Part 159: A University in Decline – Broken Trust and Culture Change at USC

Published February 28, 2025.

Mar 01, 2025

USC President Carol L. Folt presents the provost’s chair to Andrew T. Guzman in September 2023 at the USC Town and Gown event center. (USC Photo/Gus Ruelas)

Please support my work with your subscription, or for direct support, use Venmo, CashApp, PayPal, or Zelle using zachary.b.ellison@gmail.com

By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

The University of Southern California is still in crisis. Today the crisis of legitimacy was further punctuated yet again by a letter sent from the USC Staff Assembly to the senior administration, including President Carol Folt, demanding the rollback of cuts to the tuition assistance benefit (TAB). The fundamental promise of USC to its staff has always been a basic dream: that if you work hard for USC, your family too can live the USC dream too by sending its children to the august institution. The February 28 letter states about the TAB reduction and the similar elimination of a fitness incentive and increase in health insurance prices, “They risk eroding trust, diminishing opportunities for advancement, and leaving employees questioning whether their efforts and work are truly valued.” The authors further add, “Staff have expressed feeling unheard, as there has been no meaningful opportunity to discuss these changes directly with leadership.”

Even more striking in the letter addressed to President Folt, Provost Andrew Guzman, Chair of the Board of Trustees Suzanne Nora Johnson, and new Senior Vice President for Human Resources Stacy Giwa are 25 pages of unsigned letters from USC staff included as an addendum. One respondent writes, “I guarantee you see an exodus of long term, dedicated staff as a result of this decision.” Another writes about the broken promises of President Folt’s leadership since 2019: “When you became USC’s president, you were charged with changing the university’s culture.” The letter argues that the reduction is a breach of the six core values selected as part of USC’s Culture Journey, which was put forward in part by Giwa in response to the George Tyndall sexual abuse scandal. A third writes about the optics, “You are literally taking from my children...your own Trojan children,” adding with finality, "Do better, USC.” No one should be surprised that a top-down institution with financial struggles didn’t consult with its staff, but will this latest move be the straw that leads to revolt against leadership, again?

Even more notably, this is hardly the only headline news out of USC. As first reported by journalist Tomo Chien of Morning Trojan and also by Jaweed Kaleem of the Los Angeles Times, at least some webpages on diversity, equity, and inclusion are being scrubbed in response to the threats of Donald Trump’s administration to punish colleges and universities who don’t eliminate such programming. To be fair, USC never had a uniform presence of DEI content on its academic unit webpages or any standardization of safety, crisis support, and mental health resources. Even more alarmingly, USC was repeatedly negligent in posting legally required Title IX reporting information for sexual assault and harassment as part of multiple, thorough federal investigations by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. In just over the last decade, USC has had to sign three so-called Resolution Agreements in response to sustained complaints.

Most disturbingly, what’s supposed to be the nation’s fundamental assurance to both faculty, staff, and students, as well as health patients, has become a political football. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have launched investigations under the Secretary of Education and the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights that lacked merit. Whether it’s in response to highly speculative men’s rights complaints or a generational battle over Middle East politics and religion, the question of whose civil rights get protected and when has never been more doubtful. Not the least because the Trump administration, as part of its layoffs, hasn’t exempted these agencies. I’ll be the first person to admit that there are several high-ranking officials in the San Francisco office of the Education Department’s Civil Rights enforcement agency that I think have all but abandoned the promises of the Tyndall Resolution Agreement to make USC safer.

Yet, I don’t disagree with the fundamental idea that not only should our schools and hospitals be safe but also diverse, equitable, and inclusive. The latest move at USC follows the announcement that General Counsel Beong-Soo Kim would serve as interim president in July following Carol Folt’s departure. Folt’s presidency will be one of the shortest in USC history. Kim is included as a recipient of the Staff Assembly’s letter. A former Assistant United States Attorney and Kaiser Permanente executive, the length of service is undetermined but expected to last potentially for a year or more. It’s unprecedented for USC, at least in recent times, but not a complete break from trend considering that most universities that have had a General Counsel serve as the top leader do so because they’re in crisis but also because they can handle legal affairs.

The Tyndall Resolution Agreement seemingly sought to explicitly prohibit untoward legal interference in Title IX matters, but it’s been all but abrogated. Throughout more than two years of investigation, I’ve repeatedly found cases where USC’s response to Title IX complaints was needlessly prolonged, seemingly with the desire that they be dropped. With the decline of the Department of Education, the question of what gets enforced and when has never been so precipitous. The Trump administration announced earlier this month that Kimberly Richey would serve as the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. Richey is a former senior official at the Florida Department of Education and previously for conservative think tanks. Long-formulated Title IX rules promulgated under the Biden administration were blocked nationwide by a federal judge in January, and the law was reverted to 2020 rules put forward under the first Trump administration.

USC VP of Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX Linda Hoos had cited the controversy over these changes as a reason for delaying transparency in an interview with the Daily Trojan last September. It would be naive to think that staff have totally forgotten the betrayal of USC by its own senior administrators in hiding and downplaying the scandal or the lack of transparency around the settlement payments. One staff member writing in the TAB letter makes this connection, asking, “What is the financial impact of the Tyndall settlements to USC's yearly operational budget, and why are staff benefits being leveraged to offset any shortfalls the settlement may have caused?” Another writes, “How about stop paying millions of dollars to consultants to prop up central units…that only make our jobs harder and makes us feel even less supported than before they existed?” The idea of betrayal not just of those who dared to openly question USC’s leadership but of those who are most loyal is also present. “It feels like USC keeps chipping away at those most loyal and those who serve tirelessly and have dedicated their lives here, and now the Trojan family on the ground is getting stabbed in the back by our own leadership,” one person writes. Speaking out at USC has always been fraught with risk, so it’s quite stunning to see an array of staff speaking out loudly, even anonymously.

