Extra Innings: Folt has work to do within USC Athletics


The University is in shambles. For the past two years, USC has been on a runaway roller coaster.

As an incoming freshman, I witnessed news break about a meth-smoking dean who solicited prostitutes. I thought I had seen it all. What could possibly be bigger than the head of a renowned medical school getting locked up for felony drug charges? Boy, was I wrong.

As a sports journalist, I naturally began to regard USC’s athletic programs as its only stable department. Yes, USC has conducted some shady athletic business with the whole Reggie Bush incident (even though he didn’t play here). I had thought USC Athletics learned its lesson from the harsh sanctions set forth by the NCAA from the violations of the amateurism rules. But once again, I was wrong; more skeletons have been pulled out of USC’s closet.

In case you haven’t turned on a TV, read a newspaper or talked to literally anyone in the past week, two senior USC Athletics officials were arrested for taking bribes to falsely recruit “athletes” to guarantee students admission into the University. This was the cherry on top to deem USC as the University of Scandals and Corruption.

This scandal is just the tip of the iceberg, and there has to be more. Meanwhile, the University was hobbling around with an interim president. By no means do I think Interim President Wanda Austin did a poor job, but it’s just hard to believe the University can make significant strides forward while a temp is in charge.

The announcement of a new USC president in Carol Folt really excites me. She knows how to get things done, and specifically how to deal with issues pertaining to collegiate athletics. As the 11th Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she was the face for the clean-up efforts of one of the worst collegiate academic and athletic scandals in history.

UNC offered “no-show” classes that were abused by both students and student-athletes under the previous three chancellors. She led UNC in the aftermath of the scandal with just a year-long probation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. UNC did not face charges from the NCAA since the NCAA does not interfere with the academic programs of its universities.

While this issue, similar to USC’s current scandal, is more of an academic problem than an athletic scandal like that involving Bush, it’s important to recognize her expertise in cleaning up the University to ensure that further scandals are prevented.

The most appealing thing about Folt is that she has publicly stated that the decisions she will make at the helm of USC will not be impulsive.

“I’m a scientist and a researcher, so I’m going to do what I have always done,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. “I’m going to gather the facts. So it can’t be any faster than it takes to make thoughtful decisions.”

As mentioned before, there is no way USC is corruption-free. The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging there is one. In this case, USC must acknowledge all of them. Before taking significant action, the entire closet must be clear of skeletons, whether it is Heritage Hall or USC as a whole.

Perhaps Folt will find that significant leadership changes must be made to USC’s athletics department.

For the first time in two years, I am optimistic about the future of my university, and other students and alumni should be as well. It’s important to understand that there will be growing pains in this new administration, but as of now, I have full confidence in Folt to discover more issues and properly address them to restore this university to the academic and athletic powerhouse it was.

Sam Arslanian is a sophomore writing about sports. His column, “Extra Innings,” runs Fridays.