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Faraba Banta, The Gambia – For Muhammed Lamin Jallow, a student at the University of The Gambia’s School of Arts and Sciences, getting to class has become a daily struggle.

He travels about 40 km (25 miles) from home to the Faraba Banta campus, depending on university buses, to attend lectures.

But securing a seat on the bus can be challenging.

“Sometimes, it feels like survival of the fittest,” he told Al Jazeera. “We compete as to who gets in first, who gets to sit, who gets to stand and who goes to school and who does not.”

Jallow was among hundreds of students who protested at the University of The Gambia (UTG) on Monday, taking their grievances over transportation, campus facilities and student welfare to the vice chancellor’s office.

Lectures have since resumed after the government promised improvements to campus services.

But the students have more demands. They want Vice Chancellor Herbert Robinson and the director of student affairs to resign, accusing both officials of failing to perform their duties.

While the government has announced measures to address some of the concerns, the leadership dispute remains unresolved.

Transport and basic services remain concerns

The Students’ Union says its concerns affect more than 12,000 students, many of whom depend on university buses to reach campus.

Following the protest, Higher Education Minister Professor Pierre Gomez visited the campus with university representatives and officials from the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.

In a statement, the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology said the Gambia Transport Service Company had deployed 20 buses to support student transportation.

Students have also complained of limited access to safe drinking water and affordable food, as well as unreliable internet connectivity.

In response, the ministry promised that cafeterias across the university were ready to serve students and staff, but acknowledged that additional filtration was needed to make campus water safe for drinking. Water jars and dispensers have been installed at designated points, and the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) had been consulted, it said.

On internet access, the ministry said work was under way to extend connectivity to the newly constructed Schools of Agriculture and Law, with completion expected within a week.

The proposals are intended to support student access to research materials and other educational resources. However, the statement did not confirm whether the work had been completed.

The ministry said it would continue working with the university, the students’ union and other relevant stakeholders to monitor implementation.

Cafeterias and practical training facilities

The reopening of cafeterias was another demand raised by students, who had complained that their closure made it difficult to find affordable meals on campus.

Ismaila Fadera, the students’ union president, said he raised the issue with Robinson on October 20 .

Fadera quoted the vice chancellor as saying: “Mister president, I have the student interest at heart, but we must balance this against administrative processes and compliance. You know I was a student too and many of us went through that. I used to carry my own water and food in my bag to university. The students should be told the reality. Having a cafeteria is a great addition to enhance the student experience but it is not right.”

The ministry said the cafeterias were ready to serve students and staff, although it provided no details on meal prices or availability at individual facilities.

Beyond food and water, students say inadequate learning facilities are affecting their education, particularly in programmes that require practical training.

At the School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences in Banjul, students face overcrowded classrooms, inadequate ventilation, malfunctioning electrical sockets and shortages of projectors and smartboards, according to Abubacarr Manneh, president of the University of The Gambia Medical Students Association. Manneh said medical, nursing and postgraduate nursing students share the available facilities, putting pressure on classroom space.

He also worries about shortages of practical training equipment, including a promised simulation laboratory where students could develop clinical skills.

“Practical sessions are crucial in our professional training and development for better care of our patients,” he told Al Jazeera.

The university’s journalism students have similar concerns

Sukai Fatajo, a journalism student who participated in the protest, said the school needed radio and television studios to help students develop practical skills.

“We deserve better, and our demands must be met,” she told Al Jazeera.

The students’ union has also called for functional science laboratories, improvements to facilities at the medical school and adequate staffing.

The risks of getting to class

For Kumba Leigh, a journalism student, the struggle to reach the university has also become a question of personal safety.

One morning in April, Leigh was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant in her hometown of Bakau as she walked to a bus stop. She was trying to leave home early enough to secure a seat.

The attacker threatened to kill her if she did not hand over her bag. When she resisted, he struck her on the head and shoulder, cut her bag and dislocated her right arm. A nearby shopkeeper intervened, forcing the assailant to flee.

Months later, Leigh still has pain in her arm and suffers from trauma.

“No one should have to risk their life simply to travel to school,” she told Al Jazeera, calling for stronger security and increased police patrols.

