The University will no longer require ID scanning to enter University Park Campus for students, faculty, staff and community members during public operating hours, interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in an interview with the Daily Trojan on Monday. The change could take place as early as Tuesday, Kim said.

The decision walks back a portion of the heightened security and surveillance measures at campus entrances implemented amid the Spring 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment protests. The measures included increased fencing, cameras and security personnel presence — all of which will remain. 

Fencing around Alumni Park and the lawn in front of Bovard Auditorium, which also emerged following the protests, have been removed since the end of June and will remain down unless needed for events, Kim said.

“This approach that we’ve come up with gives us the adaptability to respond very quickly to whatever may happen,” he said. “After reflecting on all of our experience over the last several years and decades, there’s also a real important benefit that comes when the campus can be accessed by members of our broader community.”

In March, an internal email from USC Auxiliary Services confirmed that the University was pursuing a “permanent solution for secure, tent-free access points.” The email also noted that the University developed an “enhanced security perimeter with additional hardware and camera coverage” during Fall 2024.

Kim said the University will continue to employ ID scanning, entrance closures and other stricter security measures on a temporary basis as it deems necessary. The University has closed campus entrances several times in the past due to pro-Palestinian marches and vigils near the gates. The change would also provide some “financial benefit” to the University amid its more than $200 million operating deficit from the 2025 fiscal year, but Kim said finances were not the main driver of the decision. 

The University’s security protocol has been criticized as exclusionary and excessive by some community members. A December 2024 survey of 345 faculty members by USC’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors found that nearly three-quarters of respondents had negative feelings about the security checkpoints. 

The survey noted that a minority of respondents said the checkpoints made them feel safer by preventing what they described as potentially dangerous people and antisemitic protests from entering campus.

Kim said the University will monitor results from the change over the coming months and decide if adjustments are necessary, or if it should return to the prior heightened level of security.

“We’re not going to hesitate to make further changes based on those assessments,” he said. 

This is a developing story.