Putting students first

It was almost Brianna Sanchez’s turn to deliver a speech to comfort and inspire an audience at the spring 2025 new student convocation. But Sanchez, USC undergraduate student government president, needed some inspiration herself.

She found it that February day in USC President Carol Folt, who first addressed the packed Bovard Auditorium at USC’s University Park Campus. “She has this incredible ability to make people feel at ease and valued,” says Sanchez, a senior majoring in legal studies at the USC Gould School of Law. “Her inspiring words and genuine enthusiasm for my contributions created a supportive atmosphere that empowered me to share my thoughts.”

A personal touch, a genuine interest in students and a gift for connection have been constants throughout Folt’s countless interactions with students during her six-year tenure as president of USC. She has brought that same energy to creating a host of initiatives that tangibly enhance the student experience at the university.

Putting students first is a central pillar of Folt’s presidency. Every one of her six ambitious “moonshot” goals places students at the center, making USC a national leader in student access and success. In addition, she spearheaded moves to significantly increase student mental health services, upgraded advising services and made safety a priority on both campuses.

The chief ambassador for all these student-facing initiatives has been Folt herself. During the pandemic, Folt challenged her team to create hundreds of events to provide a connected campus for students who were learning and living remotely. She even held socially distanced in-person commencement ceremonies — 14 such events over seven days — because she said that students needed the experience.

“I am student-centered,” she said at the annual Women’s Conference in March.“They are the driver of my mission in higher education.”

Folt’s students-first approach can be seen throughout her six years of accomplishments.

When she opened a new Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., Folt said she wanted to triple the number of students who could attend courses there. During her tenure, undergraduate applications soared to the highest in USC history. Amid the January wildfires, Folt created the Trojan Family Relief Fund to provide money and support for students, faculty and staff who lost homes or were displaced.

She readily speaks at a student-sponsored event or a class, attends a dinner in a residence hall and poses for selfies with students at campus events or sports competitions. She seizes these moments to engage and ask questions — many of them — about any Trojan’s major, interests, background or special project they are involved in.

Indeed, that connection with students is not unique to Folt’s time at USC.

“Not a lot of presidents and chancellors show up in the way she shows up,” says Houston Summers, a former student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where Folt was chancellor from 2013-2019. “She has the ability to give you straight feedback but in a way that you know that she cares about you.”

Folt’s interactions also include making surprise visits during students’ move-in days at residential colleges and personally serving pizza to Trojans outside Leavey Library before the start of finals. A recent example: On a single Saturday this March, Folt visited the Trojan Dance Marathon at Tommy’s Place on the University Park Campus. Later that day, she cheered on both the USC men’s tennis team’s win against Purdue and the USC women’s water polo team’s victory over Indiana. This came after a whirlwind week in which she delivered two major State of the University speeches, spoke on two panels at the USC Women’s Conference and conducted an in-person interview with USC’s two student media outlets, among other meetings and events. Folt’s energy was, as always, unflagging. “I just really appreciate her and her fun spirit,” says USC Vice President for Student Life Monique S. Allard, who accompanies Folt to many campus events. “She’s always looking to engage with students. She wants to share joy and create joy.”

EXPANDING ACCESS AND SPACES

An early example of Folt’s commitment to students is the affordability initiative she implemented just a few months into her tenure. Students from U.S. families with an annual income of $80,000 or less could now attend USC tuition-free. This initiative became a key element of what is now known as the USC Competes moonshot, which aims to make USC a destination of choice that attracts and retains the best and brightest.

Folt also launched the President’s High-Tech Scholars program in 2023, which offers scholarships and other supports to transfer students from community colleges who want to focus their studies on computing and technology. She also actively fundraises for other student scholarship programs. “Her leadership in these areas changed how folks think about interactions with students, support for students and the student experience from every angle,” Allard says. “Students are first in everything that we do.”