Pat McAfee, a co-host of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” doubled down on his criticism of the University of Utah on his sports talk show Monday, referring to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and suggesting he would call in sick if “GameDay” returned to Utah.

“I’ll hopefully never go to that place,” McAfee said. “I think I’ll have COVID whenever ‘GameDay’ goes back, if I’m still a part of ‘GameDay.’ I did not enjoy the morning there.”

Utah issued an apology even as an avalanche of social media reaction was mainly critical of McAfee. The dominant meme theme focused on his perceived softness in reacting so strongly to a short video the university released Saturday ahead of the “GameDay” show from Utah’s Salt Lake City campus that preceded the Utes’ game against Houston.

The video posted on the university’s official social media accounts asked students to do an impression of McAfee. A microphone was handed to a handful of male students who roared while saying that although they were fans of the irreverent, theatrical analyst, he should stop his weekly “GameDay” routine of taking his shirt off while college students cheer and jeer behind him.

Another student called his antics “corny.” McAfee, apparently already reeling from a column in the Athletic that opined that “College GameDay” has become overwhelmed by McAfee’s “frat-rock prankster” personality, appeared deeply offended.

“The University puts that out as I’m about to go out and do an infomercial for the place?,” McAfee said. “And I’m walking in front of thousands of these people? This is how the university feels about it? It’s an uncomfortable feeling.

“I’m getting a lot of shrapnel from a lot of places. The university is putting this out? That’s something I just had never experienced, really in my entire life. So it kind of set me off a little bit. Made me feel a little bit weird.”

McAfee alluded to the shooting death of Kirk, the conservative activist who was killed in September 2025 during a speaking event on Utah Valley University, about 40 miles from the Utah campus.

“And I thought to myself, ‘Has anything, like, really scary happened at a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?,’” he said. “Do we think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts, as a university? I don’t know. There were a lot of mixed feelings for me going out there.

“It’s like, all right, I hate this place. I hate this place. They’ve got a good football team, though…. But I’ve never been more uncomfortable, honestly, in my life, walking in front of a group of people after watching their university put out a post, basically dogging me just moments before.”

The video was removed from Utah’s social media accounts and the university issued a statement Monday night saying the goal “was to create lighthearted engagement regarding Pat being back on campus,” but that the video “missed the mark.”

“University staff are responsible for reviewing and posting content on official social media accounts and we take full accountability for that decision,” the school said. “University officials have reached out to Pat to express appreciation and regret. We sincerely apologize for creating any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome on our campus. Nothing could be further from the truth”

Social media was soon littered with memes of McAfee accompanied by rolls of a soft brand of bathroom tissue. But ESPN defended his concern about safety in a statement.

“The safety and security of our on-air team, crew and fans is paramount at ‘College GameDay.’ We are committed to ensuring a safe environment, and given the very real threats that members of our team face, we take issues involving their safety seriously. We support Pat and recognize the very real and valid concerns he has around safety and security.”

Eyo-Dae Kim and Susan Kim attended the University of Southern California decades ago, two international students with little money and no family in the U.S. On Friday, their son, Beong-Soo Kim, stood before an Alumni Park crowd and was formally installed as the 13th president of their alma mater.

“It is wonderful to have you here, Dad, facing the same library where you and Mom studied together at USC,” Kim, 53, said to his father, who took doctoral courses in economics. Kim’s late mother fled during the Korean War and earned a USC master’s degree.

“They certainly would never have imagined, as international students, that this day could possibly come,” Kim had said earlier.

In a wide-ranging interview before the event, Kim — who was appointed in February after holding an interim presidential role — said he leads USC at a time of promise and deep challenges:

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, leased and operated by USC, will be a showcase site for the 2028 Olympics. A recent $200-million gift is fueling a university-wide push into artificial intelligence. USC admitted 12.6% of first-year applicants this fall for sought-after slots.

Beong-Soo Kim was formally installed as USC’s 13th president during an investiture ceremony Friday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Yet he faces steep hurdles. The former federal prosecutor who spent five years as USC’s general counsel inherited a deficit of more than $200 million. Among his first actions, Kim approved the layoffs of more than 900 workers and ordered deep cost-saving measures. USC is still recovering from years of scandal and controversy that scarred its national reputation, including a $1.1-billion payout to settle sexual abuse allegations against a campus gynecologist, its involvement in the “Varsity Blues” admissions bribery scheme and its handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

Then there is Trojan football.