Many had stayed at USC even with better paying offers elsewhere and despite the red flags of scandals precisely because they hoped to send their children to the institution. President Folt had promised grand goals and a series of “Moonshots” and Competes” against peer rivals, but now one staff member was left questioning: “When you treat the people who have worked here for decades in this manner, it becomes clear that the Moonshots and culture conversations we’ve spent years having are purely for show” and arguing that “USC Competes - as long as it makes USC look good.” This broken trust, however long it had been simmering, was now shifting into open defiance. This pushback follows a wildly popular effort by non-tenured faculty to unionize. The core of USC’s staff aren’t unionized, although in some units there’s been an increasing push. Whether the entirety of USC’s staff will now move in the same direction is the big question. Undoubtedly, senior leadership would actively resist such a push for unionization.

For nearly a decade now, the institution has attempted to power through one imbroglio after another, only in the end to move against it’s own diehard supporters yet again without consultation. The TAB reduction would stop covering graduate degrees and decrease the age cap for children from 35 or 30 years for some dependents to 26 for all, along with reducing coverage for spouses and partners from 50% to 25% and ending coverage for graduate certificates. The letter was signed by the President of the Staff Assembly, Stacey Croomes, along with her Vice President, Parliamentarian, and Secretary. USC has an annual structural deficit of roughly $150 million, but these moves are only expected to result in $3.2 million in savings, which is really chump change at the institution with a multi-billion dollar budget.

Capitulation to financial pressure was hardly the only capitulation going on at USC. In late breaking news this Friday afternoon, USC moved at least partially to not only scrub its websites of DEI but now the entire Office of Inclusion and Diversity merging it with the “Culture Team,” according to a report from Tomo Chien of Morning Trojan. The memo announcing the change was issued by Provost Guzman and Senior Vice President Giwa, writing that “This integrated Culture Team will foster collaboration tied to our culture work.” They continued writing, “Working together as one, they will continue to develop programming and initiatives that support our shared sense of community and ensure excellence and integrity in all that we do.” It wasn’t immediately clear if any staff would be laid off as part of the move. The former unit’s website had been removed. USC first launched it’s inclusion and diversity office under former Provost Charles Zukoski in March 2021 with the hiring of Dr. Christopher Manning, who would leave from San Diego State University in February 2024. USC had previously employed existing faculty in part-time roles to support its DEI efforts under its prior Provost Michael Quick.

At the time in announcing the hire, President Folt had written that Manning “brings far-reaching advocacy experience to our efforts to combat racism and discrimination in all their forms, and to encourage a spirit of respect, understanding, and belonging for everyone who comes to our campuses.” She described the hiring of a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CIDO) as “historic for USC.” Across multiple meetings with Manning, I had sought to raise awareness of USC’s challenges, including in relation to Title IX and a culture of retaliation. What the erosion of trust and much less explicit support for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts does at USC remains to be seen, but most certainly it will be a less bright era. In a society in which increasingly diversity and even open support for affirmative measures are being devalued, the people left most vulnerable will be the weakest. USC is becoming a lesser institution.

Money and power may go hand-in-hand at USC, and we might not even honor the Five Traits of the Trojan anymore engraved into Tommy Trojan, who still stands regal at the center of campus. USC may be getting a visit from conservative provacateur Charlie Kirk just as Ben Shapiro came before him to make trouble, but are we still a Trojan Family or just a collection of individuals? The essential goodness of education itself is being increasingly questioned, much less the value of true integrity. In a society that increasingly values might over right, you have to wonder who, at the end of the day, will stand for the good in the face of evil. Most certainly, moves such as eliminating open support, much less institutional support, will continue to have negative effects. Kirk’s “America Comeback Tour” promises to counter “left-wing indoctrination in academia.” The event seemed likely to draw a protest just as Shapiro’s had, but this time, unlike in 2018, I won’t be there to see it. Frankly, I was relieved; USC just isn’t the same anymore.

Many have said that the Trojan Family was never what they were quite promised; after all, so often the privilege and power of some prevailed over the aspirations of others. I’m not ready to turn my degree in yet, but the termination letter they gave me is complete rubbish, no matter how cleverly legally argued or how binding their arbitration agreement may or may not be. USC’s systematic refusal to openly embrace a more progressive mindset will undobutely only hold it back. Education has always been a progressive ideal. It’s through education that we advance society, but can anyone say anymore that USC is advancing much less competing? Whoever succeeds President Folt on a permanent basis should clean house, because this current crop of administrators has consistently shown they don’t have USC’s best interests at heart even as they rake in salaries in the hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions. USC should be for its students, all of them, always, and not just a privileged few or when convenient.

Link: Open Letter Requesting the Reinstatement of Tuition Assistance Benefits (TAB)

Link: USC begins scrubbing DEI references from websites

Link: USC scrubs DEI from some webpages as Trump cracks down on campus diversity programs

Link: Department of Education opens investigation into Stanford for bias against male students

Link: Trump administration antisemitism task force says it will visit UCLA, USC

Link: INSIGHT: Your Next College President May Be the GC Next Door

Link: Who Is Kimberly Richey, the Nominee to Lead OCR?

Link: U.S. Department of Education to Enforce 2020 Title IX Rule Protecting Women

Link: EEO-TIX, OPE release inaugural report

Link: USC scraps DEI office, merges with 'culture team'

Link: Appointment of Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer

Link: Conservative political media personality Charlie Kirk to visit USC