USC President Carol Folt told Annenberg Media she has not “deviated for a second” from her commitment to providing social mobility at USC amid the Trump administration’s orders to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives on Tuesday.
In a rare sit-down interview with student media, Folt reflected on her tenure and addressed her response to pro-Palestinian protests, the cancellation of main-stage commencement and more controversies.
Folt’s presidency will conclude on June 30. The Board of Trustees named Beong-Soo Kim interim president in early February and announced the creation of a presidential search committee.
Folt spoke to student media just days after the university removed references to DEI programming from several department websites and merged the Office of Inclusion and Diversity into the USC Culture Team.
“I don’t think the university will [waver] from its commitment to being a place of opportunity, trying to be a [place of] social mobility, to the incredible student body that we have,” she said, referring to the DEI changes.
The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s “Diversity and Inclusion” page on its website is now titled “Mission and Vision,” while the School of Cinematic Arts has changed its “Diversity & Inclusion” section to “Culture & Community.” Folt said “only three people” at the university moved departments as a result of these changes, and the university moved them “because we’re trying to get them in a much better place.” She refuted the idea that all recent changes to DEI were in response to federal directives.
“We’ve been talking about it for almost six months,” Folt said about the changes to USC’s DEI departments and website language. “Universities are always working, you just don’t necessarily see the things that are going on until one day when it becomes a visible piece. But that was something that people have been working on for a long time.”
In the 45-minute interview conducted on camera, Folt also commented on the Federal Task Force for Antisemitism’s investigation into USC, the university’s response to last spring’s pro-Palestinian protests and the future of heightened campus security measures. Here are some of the most relevant topics she spoke about.
DEI and federal policy
The Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs announced on Friday that the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism will visit USC in the coming weeks to investigate the university.
“I think we have a really good record there,” said Folt, regarding the university’s response to antisemitism on campus. “We’ll certainly answer all their questions. And, you know, I think they’re going to find that we’ve been doing everything we can to be supportive of students.”
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Education investigated the university on a complaint filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of Rose Ritch, then-vice president of USC Undergraduate Student Government, who said she resigned due to antisemitic harassment.
More recently, Jewish students expressed displeasure with the university’s reaction and protocol changes following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. On June 5, 2024, USC’s Chabad House, a center for Jewish students on campus, was vandalized in an overnight incident. Last May, officials found a swastika drawn on a campus fence.
In addition to current events impacting the Jewish community, Folt also commented on the new administration and the impact it may have on other minority groups.
On January 20, the Trump administration signed the “Ending Racial and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” executive order. On February 14, the Department of Education issued guidance prohibiting colleges that receive federal funding from considering race in decision-making. These protocols specifically pertain to admissions, financial aid and hiring training.
“We haven’t really made those big changes,” Folt said in response to these new protocols. She added that she was recently in Washington, D.C., advocating for immigration visas and research.
“Much of what people are reacting to is not established law yet,” she said. “I think we’re doing it exactly as we have been and should do.”
Campus security
One of the biggest changes on campus this academic year was the implementation of security checkpoints at every entrance to campus, as well as internal gates around Alumni Park, the site of the spring 2024 encampments. Despite the new fencing, Folt said that “no one is blocked from using” the parks.
A USG survey conducted after the fall 2024 semester found that 75% of student respondents did not want security checkpoints in place for the spring 2025 semester.
“I haven’t had many students come up and say they’re specifically not happy about the gates,” Folt said. “There [were] many people that [were] very pleased when they found out we could put these gates up.”
USC was previously an open campus for both students and the South L.A. community. However, the arrival of the security checkpoints has created a physical barrier between the school and its surrounding community. Folt emphasized that USC’s campus is still accessible to non-USC-affiliated locals, and said that visitors to campus are only required to present their IDs if they are not current USC students.
“We aren’t getting complaints from our neighbors because they are allowed to come in, and they feel very good about that,” she said. “Trust me — we’ve been out talking to all the leaders, all the time, about what that means, and they feel they still have access.”
Folt spoke about how the continuation of the security gates and checkpoints has coincided with a “significant” reduction in crime, both on and around campus. She said she estimated that crime had decreased by 20%.
“Our neighbors love it when there’s less crime around the campus as well,” said Folt. “You know, these are things that are complicated and there’s not a single viewpoint, but you try to find a solution that maximizes your attempt to be a good neighbor while also improving safety.”
Recent DPS data showed a 42% drop in reported crime on the University Park campus when comparing crime reports from August 2023 to January 2024 with those from August 2024 to January 2025.
When asked about the permanence of the gates, Folt said she cannot comment on anything past this spring after her tenure as president ends. She also did not give exact figures regarding the overall expense of the security checkpoints, and said “It costs us money, but it costs us money to do all sorts of things.”
