Presidential Search

Dear Trojan Family,

We write to provide an update on behalf of the Presidential Search Committee.

In launching our committee, we pledged to engage our broad and diverse USC community. Our goal was to reach out and listen to your aspirations for the future of our university and our next leader. Thus, this first phase of our Presidential Search has been focused on engaging our community. Connecting with our community and collecting your input enables us to remain aligned with you as we move through future phases of the process.

To accomplish this, the Search Committee, in partnership with the USC Board of Trustees, designed a multi-prong approach to collect your input.

First, we launched an online anonymous survey to allow members of our community to share their thoughts on the priorities and the qualities they would like to see in our next president. Almost 8,000 responses have been received to date from students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, donors, and friends of USC from both our University Park and Health Sciences Campuses.

Second, members of the Board of Trustees have been meeting with various groups on campus to conduct focus groups to listen and collect your input. In March and April, sessions with student, faculty, athletics, and staff groups were held on both campuses. More than 500 people have participated in over 20 sessions to date, with more sessions planned in May. In the coming weeks, we will hold additional sessions with alumni and community leaders. We want to extend our sincere appreciation to all of you who welcomed us into your meetings and shared your candid views, ideas, and insights. Your input is extremely valuable to us and will inform our direction.

Third, we have held larger, open listening sessions for students, faculty, and staff on the University Park Campus and will do the same in May on the Health Sciences Campus.

We want to extend our sincere thanks to our Trustee colleagues who facilitated these focus groups and listening sessions: Michele Dedeaux Engemann, Michael A. Felix, John M. Iino, Stephen M. Keck, Rod Y. Nakamoto, Amy A. Ross, Jeffrey H. Smulyan, Heliane M. Steden, Tracy M. Sykes, Alia S. Tutor, and Nadine Watt.  

In May and June, our Search Committee will spend quality time synthesizing the extensive input we have collected from you before taking our next steps.

Our Presidential Search landing page will continue to be available should you wish to provide your input or submit nominations.

Leadership transitions provide an opportunity for all of us to come together, affirm our commitment to our mission, and align around our vision for the future of USC. Thank you for the tremendous level of engagement with us. We look forward to providing future updates to keep you informed on our progress.

Fight On!