USC has continued to review recent executive orders issued by President Donald Trump and provide guidance accordingly, wrote President Carol Folt in a community-wide email Wednesday morning.

Folt wrote that the University has been collaborating with research organizations, including the Big Ten Academic Alliance and the American Association of University Professors, to discuss its approach to the executive orders. She also wrote that University leadership had been in “direct contact” with federal agencies and members of Congress.

“I want to reassure you that my senior leadership team and I are doing everything we can to understand these complex issues in real time,” Folt wrote.

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The University previously launched an Executive Orders and Agency Memos website Feb. 13 to organize a list of recent policies that may impact USC. According to the FAQs page on the website, which was linked in Folt’s memo, the University is reviewing “DEI-related” programs that could potentially violate recent executive orders or agency memos.

According to a page on the USC Department of Contracts and Grants website, research proposals should continue to follow current procedures for applying for grants. 

The University also wrote that researchers applying for grants from the National Institutes of Health should continue to use the current rate for indirect costs, including facilities and administrative expenses, until told otherwise. Indirect costs were capped by a Feb. 7 NIH memo; that policy was temporarily blocked Feb. 10 by a district judge in Massachusetts. NIH subsequently allowed funding, including previous indirect cost rates, to continue as normal.

In another section of that page, the University wrote that existing awards for research projects will remain active unless researchers are informed otherwise by the University. However, USC wrote that some researchers could experience delays for new funds and that they may be required to satisfy certain criteria to access new funds.

The University also wrote on the FAQs page that it had not received any termination or stop work notices on research grants or federal contracts. A Feb. 11 database published by Sen. Ted Cruz and his team listed over 3,400 grants awarded by the National Science Foundation that were linked to DEI initiatives or “advanced neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda,” including 19 research projects at USC that were potentially in violation of a Jan. 20 executive order ending federal DEI programs.

Additionally, the FAQs page provided information on individuals’ rights if detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The page also instructed staff, faculty and other covered personnel — such as resident assistants and virtual peer mentors — to immediately contact the Department of Public Safety if they suspect immigration enforcement has entered or will enter campus to take a person into custody.

In Folt’s memo, she wrote that the University will seek to comply with new policies while ensuring that USC’s programs and practices have a “direct relationship to our academic mission.”

“Our community will continue to excel because we are home to an extraordinary mix of cultures, opinions, backgrounds, hopes, and talents,” Folt wrote. “We grow and benefit from every individual’s contribution.”