“I know it is noticeable, but I think that really the goal is to try to have it not impede people’s ability to come in [and] go out,” she said.
University finances
Folt also spoke about tuition increases during her term.
“The cost of higher education has really changed, and quite simply, the cost is higher than tuition. So you might have tuition rises, and there’s going to be a capping to tuition,” Folt said. Later, a university spokesperson clarified that Folt misspoke and there are no plans to cap tuition.
“Probably no one’s been more concerned about trying to get financial aid for students,” Folt said. “I have been, and I’m still deeply, deeply involved with that.”
Folt also discussed the university’s recent budget cuts.
“We’ve not done much cost-cutting that has actually affected students directly,” Folt said. “We’ve tried… supplementing them and trying to keep people’s salaries up. They’re complicated, and it’s like running a city.”
However, the university’s financial state has directly impacted USC students. The Daily Trojan, USC’s student-run print newspaper, was forced to cut the stipends given to its 300 student writers and editors.
Spring 2024 protests
Folt defended the university’s response to last spring’s protests, when the pro-Palestinian student group Divest from Death Coalition constructed an encampment demanding endowment transparency, divestment from Israel and amnesty for those disciplined for activism.
Folt insisted that the university followed its existing rules, stating that USC had not changed its time, place and manner policies on protesting. She defended the administration’s response, calling the situation complex and insisting that disciplinary actions aligned with established procedures.
She said the decision to bring in LAPD to break up the encampment came after consulting with various officials, including Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“I wasn’t getting pressure. No one was calling me up and saying, ‘You do this, and we’re going to take your money away,’” she said, maintaining that safety was the driving force behind her decision. “I’m very proud of that.”
On the first day of the encampment, LAPD arrested 93 people, including 51 students. Days later, on April 27, hundreds of officers approached the encampment but withdrew without taking action. They returned on May 5, clearing the encampment in the early morning. At least 29 students later received interim suspension for their involvement in the protests, including at least four who were evicted from student housing.
“The last thing any president ever wants to do is to call the police,” Folt said. “It felt like we needed to do this to get ourselves in a place where we could keep people safe.”
Following the protests, Folt cancelled the university’s main-stage commencement ceremony, as well as the speech from Asna Tabassum, USC’s last valedictorian. She said she wanted to avoid the “outright fights” she saw on UCLA’s campus that she said would “ruin all our students’ graduations.”
“It was going to be very hard to feel that we could ensure the safety of the speaker [Tabassum],” she said. “That’s exactly the nature of all of this. So you try instead to be better prepared.”
When asked what Folt would say to Tabassum if she had the chance, Folt said “I have talked to her. I would just say that I think she’s got an amazing future, and she’s working hard to make a big difference in the world.”
Folt also addressed this year’s change in the student speaker selection, which will no longer be the valedictorian. She said the new process, which allows graduating students with above a 3.5 GPA to apply and submit their speech, aims to make the opportunity more accessible to a broader range of students.
“This is a new [process], and if it doesn’t work, they’ll try another one, but I think it’s a good move forward,” she said.
Folt’s legacy
When Folt was hired, USC was still largely in recovery from the Varsity Blues scandal and reeling from George Tyndall’s crimes. In the six years since, her tenure has been defined by increased sustainability efforts, the COVID-19 pandemic, campus protests and the school’s move to the Big Ten athletics conference.
“I’m stepping down from being the president at a moment when I have so many things I’m excited about,” she said. “So it’s the right moment to feel like you’re making a transition, and I’m really excited about the things I’m going to do.”
As president, she faced criticism for her handling of USC’s finances and the university’s response to the pro-Palestinian encampments last spring. She leaves USC at a moment of transition and uncertainty in the wake of President Donald Trump’s reelection.
“You know, I’m not a person who thinks about my legacy. That’s never been my driver,” Folt said. “I think about the students, the education, the deep research that I have a chance to help promote, and I feel very proud of the last six years. It doesn’t mean every single thing was perfect, but we’ve made big, big changes.”
Alongside sustainability improvements and the athletic move to the Big Ten, Folt also achieved several long-term goals of the university. While she was president, the USC Capital Campus in Washington, D.C. opened, the USC School of Advanced Computing launched, cultural centers on campus were expanded and families earning under $80,000 began to receive free tuition.
Folt will remain at USC as a professor in the Viterbi School of Engineering. She formerly served as chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill and interim president of Dartmouth College. She began her career as a biological researcher and has centered academic and research achievements in her vision for USC’s future.
When asked about what advice she has for her successor, Folt said they should choose a “compass” to look toward, like her focus on teaching and research.
“I say, have your North Star, and then realize that the hardest part is that you’re not there to necessarily please people, but you’re there to make their experience in the university great.”