Fans chanted this month for the firing of football coach Lincoln Riley — after years of underachieving — though the Trojans have defeated Washington and Penn State after an Oregon loss.

Although fans and analysts have soured at times on Riley — whose pay exceeds $11 million and whose reported buyout is about $70 million — Kim declined to say whether USC could afford a coaching change, saying, “We’re not thinking about that.”

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Amid fan chants to fire Trojan football coach Lincoln Riley, USC President Beong-Soo Kim declined to say whether USC could afford a coaching change, saying “we are laser-focused on the next game.”

“We are laser-focused on the next game, and then the game after that, and really having the best possible season that we can have in football,” he said.

After the stinging rounds of layoffs, Kim said, the university expects to “significantly exceed” the roughly $30-million surplus he forecast for USC earlier this year during his state-of-the-university speech, though final numbers are pending.

In his speech, Kim said that public trust in universities has declined and “we must regain trust by earning it.” USC is among the elite universities targeted last year by the Trump administration over alleged campus antisemitism, though it has not faced major federal funding freezes or lawsuits as the UC system has.

On Friday, deans and faculty in academic regalia processed into Alumni Park, where the Trojan Marching Band accompanied the national anthem as temperatures climbed toward the 90s during the nearly two-hour ceremony.

USC religious life dean Varun Soni opened an invocation by describing the cello’s sound post — a small wooden piece called its “soul” in Italian and French — and comparing it to the soul of a university. Kim, a cellist, later joined USC Thornton School of Music students to play “Prelude,” the first movement of Grieg’s “Holberg Suite,” Op. 40, as Kaufman School of Dance students performed.

Morton Schapiro, Northwestern’s president emeritus and a former USC dean, represented visiting academic delegates and praised Kim’s “creativity, character and commitment to community” before Suzanne Nora Johnson, chair of the Board of Trustees, formally installed Kim. Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and humanist blessings closed the ceremony. In the afternoon, a “Trojan Family celebration” in McCarthy Quad was scheduled to feature food stalls and performances by singer-songwriters Aloe Blacc, a USC alumnus, and Allen Stone.

Money, medicine and priorities

When he took over as interim president in 2025, upon the departure of Carol Folt, Kim immediately confronted the university’s financial crisis. The campus had long spent more than it brought in, an imbalance driven by rising athletics costs, pandemic expenses and major legal settlements. A weak year for USC’s health system deepened the shortfall. Kim maintained a hiring pause, stopped merit raises and took “a hard look at a lot of our administrative expenses and our operations,” he told The Times.

Keck Medicine of USC took a significant hit in the layoffs after running a deficit in the tens of millions in recent years. Last month, dozens of layoffs took place at the Viterbi School of Engineering.

Kim said Keck’s performance “has been good, but it can get better.” The health system is “making very positive progress” to cut expenses while focusing on “patient care, patient quality.”

Across campus, he credited staff and faculty with “stepping up, asking how can we do more with less.”

USC is also challenging a faculty union before the National Labor Relations Board. Non-tenure-track faculty voted in June to join United Faculty-UAW, with about 70% in favor. USC has asked the labor board to review the decision that allowed the vote, arguing the union is too broad. Faculty leafleted Friday during Kim’s event.

Kim said he wants USC to build strong partnerships with Los Angeles industries, including entertainment, biotechnology, sports and “the new space economy.”

He cautioned in his speech that “great universities do not become greater by trying to do everything.”

During the interview, he did not say which university programs need to shrink but said such decisions will come through a strategic plan that will “engage the whole community.”

“One of the things that I frankly pride myself on as a university president is that I readily admit that I don’t have all the answers, and certainly not the best answers,” he said.

Beong-Soo Kim speaks at USC’s commencement in May.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Admissions

A pressing debate — particularly within the University of California system — is whether standardized tests should be required for admissions. Many of the nation’s most elite institutions have recently turned away from test-blind or test-optional admission policies. UC, which does not consider SAT scores in admissions, is reviewing whether to resume SAT and ACT requirements.

