USC Makes Interim Leader Beong‑Soo Kim Its 13th President

The University of Southern California’s board of trustees unanimously named Beong‑Soo Kim, its interim leader since July and former general counsel, as the university’s 13th president on Feb. 4, 2026, solidifying his role atop a campus that has become a national battleground over speech, protest and federal leverage on higher education. Kim, 53, is a Harvard‑educated lawyer and former federal prosecutor who also worked at Kaiser Permanente and in private practice before joining USC; as interim president he joined other college leaders in rejecting a Trump Education Department proposal that offered funding preferences in exchange for capping international enrollment, freezing tuition and formally pledging stronger protections for conservative viewpoints. In a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the time, he warned that even a 'voluntary' compact tying research benefits to such conditions would ultimately undermine free inquiry and academic excellence. Kim takes over from Carol Folt, who left amid campus fury over her handling of Gaza‑war protests and USC’s unprecedented cancellation of its main 2024 commencement ceremony, and says his priorities include boosting the value of a USC degree, supporting 'life‑changing research' and ensuring students and faculty can express opposing viewpoints 'respectfully.' His elevation will be read across U.S. higher ed as a signal that one of the country’s top research universities intends to push back on federal attempts to micromanage enrollment, pricing and campus politics while trying to calm internal unrest over how those issues are handled.