USC will lay off 55 employees as part of the university’s efforts to close last year’s $200 million budget gap, according to state labor documents obtained by Annenberg Media, bringing the confirmed total to at least 692 employees laid off since July.
Some of those laid off include professors, adjunct and clinical instructors, academic program directors and student services advisors, some in the Viterbi School of Engineering.
Faculty members who spoke with Annenberg Media said the waves of layoffs had brought a nervous energy to the engineering school.
“It’s a little stressful for everyone right now,” said one employee who was granted anonymity for fear of retaliation from the university. “Nobody knows, ‘Is my position in this cut?’”
The employee said that even when people avoid termination during the layoff announcements, the relief is temporary amid ongoing cuts.
“It’s like, ‘All right, I’m free for now, but maybe next month, central will come back and say, no, still not enough,’” they said.
According to the filing, the most recent layoffs included a mix of staff and faculty, some of whom had received notices in August.
Sophia Henze, a second-year master’s student in Viterbi, said she’s already noticed changes in the classroom.
“I can feel that the professors are stressed,” Henze said. “I feel bad because they want to do their best work and they can’t when there’s less money to do it or when they’re forced to do tasks that are usually handed off to grad students, like the grading and TA-ing.”
In the face of the most recent cuts, another Viterbi faculty member, who was granted anonymity due to fear of retaliation from the university, said remaining faculty will have to adjust.
“There are new titles, people will be taking on different responsibilities, and even additional responsibilities,” the faculty member said.
Other USC schools experiencing layoffs include the Rossier School of Education, Keck School of Medicine and Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
In a letter to faculty and staff in July, Interim President Beong-Soo Kim announced spending cuts amid threats to the university’s federal funding and structural weaknesses in USC’s operating model. Kim reported that the university lost over $200 million in the 2025 fiscal year, an increase from the $158 million deficit accrued in 2024.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrew Guzman said at an Academic Senate meeting in September that USC had established a plan to save $400 million by the end of its 2026 fiscal year.
Since the release of President Kim’s letter, the scale of the layoffs has grown. Annenberg Media reported in September that the number of job cuts had more than doubled compared to initial reports.
USC has not given a final total for the scale of layoffs at Viterbi or across the university. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest round of layoffs.