In a letter to its dean, 52 members of tenured faculty at the Marshall School for Business expressed concerns about the school’s academic reputation and cuts to graduate programs.
“We write as tenured members of the Marshall faculty to express serious and shared concerns about the current state of the School,” the letter said. ”We do not believe this pattern can be addressed without a substantive change in how the School engages with its faculty regarding budget, enrollment and shared governance.”
The school did not immediately respond to an Annenberg Media request for comment.
The faculty’s letter came shortly after the school proposed cuts to the PhD Program and following lower admissions to Marshall’s four MBA programs and the recent resignations of senior leadership.
“We believe that there are clear signs of our downwards trajectory in terms of academic reputation, commitment to excellence in research and the demonstrated academic excellence of the students who graduate from our programs,” the letter read.
Prior to Marshall’s proposed cuts, the school was known for community-building events, including large, catered gatherings and networking functions previously a staple of the full-time MBA program.
There are now growing concerns about a disconnect between the school’s leadership and its student body, according to Poets and Quants.
The faculty members interviewed in this article asked to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation.
According to one faculty member who signed the letter, recent proposed cuts to the school’s PhD program were the trigger that prompted members across departments to work together and curate the letter.
The letter itself was addressed to the dean, Geoffrey Garrett, and was not intended for the public, the faculty member said. In the letter, they ask for greater transparency and inclusion in faculty decision-making.
One of the faculty’s requests was for budget and revenue transparency, with a strong emphasis on fully disclosed data on the school’s finances and enrollment. It also outlines the need for a “revenue strategy” with detailed plans for the next two years.
Another request addressed governance and reporting structure, outlining a desire for the boundaries between the school’s business-side and academic leadership to be defined.
The group also requested monthly consultation on budget cuts to ensure clear communication between leadership and the faculty council.
“It’s better for them [Marshall faculty] to voice their concerns to leadership instead of growing resentful and talking about it with students,” Annie Long, a sophomore studying business said.
Over the past five years, Marshall’s ranking has slipped nine spots, with graduates from the full-time MBA program in 2025 experiencing a 26% decrease in employment within 90 days of graduation since 2018.
Today, the 90-day post-graduation employment rate is 71%.
“I think [the job market is] a challenge,” Long said, “I don’t think it’s specific to just USC Marshall.”
Damian Aparicio, a sophomore studying business, spoke to the letter’s place in a school like Marshall.
“These are important issues to address,” Aparicio said, “especially if even the faculty are worried about certain things and want to see improvement in the school that they work in.”
Note: Annenberg Media reached out to all 52 professors behind the letter. Of the professors who answered, all declined to comment before the school or dean issued a response. At the time of publication, both had not.