Divided, we fall, united; we are the Trojan family. We make the Fight On sign during football games, and we suffer as an entire student body through every midterm and finals week. We are a group of people who unflinchingly support and protect one another because we all attend, work for or are associated with USC.

So why is it that USC has completely turned its back on undergraduate students in the department of population and public health sciences? 

In 2024, USC decided to no longer have student speakers at their commencement ceremony, changed their graduation date from the day with the rest of the undergraduate programs to the one for the Keck Masters and Doctoral students a day later, and deemed these undergraduates unworthy of having their post-graduation ceremony, an intimate event meant for friends and families to celebrate their graduates.

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Isabella Villanueva, a senior majoring in global health as well as studying for a Masters of public health, and Miguel Bugayong, a senior majoring in health promotion and disease prevention as well as studying for a Masters of healthcare decision analysis, are undergraduate Keck student ambassadors. The pair took steps to ensure that word spread about these changes after learning about them from department faculty members. 

“We … go to every single health promotion and global health class every week … to let people know that changes are being made because, frankly, a lot of undergraduates like myself were completely unaware,” Bugayong said. 

The undergraduate PPHS students also held a town hall meeting February 3, where faculty and students shared their thoughts and exchanged information about the recent shifts for graduation. What came to light was nothing short of disappointing.

“I learned during the town hall that there was supposed to be a memo that was supposed to be released to all of [the] undergraduate Keck seniors; however, the memo was never released to us,” Bugayong said.

According to Bugayong and Villanueva, the USC administration explained that budget cuts were responsible for the graduation changes. However, this glosses over the fact that USC reported a 5.4% increase in ending net assets from the 2023 to 2024 fiscal years and that tuition has increased by 4.9% for the 2024 school year. 

“[Staff] explained that the budgetary concerns regarding specifically the PPHS and Keck School of Medicine cohort is just due to mismanagement of funds, and deprioritization of Keck,” Villanueva said. 

USC’s lack of transparency is discouraging. The current political climate is one that does not support public health. During his first month in office, President Donald Trump’s administration took down federal health websites and removed information pertaining to vulnerable communities, sexually transmitted illnesses and other health matters on the pages that remained. Additionally, Trump withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization, citing “the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

All of these changes are expected to have devastating impacts on how Americans’ understand and receive treatment. For USC to echo this sentiment by preventing some of the nation’s brightest future public health workers from experiencing graduation to its fullest is disheartening.

Taking away these programs’ graduation sends the message that the school does not care about their students. 

A majority of students in the PPHS programs identify as women and people of color. Moreover, 30% of PPHS students are first-generation college students in comparison to USC’s overall rate of 23%. 

Over 200 PPHS undergraduate students receive Dean’s List honors every semester, and past students have received awards such as the Orders of Laurel and the Palm, which are given to stand-out leaders and volunteers. 

“[Health promotion and global health] offers a wider lens of what public health encompasses other than just the science. [It] is such a small, tight-knit community,” Villanueva said. 

Villanueva and Bugayong met with several faculty members including Adam Rosen, associate vice president of cultural relations & university events, and Dr. Ricky Bluthenthal, interim chair of the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences. While negotiations with the administration were unfruitful, their hard work has not gone to waste as Undergraduate Student Government representatives have agreed to support their advocacy efforts.

Keck’s undergraduates deserve to have a graduation that fully celebrates their achievements and acknowledges their struggles and sacrifices, just as any of us would. To ignore this is a disservice not just to their program, but to the students who have worked hard to realize their dreams. If USC really believes in the Trojan family, it should remember to include all of its students within it.

Disclaimer: Isabella Villanueva served as a deputy photo editor at the Daily Trojan in Spring 2024. She is no longer affiliated with the paper.