Recent budget cuts throughout the University might have you thinking that our school is at risk of going under. Instead, they serve as a reminder that, above all, USC is a business before it is an academic institution or a pinnacle of research. 

Expanded financial aid programs within the past five years have helped our campus shake off the “University of Spoiled Children” reputation by allowing capable students of diverse socio-economic backgrounds to attend the school. Such financial aid services need to stay a priority as the school makes budget cuts if the University has any goals to remain a respected academic institution — especially amid the transition of university administration with Carol Folt’s retirement.

When USC first introduced its financial aid plan to sponsor the tuition of any student whose family makes under $80,000 a year starting in 2020, it made headlines. This appears to be a key tenet of University President Carol Folt’s efforts to curb attention from scandal after scandal that depicted our school as elitist and exclusionary. Namely, the Varsity Blues Scandal wherein children of wealthy individuals bought their way into USC via backdoors — backdoors low-income students could not have accessed even if they wanted — played a large role in our school’s reputation.

Despite the seemingly less-than-ideal origin of this financial aid program, this program has opened the doors for so many students like myself and many of my friends who never could have imagined being able to attend a school like USC as children. 

Yet, with cuts to previously touted employee benefits, some merit-based scholarships and us at the Daily Trojan, it does not feel far-fetched to fear for the next generation of Trojans from low-income backgrounds. 

It is hard to believe as a student that our school is suffering so badly that they must cut programs that support the people that make USC what it is — the students and professors. Our school is actively building multiple new athletic venues, staffing every campus entrance more than before the pro-Palestinian protests of last spring and fencing off Alumni Park without much transparency or input from the community of staff and students directly impacted by these changes. 

I do not say this to negate the importance of sports on our campus or the safety of students, but the USC community deserves transparency with our finances — especially when tuition will rise by nearly 5% for the third consecutive year since 2022. The University has continued to deny our community access to this transparency despite change after change to our campus.

A university that prides itself on economic and ethnic diversity cannot enforce policies that contradict this diversity it claims to support. 

Notably, 22% of the Fall 2024 freshman class are the first in their family to attend college. However, the University seems to be signaling holistic budget cuts that could eventually include the financial programs that make it possible for low-income students to afford and navigate student life in Los Angeles — with the most recent round of budget cuts announced this week.

As a student who has benefited from these low-income financial aid programs offered by USC, I still bear the brunt of attending an elite institution even though I do not have the worry of paying for my tuition. I still have to find a way to maintain my full-time student status while working, staying involved in campus organizations, writing for the Daily Trojan — now without pay — and paying my rent. 

While the University is not outright saying these programs will be affected, the very same thing could have been said about the last round of programs to receive cuts before they happened. 

Recently, the Trump Administration cut federal funding to Columbia University by $400 million, and the same federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism that visited Columbia will be visiting USC in the near future. It’s only a matter of time before the University may have to reckon with another round of budget cuts. I urge the USC administration: Do not let the brunt of budget cuts fall onto the most vulnerable students at our university.