After almost six years as president of USC, Carol Folt said she is “in the place I want to be.” 

With her retirement nearing, Folt defended how she handled the Trump administration’s new policies, the University’s finances and the pro-Palestine encampments last spring in an exclusive interview with the Daily Trojan and Annenberg Media on Tuesday morning.

“I want America to continue to recognize that its greatest assets [are] its universities, and what makes them sometimes contentious is one of the beautiful things about our country,” Folt said. “That’s also important, that we continue to really make our University succeed and bring people from every background.”

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The interview comes at a time when the Trump administration threatens significant cuts in federal funding to colleges across the country for not complying with orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, while also promising heightened enforcement on immigration and against pro-Palestine protesters. 

Several USC departments have already begun renaming or restructuring themselves. While Folt said some of the changes — such as how members of the Office of Inclusion and Diversity will now be merged into the USC Culture Team — were already in the works before Trump took office, the Los Angeles Times reported that many departments have been advised to remove potential DEI wording or websites in light of the new policies. 

Folt maintained that the University is doing its best to navigate the Trump administration’s evolving policies and comply with the law.

“I don’t think I’ve deviated for a second — and I don’t think the University will — from its commitment to being a place of opportunity,” Folt said. “We’re also, like everyone else, still looking at instructions that are coming to us that are not necessarily laws. So the last thing we’re actually doing is trying to do things in advance, but we’re certainly trying to do things in the way that we believe they need to be done.”

In December 2024, the Academic Senate passed a resolution calling the University’s financial management into question, demanding more financial transparency to address ongoing issues with budget deficits. After managing legal expenses including over $1 billion in settlement payouts from sexual assault lawsuits related to former USC gynecologist George Tyndall and the budget deficit, Folt said there are multiple ways to look at USC’s finances.

“I don’t actually think [the funds have] been mismanaged,” Folt said. “Universities have to keep a long view and a short view, and some of those long views are, ‘Where do you invest now?’ Because you’re going to need that investment in the future.”

Folt said she had a continued focus on supporting and investing in those that are currently here on campus. She stressed her push to increase financial aid for students, invest in new buildings and create the Capital Campus in Washington, D.C.

The interview also comes almost a year after a spring that saw the abrupt cancellation of the University’s valedictorian commencement speech and the pro-Palestine encampment protests — in which Los Angeles Police Department officers arrested 93 people, half of them being students. Mirroring her response last spring, Folt said the decisions were necessary to keep campus safe.

“Safety sits entirely on my shoulders,” Folt said. “I had people say, ‘We understand it might have been safety, but you should do this.’ And I said, ‘Well, you can say that at night, but I have to wake up keeping the place safe.'”

Since April, each pedestrian entrance has been buffered by security checkpoints with ID scanners and security cameras. At least 80 Allied Universal security guards and roughly 35 “yellow jackets” support the heightened level of security, Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief David Carlisle told Annenberg Media in a statement published Sept. 19, 2024. 

Citing a decrease in crime and not hearing much pushback, Folt said the change and the increased cost are worth it.

But the gates have been polarizing: In a survey of 160 students by the Undergraduate Student Government, three-quarters said they wanted them removed, and about 15% alleged they had been profiled at the checkpoints due to their race, gender or other identity factors. 

A survey of 345 faculty members by the USC chapter of the American Association of University Professors also found that roughly three-quarters of surveyed faculty wanted to see the checkpoints gone, with some calling them “elitist” and “unwelcoming.”

Folt said the University has developed an “almost unnoticeable” system which is “as friendly as possible.” 

“There are many people that [were] very pleased when they found out we could put these gates up,” Folt said. “You just walk right by, show your ID, and you walk in. There isn’t a building in a city right now that you can’t go in by doing that.”

She added that the checkpoints come at a time when the University’s other programs that engage the local community, such as the Neighborhood Academic Initiative, have grown.

The Daily Trojan reported Monday that the University is exploring a permanent security solution, but when asked if the checkpoints would be permanent, Folt deferred the question to her successor. 

“The hardest part is that you’re not there to necessarily please people, but you’re there to make their experience at the university great,” Folt said. “I’m stepping down from being the president at a moment when I have so many things I’m excited about, but I still see so many great things.”

Folt will step down June 30, remaining at the University as a faculty member teaching a class related to sustainability.