University of Southern California
2025 Report Card
The University of Southern California (USC) has a Hillel, Chabad, Jewish Greek life organizations and partnerships with Hebrew Union College and the USC Shoah Foundation.
Litigation & Investigations
In July 2022, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened a Title VI investigation into allegations of antisemitism at USC after a Jewish student resigned from her position as student government vice president in August 2020, after being targeted for discrimination because of her perceived Jewish identity. The student reported that the harassment had taken a toll on both her physical and mental health.
What’s Happening on Campus?
After October 7 2023, there were several incidents of students and other individuals removing posters of kidnapped Israeli civilians who are being held hostage in Gaza.
In February 2024, three student groups – Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Palestinian Youth Movement and Dissenters – launched the “National Divestment Campaign,” calling on the University to divest from Israel and saying “We know that USC is very complicit in violence.”
Complaints have been lodged against some professors for allegedly promoting antisemitic and anti-Zionist content online, and Jewish students — particularly in the law and medical schools — have also reported being targeted with online harassment. In June 2024, the USC Chabad house was vandalized.
In October 2024, at an SJP and JVP anti-Israel rally celebrating the anniversary of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, protesters chanted, “Zionism, Shut it Down” and “There is only one solution; Intifada, revolution.” Protesters also displayed signs with messages such as “Victory to the resistance and chanted “Yemen, Yemen Make Us Proud, Turn Another Ship Around” (a reference to the Houthis, a U.S.-designated terror group).
University Policies and Responsive Action
In January 2022, then-President Carol Folt convened an Advisory Committee on Jewish Life at USC, and in August of that year, she accepted the committee’s final report, including a number of proposals to combat antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and to develop and improve campus processes for addressing harassment and discrimination.
In November 2023, USC hosted the Western Region Summit on Antisemitism in Higher Education conference in partnership with Hillel International and the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles. ADL convened a separate track for Campus Law Enforcement and Public Safety Officers as part of this summit.
In April and May 2024, at the request of the University administration, law enforcement dismantled two encampments, leading to 93 arrests after the first encampment and zero after the second. In an April 2024 announcement, the University canceled its main commencement ceremony, citing security concerns following campus protests.
In September 2024, the USC Shoah Foundation – headquartered on USC’s campus – established a Countering Antisemitism Laboratory to research and combat antisemitism. In November 2024, the Foundation also announced a partnership with the Berlin-based Kreuzberg Initiative against Anti-Semitism (KIgA) to increase access to testimonies of Holocaust survivors and create wide-reaching programming to counter antisemitism.
USC works closely with Hillel to organize events dedicated to fostering Jewish life on campus, and has partnered with local and national external Jewish organizations to further support Jewish members of the campus community.
*Following the submission of new information, USC’s 2025 grade was revised from a D to a C on April 4, 2025.
Criteria
Publicly Disclosed Administrative Actions i
Jewish Life on Campus i
Campus Conduct and Climate Concerns i
*Incident levels reflect the number of incidents relative to the total student population on campus. 'Severe' and 'other' incidents were only counted if they were recorded between April 2024 and December 2024.
University of Southern California contributed information to our assessment.
This page was last updated on Apr 4, 2025, 6:45 am