Can Anyone Save USC?

AS HE SIPPED purple boba tea in his office on a recent afternoon, the new president of USC insisted that his beleaguered institution was not only back on track, but poised to reach its greatest heights.

“I think there is a real opportunity for USC not simply to elevate its impact, but to actually reinvent what a modern research university is,” said Beong-Soo Kim.

It’s a big promise, given the grave challenges facing American higher education — not to mention a decade of troubles at USC that have eroded its reputation, academic ranking, and financial position.

Not long ago, USC was on a high, a bona fide Cinderella story. Over the preceding decades, it had carried out a stunning transformation from a second-rate party school to one of the most consequential institutions in the American West. “We outstripped UCLA five years ago, passed Berkeley two years ago, and are now nipping at the heels of Stanford,” the school’s then-president declared in 2006.

But then a series of jaw-dropping scandals in the late 2010s — a meth-smoking medical school dean, a gynecologist who sexually abused hundreds of students, an admissions scandal that landed an administrator and Hollywood stars in handcuffs — killed that momentum. 

In that dark hour, Kim joined USC as its top lawyer, and worked under then-President Carol Folt, a veteran higher education executive who was hired to clean up the mess. But during Folt’s presidency, a different kind of dysfunction emerged: one that led to a ballooning financial crisis and a series of managerial missteps that are being reported here for the first time.

Kim, a former federal prosecutor without much of a track record in academia, now leads a sprawling enterprise that has been treading water for the better part of a decade. He projects optimism, and after imposing painful layoffs to correct a gaping deficit, it appears things are looking up as he enters the second year of his tenure.

But an L.A. Material investigation has found that the problems facing USC were more severe than have previously been reported, and that wrenching decisions may still lie ahead. 

This is the untold story of how USC almost ran aground — and the improbable rise of its new leader. The following account is based on dozens of interviews with current and former USC leaders. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve professional relationships or because they signed non-disclosure agreements.