President Carol L. Folt laid out four strategies for the university across departments labeled “moonshots,” which she said would help advance the campus over the next five to 10 years.
The first goal, Folt said, is called “USC competes,” a plan in which the university works toward stronger initiatives in debt reduction, affordability and accessibility to attract “the most creative and passionate people … who want to be change agents.”
Folt said this initiative involves actively working to raise more funds for scholarships across programs, continuing to review debt in each school, investing in university pipeline programs like the Foshay Learning Center and Joint Educational Project as well as recruiting and retaining top faculty and staff.
Another strategy, Folt said, involved the expansion of the university’s health sciences programs. Folt noted that this effort will involve expanding health science-related programs across schools like the Keck School of Medicine and the Viterbi School of Engineering but also in areas of the school not typically associated with STEM, such as the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the Price School of Public Policy.
The third strategy is a 10-year initiative to accelerate advanced computing and its exponential impact on the world. Folt stressed that this new shift in academia could help students “fill in the gaps” of the ever-changing tech industry.
Folt also cited a $260 million gift USC received from the LORD Foundation as a major kickstarter in helping launch the tech strategy.
“I’m confident that when we look back in five or 10 years, the innovation and leadership that we’ll see in this large area will be breathtaking,” said Folt.
Folt emphasized in her final goal the need to change culture and attitudes across campus, including within the athletic department, which she said would be another feature of the plan.
“Our goal in athletics aligns with our emphasis on building the right kind of culture across USC,” she said, “a culture that puts high ethics and strong values at the core of everything that we do, whether it’s the classroom, the playing field, the laboratory, everything.”
Folt also mentioned ongoing initiatives in her speech, including the university’s Sustainability 2028 Framework, which includes plans to be carbon neutral by 2025 and zero waste by 2028. She said USC would share more details about the plan and its progress next week, as part of the university’s Earth Day events.