Tuesday marked a transformational day for USC. After six years leading the university, USC President Carol Folt officially retired from her position. She will be replaced on an interim basis by Beong-Soo Kim.
“Over the past six years, we’ve faced serious challenges,” Folt wrote in a statement. “We have had to navigate our own missteps, lawsuits, a global pandemic, and federal investigations. We now face financial losses in support for research and students along with other economic headwinds. The various, often conflicting narratives portraying universities as obstacles to national leadership and insensitive to local needs, neighbors, students, faculty, or alumni, have never been louder. But our commitment to USC’s mission and values has not wavered.
“We have made huge contributions in science, technology, and the arts. We have been at the forefront of change in college athletics, the development of new disciplines, and the essential transformations of professions with the advent of AI. Together, all of us have restored USC’s reputation, strengthened our leadership among American universities, and ignited our community’s aspirations for even greater moonshots and achievements ahead.
“Looking ahead, I am confident in USC’s capacity – in your capacity – to extend our special mission in important ways. You’ll pursue excellence, remain open-minded, big-hearted, pragmatic, and thoughtful. You’ll change when needed. You’ll seize opportunity; drive cutting-edge discoveries, technologies, and medical treatments; and create joy and excitement with the arts. You’ll win championships and excel at storytelling. You’ll inspire our students to embrace life’s changes with courage and help them become leaders and innovators in all fields. That is what we Trojans do.”
Folt’s USC tenure was certainly not perfect. In terms of athletics, however, she unquestionably leaves the department in a much better place than she found it. During Folt’s tenure as President, the Trojans put the embarrassing Varsity Blues scandal behind them, hired Mike Bohn and Jennifer Cohen as athletic directors, increased investment in recruiting and support staff across multiple sports, broke ground on several major facilities upgrades, and made numerous high-profile coaching hires, headlined by head football coach Lincoln Riley. And of course, there was the landmark move to join the Big Ten Conference, which certainly would not have happened without Folt’s leadership.
USC fans have a lot to be thankful for to Folt about her tenure as president of the university. Whoever replaces her will have big shoes to fill; he or she will look to lead the Trojans into a new era both on and off the field.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Carol Folt officially retires as USC’s president
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
