Organizational Changes to the Board of Trustees

To support the dramatic growth of USC over the past few decades, the Board of Trustees passed a series of significant and historic changes to its governance structure.

The board has implemented the vast majority of the reforms it approved on Nov. 5, 2019. They include:

  • Reducing the overall size of the board to 35 members within the next few years.
  • Evolving to a manageably sized fiduciary board with clear roles and responsibilities
  • Committing to a future board composition that reflects the diversity of the USC community.
  • Implementing term and age limits for all current and future trustees.
  • Reducing the number of board committees from 11 to nine.
  • Establishing committee participation and meeting attendance requirements
  • Restructuring the Executive Committee membership to be comprised of the board chair, immediate past board chair, university president and committee chairs.
  • Strengthen requirements for board membership.
  • Establishing new criteria and role requirements for future life and honorary trustees.
  • Publishing all committee memberships to the USC website for community references.

The board plans to regularly evaluate its structure, processes and membership to ensure it is fully engaged in best serving our students, patients, faculty, staff, alumni and the broader community.