USC's new President Beong-Soo Kim faces high stakes: Trust, Trump and Trojan football - BERITAJA

Eyo-Dae Kim and Susan Kim attended the University of Southern California decades ago, 2 world students pinch small money and nary family successful the U.S. On Friday, their son, Beong-Soo Kim, will guidelines earlier a crowd of thousands successful Alumni Park and beryllium formally installed arsenic the 13th president of their alma mater.

“They surely would ne'er person imagined, arsenic world students, that this time could perchance come,” Kim said.

In a wide-ranging question and reply earlier the event, Kim — who was appointed in February aft holding an interim statesmanlike domiciled — said he leads USC astatine a clip of committedness and heavy challenges:

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, leased and operated by USC, will beryllium a showcase tract for the 2028 Olympics. A caller $200-million gift is fueling a university-wide push into artificial intelligence. USC admitted 12.6% of first-year applicants this autumn for sought-after slots.

Yet, his hurdles are steep. The erstwhile national charismatic who spent 5 years arsenic USC’s wide counsel inherited a shortage of much than $200 million. Among his first actions, Kim approved the layoffs of much than 900 workers and ordered heavy cost-saving measures. USC is still recovering from years of ungraded and contention that scarred its nationalist reputation, including a $1.1- cardinal payout to settee intersexual maltreatment allegations against a field gynecologist, its involvement successful the “Varsity Blues” admissions bribery strategy and its handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

Then location is Trojan football.

Fans chanted this month for the firing of shot coach Lincoln Riley — aft years of underachieving — though the Trojans person defeated Washington and Penn State aft an Oregon loss.

Although fans and analysts person soured astatine times connected Riley — whose salary is much than $11 cardinal while buying him retired is reported to beryllium about $70 cardinal — Kim declined to opportunity whether USC could spend a coaching change, saying, “We’re not reasoning about that.”

“We are laser-focused connected the adjacent game, and past the crippled aft that, and really having the champion imaginable play that we could person successful football,” he said.

After the stinging rounds of layoffs, Kim said, the assemblage expects to “significantly exceed” the about $30-million surplus he forecast for USC earlier this twelvemonth during his state-of-the-university speech, though last numbers are pending.

He said that nationalist spot successful universities has declined and “we must regain spot by earning it.” USC is among the elite universities targeted past twelvemonth by the Trump management complete alleged field antisemitism, though it has not faced awesome national backing freezes aliases lawsuits arsenic the UC strategy has.

Money, medicine and priorities

When he took complete arsenic interim president successful 2025, upon the departure of Carol Folt, Kim instantly confronted the university’s financial crisis. The assemblage had agelong spent much than it brought in, driven by rising athletics costs, pandemic expenses and awesome ineligible settlements. A anemic twelvemonth for USC’s wellness strategy deepened the shortfall. Kim maintained a hiring pause, stopped merit raises and took “a difficult look astatine a batch of our administrative expenses and our operations,” he told The Times.

Keck Medicine of USC took a important deed successful the layoffs aft moving a shortage successful the tens of millions successful caller years. Last month, dozens of layoffs took spot astatine the Viterbi School of Engineering.

Kim said Keck’s capacity “has been good, but it could get better.” The wellness strategy is “making very affirmative progress” to trim expenses while focusing connected “patient care, diligent quality.”

Across campus, he credited unit and module pinch “stepping up, asking really could we do much pinch less.”

USC is besides challenging a module national earlier the National Labor Relations Board. Non-tenure-track module voted successful June to subordinate United Faculty-UAW, pinch about 70% successful favor. USC has asked the labour committee to reappraisal the determination that allowed the vote, arguing the national is excessively broad. Faculty leafleted Friday during Kim’s event.

Kim said he wants USC to build beardown partnerships pinch Los Angeles industries, including entertainment, biotechnology, sports and “the caller abstraction economy.”

He cautioned successful his reside that “great universities do not go greater by trying to do everything.”

During the interview, he did not opportunity which assemblage programs request to shrink but said specified decisions will travel done a strategical scheme that will “engage the full community.”

“One of the things that I frankly pridefulness myself connected arsenic a assemblage president is that I readily admit that I don’t person each the answers, and surely not the champion answers,” he said.

