficit that ballooned to more than $200 million, the private school has cut nearly 1,000 positions, or almost 4% of its workforce.

Faculty and staff said that the layoffs have been especially stressful because they have been ongoing for months, although the university said last week that they are nearly complete — and that as many as 200 of those who lost their jobs could find new positions at the school.

Other cost-saving measures have included restrictions on discretionary spending, such as travel for conferences.

"There's a sense of just fear and anxiety among all staff. Even those who are safe don’t know if this is just the first phase of many future cuts," said Phil Turner, associate director of USC Housing, who spoke to The Times as an employee and not in an official capacity.

In a wide-ranging Oct. 29 interview, USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim explained how the university found itself in such dire financial straits, detailed the austerity measures and pushed back against the notion that school leadership didn't communicate to staff and faculty about how its plan would unfold.

Kim, who took over for former President Carol Folt in July, described several "internal" and "external" factors that contributed to the deficit, among them the expenses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, rising costs for athletics and the paying of major legal settlements.

The belt-tightening has come amid President Trump's push to remake higher education in a manner reflecting his conservative political agenda. His efforts have included slashing billions of dollars in funding to universities nationwide.