Kim said USC, which is test-optional, is studying the issue too. USC considers SAT and ACT scores if applicants submit them but does not require them.

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As the University of California evaluates whether to reintroduce SAT and standardized testing requirements for admission, USC President Beong-Soo Kim said USC is also looking at the question. He said USC, which is test-optional, has not made a final decision.

“It’s absolutely something that has been under discussion, particularly with respect to STEM students,” he said, referring to science, technology, engineering and math majors. He cautioned that no final decision has been made and that the new provost, David Madigan, will be looking at the issue.

Kim said UC’s test-blind policy is “one of the contextual factors that we have to consider.” Many California students who plan to apply to UC skip the tests, and many of them also apply to USC, he said.

USC said last year it would keep weighing applicants’ family ties to the university despite a state ban on legacy and donor preferences. In 2024, while the ban was pending, USC said it would “comply with state law” if it were signed. Schools that keep the preferences are listed publicly as out of compliance and must report more admissions data to the state.

Kim said USC chose to keep “considering whether someone is a member of the Trojan family” as one of many factors. He said he is “actually quite proud” that USC maintained its “holistic admissions practices” in a way that “provides more transparency about our admissions.”

Image and trust

Legacy preferences have fed a stereotype of USC as a college for the wealthy and well connected. Kim disputed that image.

He pointed to USC’s transfer students, Pell Grant recipients and first-generation students. USC opens its doors to “so many people in California, throughout the country, and throughout the world,” he said.

Still, Kim acknowledged that trust in education has fallen, though he said that trust in American institutions “across the board has been declining.”

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USC violates state law by considering legacy and donor ties in admissions, a practice President Beong-Soo Kim defended as part of a holistic review while touting the university’s transparency in reporting admissions data to the state.

“Some might have to do with events from several years ago,” he said.

He did not say which events, though USC has had its share. As general counsel, Kim helped steer it through the aftermath of the national Varsity Blues admissions bribery scandal and the sex abuse payout to former patients of campus gynecologist George Tyndall, the largest in higher education history.

His answer to falling trust has been the Open Dialogue Project, which he launched in October 2025 to bring clashing views to campus. Guests have included National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and legal scholar Jonathan Turley.

In September, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression gave USC its top “green light” rating for several speech policies. After the group recalculated its college free speech rankings, USC rose from 198th to 37th out of 261 schools.

White House pressure

Last fall, the Trump administration invited USC and eight other universities to sign a higher education compact offering favorable access to federal research grants. Signers would cap international undergraduates at 15%, require the SAT or ACT and freeze tuition for five years.

USC rejected the compact last October — about two weeks after the administration offered it.

Some faculty viewed USC’s initial reluctance to reject the overture as a sign it was unwilling to openly challenge Trump’s education demands. They also point to USC’s closure of its university-wide Office of Inclusion and Diversity last year amid a federal anti-DEI push and its removal of pages for cultural heritage months from its “Culture Journey” website earlier this year.

Kim disagreed that USC bends quickly to the White House.

“It would have been highly presumptuous for me just to make a rash decision about what we were going to do without listening,” he said of the compact.

International students have also faced pressures, as the government restricts some visa programs and significantly increases costs for others.

About 26% of USC students are international, with 15% of the undergraduate population coming from other nations. Kim said international students “have been part of USC for decades” and called their presence “a win-win.”

AI risks

USC is also leaning into artificial intelligence, with a $200-million gift from Nvidia board member Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary Stevens, meant to infuse AI across the campus and recruit AI researchers.

But leaders of OpenAI and Anthropic have warned that the technology’s fast development poses serious risks to jobs and human existence.

“We have to take those warnings very seriously,” Kim said. Universities, he said, can help clarify what it means for AI to be “aligned” and “safe.”

Kim said USC wants to make sure its students “are leading in terms of how to use it ethically, how to use it morally.”

The future

On July 14, 2028, the Coliseum — USC’s campus-adjacent home stadium — will share the Olympics’ opening ceremony with SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

Kim said he hopes Olympic visitors will see “a university that has an incredible Olympic tradition,” but also one whose reach goes well beyond sports.

The Games will also bring alumni and students “from across the globe,” he said. “I think that’s going to make for a very magical moment.”