Admissions

May 2026 photograph of Beong-Soo Kim speaking astatine USC’s 2026 commencement ceremony.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

A pressing statement — peculiarly wrong the University of California strategy — is whether standardized tests should beryllium required for admissions. Many of the nation’s about elite institutions person precocious turned distant from test-blind aliases test-optional admittance policies. UC, which does not see SAT scores successful admissions, is reviewing whether to resume SAT and ACT requirements.

Kim said USC, which is test-optional, is studying the rumor too. USC considers SAT and ACT scores if applicants taxable them but does not require them.

“It’s perfectly thing that has been nether discussion, peculiarly pinch respect to STEM students,” he said, referring to science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors. He cautioned that nary last determination has been made and that the caller provost, David Madigan, will beryllium looking astatine the issue.

Kim said UC’s test-blind argumentation is “one of the contextual factors that we person to consider.” Many California students who scheme to use to UC skip the tests, and galore of them besides use to USC, he said.

USC said past twelvemonth it would support weighing applicants’ family ties to the assemblage contempt a authorities prohibition connected bequest and philanthropist preferences. In 2024, while the prohibition was pending, USC said it would “comply pinch authorities law” if it were signed. Schools that support the preferences are listed publically arsenic retired of compliance and must study much admissions information to the state.

Kim said USC chose to support “considering whether personification is simply a personnel of the Trojan family” arsenic 1 of galore factors. He said he is “actually rather proud” that USC maintained its “holistic admissions practices” successful a measurement that “provides much transparency about our admissions.”

Image and trust

Legacy preferences person fed a stereotype of USC arsenic a assemblage for the able and good connected. Kim disputed that image.

He pointed to USC’s transportation students, Pell Grant recipients and first-generation students. USC opens its doors to “so galore group successful California, passim the country, and passim the world,” he said.

Still, Kim acknowledged that spot successful acquisition has fallen, though he said that spot successful American institutions “across the committee has been declining.”

“Some mightiness person to do pinch events from respective years ago,” he said.

He did not opportunity which events, though USC has had its share. As wide counsel, Kim helped steer it done the aftermath of the nationalist Varsity Blues admissions bribery ungraded and the activity maltreatment payout to erstwhile patients of field gynecologist George Tyndall, the largest successful higher acquisition history.

His reply to falling spot has been the Open Dialogue Project, which he launched successful October 2025 to bring clashing views to campus. Guests person included National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, erstwhile ACLU President Nadine Strossen and ineligible clever clever Jonathan Turley.

In September, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gave USC its apical “green light” standing for respective reside policies. After the group recalculated its assemblage free reside rankings, USC roseate from 198th to 37th retired of 261 schools.

White House pressure

Last fall, the Trump management invited USC and 8 different universities to motion a higher acquisition compact offering favorable entree to national investigation grants. Signers would headdress world undergraduates astatine 15%, require the SAT aliases ACT and frost tuition for 5 years.

USC rejected the compact past October — about 2 weeks aft its offering.

Some module viewed USC’s first reluctance to cull the overture arsenic a motion it was unwilling to openly situation Trump’s acquisition demands.

Kim disagreed that USC bends quickly to the White House.

“It would person been highly presumptuous for maine conscionable to make a rash determination about what we were going to do without listening,” he said.

International students person besides faced pressures, arsenic the authorities restricts visa programs and increases costs importantly for others.

About 26% of USC students are international, pinch 15% of the undergraduate organization coming from different nations. Kim said world students “have been portion of USC for decades” and called their beingness “a win-win.”

AI risks

USC is besides leaning into artificial intelligence, pinch a $200-million gift from Nvidia board personnel Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary Stevens, meant to infuse AI crossed the field and enlistee AI researchers.

But leaders of OpenAI and Anthropic person warned that the technology’s accelerated improvement poses superior risks to jobs and quality existence.

“We person to return those warnings very seriously,” Kim said. Universities, he said, could thief explain what it intends for AI to beryllium “aligned” and “safe.”

Kim said USC wants to make judge its students “are starring successful position of really to usage it ethically, really to usage it morally.”

The future

On July 14, 2028, the Coliseum — USC’s campus-adjacent location stadium — will stock the Olympics’ opening ceremonial pinch SoFi Stadium successful Inglewood.

Kim said he hopes Olympic visitors will spot “a assemblage that has an unthinkable Olympic tradition,” but besides 1 whose scope goes good beyond sports.

The Games will besides bring alumni and students “from crossed the globe,” he said. “I deliberation that’s going to make for a very magical moment.”