State of the University: USC President Carol Folt reflects on 6 years of Trojan progress

When Carol Folt announced late last year that she would be stepping down from as USC president on July 1, she called her experience leading the university “one of the greatest privileges” of her life. On Tuesday morning, during the first of her two 2025 State of the University addresses, Folt shared some of USC’s greatest achievements under her leadership and her optimism for the road ahead.

“I’ve been doing this for more than 24 years, leading universities, and you might think that after that time it gets old, but it doesn’t,” Folt said during the address at Bovard Auditorium. “The truth is, it’s an evergreen mission. It is an evergreen opportunity, and I’m going to step down from this position feeling just as enlivened by it.”

Folt brought the same passion and exuberance to her speech that she has brought to every aspect of her career as a scholar, educator and leader. While she acknowledged the national sense of uncertainty within higher education, she pointed out that when she started her tenure at the university in 2019 — in the aftermath of several major scandals and on the cusp of the COVID-19 pandemic — there was also unease within the USC community. After highlighting the strides the university has made in the past six years and ongoing initiatives that will inform USC’s plans for the future, she expressed her faith that the Trojan Family will continue to inspire and drive positive change in the world.

“We’re advocating for all the things we believe in all the time,” Folt said, “and we’re working hard to try to make it possible for you, as best we can, to seamlessly continue forward in your important work.”

USC State of the University: Six years of driving change

Folt started her speech by highlighting the collaborations that led to some of the university’s biggest achievements of the past six years.

She touched on major issues the university faced during her years at the helm, including navigating the pandemic and working to right historic wrongs at the university with the renaming of the Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow Center for International and Public Affairs and the creation of the Nisei rock garden. The garden commemorates the Trojans of Japanese descent who were forced to leave USC during World War II and then were denied the opportunity to complete their degrees. Folt posthumously awarded honorary degrees to all the Nisei Trojans who hadn’t yet received them.

“It was time that USC was able to correct a deeply shameful episode in our history,” Folt said of the garden. “It honors all those Trojans, and hopefully every time you go there you feel that amazing connection [to them].”

Folt went on to talk about other recent milestones such as the renaming of Allyson Felix Field, remodeling the university’s cultural centers, naming the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, founding the USC School of Advanced Computing, and opening both the Dick Wolf Drama Center on the University Park Campus and the USC Capital Campus in Washington, D.C.

“West Coast schools do not get heard in D.C. unless they have a very active presence,” Folt said. “Being able to truly be a national university with a voice on both sides of the continent and beyond is really important.”

She then spoke about some of the philanthropic and historically significant events of recent years, such as the 30th anniversary of USC Shoah Foundation — The Institute for Visual History and Education, her awarding of the Presidential Medallion to the Holocaust survivors who contributed their testimonies to the Shoah Foundation, and the creation of the Trojan Family L.A. Wildfire Relief Fund in the aftermath of January’s devastating wildfires.

“It doesn’t replace a person’s home, but it’s the kind of support that immediately could help people through some early trials,” Folt said of the relief fund. “When you’re a civic organization, as we are, this is when you step in.”

Steady progress and pushing ‘moonshots’ forward

Folt took some time to detail the university’s recent strides across the board, in areas such as enrollment, research funding, athletics, financial aid, recruitment and sustainability.

Folt’s “moonshot” initiatives — USC Competes, Reimagining Athletics, Health Sciences 3.0, Sustainability, Frontiers of Computing and the burgeoning USC Arts Now initiative — have been a hallmark of her time at USC. She assured the audience that when Senior Vice President and General Counsel Beong-Soo Kim becomes interim president, the university will continue to push these moonshots forward.

“We try to see ourselves as a launchpad for change, and when we’re presented with the greatest opportunities, seize them, make sure we’re really advancing them,” Folt said. “We have to be able to do it as an exemplar with excellence in all of our mission, integrity and well-being.”

Concerns and navigating the challenges ahead

Folt finished her speech by addressing some potential challenges ahead, including the rising cost of education across the country, and how to combat that cost while attracting new students to USC.

“We can’t succeed without our tuition — we have to be a place people want to be,” Folt said. “Our large support comes from tuition, so things that really affect tuition are going to have a bigger effect on us than they might on other universities. And yet, you can’t just skyrocket your tuition.” She emphasized that USC now offers free tuition to students from families earning less than $80,000.

Folt also addressed executive orders by the current U.S. presidential administration. She shared that USC receives $1.5 billion from the federal government every year, with $600 million going to students in the form of scholarships and financial aid, and the rest going toward research. With more than 70 executive orders in the last six weeks touching on hot-button issues such as research; immigration; diversity, equity and inclusion; antisemitism and gender, Folt warned that traditional priorities for the university are going to be inspected more closely in the months and years ahead.

“What I really wish I could tell you is not to worry,” Folt said, adding that she knows USC will face these challenges in a way that is “consistent with our mission, opportunity, the things we really value.”

“We have to become very comfortable with uncertainty, because I have every certainty that the right solutions will be found,” she said.

Ultimately, Folt emphasized that even in uncertain times, the right people are in place to continue to push USC forward in a way that is true to its mission.

“We have a history of boldness,” Folt said. “We graduate a number of amazing leaders out into the world, and it makes me remember that the world is unlimited.”