In a wide-ranging interview with student media, USC President Beong-Soo Kim expanded on many of the topics he addressed in his State of the University Address at Bovard Auditorium. Kim was recently named the school’s 13th president after serving as interim president since last July.
USC laid off nearly 1,000 employees since July 2025, when then-Interim President Kim announced the university’s effort to eliminate the $200 million deficit.
Amid the widespread layoffs, the Office of the Provost announced the $3.1 million dollar partnership with OpenAI.
Kim said Tuesday that AI should not be “a substitute for classwork and writing” and that “academic integrity” in the age of the new technology is a major concern.
Kim added that a large reason why the university wanted to provide ChatGPT to students was to promote equity since some students were paying for ChatGPT themselves, while others did not have the same access.
USC’s AI Survey responses showed concern among students and faculty about the introduction of ChatGPT Edu, a free GPT-5 subscription that students can access through the University, because of fears about AI use undermining academic integrity.
Kim said that he believes ChatGPT can help advance research efforts at USC, but that students should understand AI’s “uses and limitations” so that they can be prepared when they leave USC for “what is to come with AI.”
“I think that may be one of the biggest misconceptions that is out there about the initiative. We’re not saying everyone needs to use ChatGPT. Certainly we don’t think [it] should be used as a substitute for classwork and writing,” Kim said. “Academic Integrity is a real issue, and it’s a serious concern.”
Kim said that when weighing the trade-offs between equity and the risks that are posed by AI, the administration prioritized inclusivity” in their decision to roll it out.
“I will say that with respect to the cost, it is on a per- user basis, probably the lowest cost we certainly are aware of,” Kim said. “The important thing to understand about the financial resilience efforts is that we went through those efforts in order so that we could have the margin and the confidence to invest in learning and research and education, and that’s what I see the ChatGPT role as being a part of.”
In an identical speech at the USC Health Sciences campus, he spoke about priorities that would be shaped with the leadership team, including “operational excellence.”
Kim then clarified that operational excellence was not “code language” for more layoffs.
In addition to Kim’s focus on the university’s future he also addressed its troubled past, including former University President Carol Folt’s tension with students over her handling of the pro-Palestinian solidarity encampment in 2024, during which the Los Angeles Police Department arrested 93 protestors.
Kim said that he values faculty and students “making their voices heard.”
“I differentiate really sharply between those kinds of activities and speech, which I think we all should value as an academic community, and conduct that crosses the line into harassment, blocking access to parts of our campus, creating interference with students studying or taking exams or faculty doing their research,” Kim said.
Folt and the university administration implemented security checkpoints at every entrance to campus as well as internal gates around Alumni Park, the location of the 2024 encampment protests.
“To me being very clear about those conduct rules, it does not run counter to freedom of expression,” Kim said. “They absolutely can and should mutually coexist, but we have to, in my view, be very clear about what the rules of engagement are, and be very consistent in enforcing those rules.”
Kim responded to Annenberg Media’s question on the university’s promise to release the George Tyndall abuse report, saying it wasn’t a question he’d thought about in “many, many years.”
Tyndall, a former gynecologist for the university who is now deceased, was charged in 2019 with 35 criminal counts of sexual misconduct between 2009 and 2016 at the student health center.
Kim was appointed in July of 2020 to serve as general counsel of USC.
“What I would say is that all of the Tyndall litigation is over. It’s been resolved actually for a number of years,” Kim said. “What happened was obviously horrific and impacted many people, and we’re really glad that it’s been in the rear view mirror for many years.”
Kim also announced the first annual financial report, promising a commitment to transparency and new efforts put in place to ensure “we’re not overspending.”
“I do think that there are further opportunities to educate the community and provide information about spending and how we’re allocating resources, and that’s an ongoing kind of topic for the CFO and I and the leadership to consider,” Kim said.
Additionally, Kim looked ahead for opportunities to diversify USC’s funding sources amid the Trump Administration’s federal funding proposal in exchange for conservative policies.
“I think there’s a lot of opportunity out there that maybe we haven’t been pursuing as intently because we’ve had the federal funding in place for school,” Kim said.
He spoke of opportunities to work more closely with state and local government, foundations and private companies.
“The real core of our mission is, of course, educating students,” Kim said. “And my belief is that USC has the opportunity and the responsibility to educate tomorrow’s leaders, and I think that our world needs leaders like the students at USC more than they ever have.”