Folt also literally reshaped student spaces at USC. She led a major renovation of the cultural centers that tripled the size of these spaces in the Gwynn Wilson Student Union building. The changes resulted in less-cluttered areas for Asian Pacific American Student Services; Latinx Chicanx Center for Advocacy and Student Affairs; and the LGBTQ+ Student and the Native American & Pasifika Student Lounges — spaces that are used by all USC students, and that have welcomed thousands more students after the renovations than in past years.

The idea for the new spaces began shortly after she first arrived at USC and saw firsthand the cramped, crowded conditions they had been using.

“We used to squeeze people together into one room, and you couldn’t get your arms up to say, ‘Fight On!’ at the end,” Folt said at the reopening celebration for the Asian Pacific American Student Services space. “It was very, very tight. We needed bigger.”

She also created the First Generation Plus Success program at Ronald Tutor Campus Center, which serves first-generation students, transfer students and former foster youth, among others.

“It was such a significant investment of time, energy and attention, and the student utilization rates have skyrocketed,” Allard says. “Since then, students are definitely showing up in all those spaces.”

“From her early days here as president, she was very interested in visiting the spaces where students hang out, lounge, study and convene,” Allard says. “She wanted to visit everything, be everywhere, talk with students. She recognized from the start that we needed to expand and enhance student space.”

STUDENTS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Early in her tenure, Folt established a way for students to integrate their interest in sustainability with their academics by starting the President’s Sustainability Internship Program and the Presidential Working Group on Sustainability. In 2023, she also launched the Presidential Sustainability Solutions Fellowship, which allows Trojans to take on the planet’s multiple environmental crises through interdisciplinary research.

In the fall of 2023, Folt’s commitment to making sustainability central to the student experience led to the grand opening of the 1,500-square-foot USC Sustainability Hub on the ground floor of the Student Union building — a key piece of her Sustainability moonshot.

Graduate student Skylar Funk of the USC Thornton School of Music is among the students who have spent considerable time inside the building since it opened.

“I am a big fan of President Folt’s leadership on sustainability,” says Funk, a member of the Student Sustainability Committee of the president’s Working Group on Sustainability.

Funk says that Folt’s creation of the student group “has been about hearing students’ voices on sustainability initiatives and giving them structure and institutional support to make those ideas reality.”

The hub offers a collaborative, inclusive and multiuse gathering space for students, researchers and staff focused on advancing sustainability.

“What’s so meaningful to me is that this [space] has students coming in and out all the time, from every area,” Folt said at the opening, which drew more than 1,000 people. “Now they can all collaborate on this shared passion for sustainability.”

‘WE’RE GOING TO MISS YOU SO MUCH’

Student-athletes on USC’s men’s and women’s sports teams have become accustomed to seeing Folt cheering them on during weekend and weekday competitions during the past six years.

At every home football game, Folt can be seen walking alongside the student section, excitedly exchanging a string of double high-fives and taking selfies with Trojan fans in the front rows of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

In addition to being the Trojans’ No. 1 fan, Folt has pushed for ways for student-athletes to be able to compete at the highest levels by providing them with upgraded and expanded facilities.

Folt has raised funds for capital efforts including upgrades to Galen Center, breaking ground on the Bloom Football Performance Center and construction of the state-of-the-art Rawlinson Stadium for USC women’s soccer and lacrosse programs.

She has also strengthened the momentum of building and upgrading facilities to support all 21 sports programs, and she launched USC Athletics into the future through its integration into the Big Ten Conference.

Folt’s fandom spans all sports. She is a consistent presence at women’s and men’s basketball games at Galen Center, and also frequents the David X. Marks Tennis Stadium, Uytengsu Aquatics Center, Rawlinson Stadium, and Allyson Felix Field at Katherine B. Loker Track Stadium & Colich Center, among other sports venues.

Athletes and coaches have appreciated her support. USC women’s soccer team forward Simone Jackson presented Folt with the game ball last November, just days after Folt announced she would be retiring from USC in July.

“Your presence is felt always,” Jackson, a USC Marshall School of Business senior, told her. “We’re going to miss you so much. We want you at our games always.”

Folt, clearly moved, hugged Jackson and said to the team, “You’re really just what it’s all about for me.”