After more than a year of enhanced security measures on campus, USC has stopped ID checks at campus entrances between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. The move comes as new interim President Beong-Soo Kim seeks to provide “freer” access to campus for the wider community surrounding USC.
While ID checks are going away, it won’t be a complete return to how USC used to operate. People will still be required to enter campus through each of the 11 designated entrances staffed by security personnel.
“We’re going to have the security personnel at the entrances making sure that all of our rules are being followed,” Kim said in an interview with Annenberg Media. “We’re going to retain much of the physical infrastructure that we have so that if it’s needed for any reason, we can very quickly close the campus or require ID checks on a temporary basis.”
With the security structures still in place, the university aims to be flexible in case it feels stricter measures need to be reinstated.
“What we wanted to do is develop a system that would be extremely adaptable to whatever situation might come up this coming semester,” Kim said. “We’re going to continue to assess this every week, every month, and if we need to make any further adjustments, whether it’s going back to the previous system, or going back to the system before that, we’re not going to hesitate to continue to refine the approach.”
USC began checking IDs to enter campus around-the-clock in during pro-Palestinian encampment protests on campus in April 2024. For months, entry was restricted to a few gates and bag checks were officially required but sporadic. All gates have been open for the last year with all people required to either swipe a USC ID or register as a visitor.
ID checks from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. will remain in place, as they were before last year’s protests. Metal fencing surrounding Alumni Park was removed in June of this summer.
USC would not comment on how much these increased security measures cost. However, Kim emphasized the safety of the campus remains the No. 1 priority.
“This new approach that I described will naturally be more economical, but I want to emphasize in no way was that a driver of this particular decision, since the decision did involve safety,” Kim said. “This new, more adaptive approach is going to achieve what’s really the most important thing, which is providing safety to our community.”
Freer access to campus comes at a time of heightened federal activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles and around USC. USC officials said they do not plan to change the school’s current protocol on not interfering with ICE agents seeking to enter campus.
Since their installation, the gates and increased security measures around campus have been controversial. Annenberg Media has previously reported that some students felt the barriers to entry have made them feel more unsafe and questioned the effectiveness of the measures.
Kim emphasized that before this decision, USC listened to community feedback, and that he met with “local neighborhood groups” to consider how to best move forward.
“We analyzed our current perimeter operations, we reflected on the experiences since May of last year and prior to May of last year,” Kim said. “Back in 1992, during the LA riots, USC was not targeted during that unrest, and a lot of people attribute that to the fact that we have always seen ourselves as part of this community, not separate from it.”
Sophie Sullivan contributed to this story.