University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences

Background

As of September 2025, USC Dornsife consists of 36 academic departments and 68 centers and institutes with 971 faculty. The school hosts about 9,800 students in a standard academic year, including 7,700 undergraduates, or about 40 percent of the University of Southern California’s entire undergraduate class. Undergraduates are offered 95 majors and 93 minors, the most popular of which are economics, psychology, and human biology. USC Dornsife also hosts about 1,300 Ph.D. students and 900 master’s students. ¹

USC Dornsife spent $119 million on research in 2025. The faculty includes two Nobel laureates, five MacArthur fellows, and 14 members of the National Academy of Sciences. ¹

According to Federal Election Commission data, 99 percent of donations from USC professors in 2023 went to Democratic candidates and PACs. One of the largest faculty donors was USC Dornsife psychology professor Karen Hennigan, who supported the campaigns of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), and U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), among others. ^{2 3}

Notable Programs

In November 2024, USC Dornsife Researchers received $4 million from the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate a new classroom program designed to teach debate on controversial civic issues, including gun control and immigration. ⁴

In 2021, in light of the proposed Civics Secures Democracy Act, which would spend $1 billion in federal funds on civic education across the United States, researchers from the University of Southern California Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research polled 1,510 K-12 parents on the value of learning civics in school. The survey found strong support for civics education, including 85 percent favoring teaching how the U.S. system of government works, 79 percent favoring voting requirements, and 73 percent favoring education on the U.S.’s leadership role in the world. The survey found differences in the preferences of Republicans and Democrats, with each group favoring more education on their political priorities (for instance, Democrats favored gun control and immigration). ⁵

Center for the Political Future

In 2018, USC Dornsife launched the Center for the Political Future to research how to overcome political division in the United States. The Center was established and led by longtime Democratic strategist Robert Shrum and Republican strategist Michael Murphy. The first fellows of the center were Dan Schwerin, former director of speechwriting for Hillary Clinton’s (D) 2016 presidential campaign; former national political director of the Republican National Committee Gentry Collins; and national press secretary for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) 2016 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination Symone Sanders. ⁶

Equity Research Institute

The Equity Research Institute (ERI) is a department within USC Dornsife that conducts empirical research on matters related to racial justice, climate equity, economic inclusion, and other topics related to the left-wing concept of equity. ⁷

Gaza Protests

In 2024, in response to the invasion of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in its conflict against Hamas, long-term protests and encampments broke out on university campuses across the United States, including at USC. Tensions were inflamed in April when USC cancelled a graduation speech by its 2024 valedictorian after the student made public pro-Palestinian comments, prompting alleged security concerns from the administration, and soon after, the entire main graduation ceremony was canceled in favor of smaller ceremonies at individual schools within USC. The cancelations were strongly criticized by the libertarian Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression for being a form of censorship. That month, police broke up USC’s protest encampment and arrested 93 individuals, but the encampment reformed weeks later. ^{8 9}

In November 2023, about one month after the Hamas terrorist attack which prompted Israel’s invasion of Gaza, ERI called for a ceasefire in the conflict. ¹⁰ In May 2024, the ERI’s leadership team published a statement condemning the administration’s decision to cancel the valedictorian’s speech, the use of police to break up the Gaza protests, and endorsed the protestors’ calls for the administration to disclose its investments in Israel and Israeli-connected companies as part of a boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign. ¹¹

Office of Experiential and Applied Learning Closure

In 2025, the University of Southern California suffered a $200 million budget deficit, up from $158 million in the previous year. The deficit was attributed to numerous factors including a decline in international student enrollment and a reduction in federal funding after cuts implemented by the second Trump administration, particularly to the U.S. Department of Education. ^{12 13}

In September, in response to the deficit, the university announced numerous layoffs and cuts, including the closure of USC Dornsife’s Office of Experiential and Applied Learning, an office that ran experiential leaning and internship programs across the United States and internationally. Though the office will dissolve, its core programs, the Prison Education Project, Mock Trial, and the Fisher Fellowship, will be folded into other departments. ^{12 13 14}

Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

In August 2024, a former USC Dornsife student filed a lawsuit against USC and USC Dornsife international relations professor David Kang for alleged sexual harassment over a two-year period. Kang was placed on non-disciplinary suspension in Fall 2024. As of 2025, the case was unresolved. ¹⁵