USCs

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.”

Steve Tatham always wanted to work in theme parks. And growing up in Anaheim, some sort of career associated with Disneyland seemed readily attainable.

“Disneyland was the local business,” Tatham says. “It’s where everyone ended up when they were students and working part-time, and I was no exception.”

While in college, he got a job as a Jungle Cruise skipper, and since then, he has never looked back. Over the course of his career, Tatham has spent nearly 30 years with the Walt Disney Co., many of them in theme park design with Imagineering. More recently, Tatham worked at Universal Creative for more than a decade and was the executive creative director of Epic Universe, the company’s impressive new Florida park.

Today, Tatham is turning his focus toward the next generation of theme park designers, having recently been tapped by USC to lead the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Themed Entertainment program, which is offered out of the cinema school. The four-year program is designed to prep students for a myriad of fields — modern theme park design firms work not only on new attractions but readily contribute to museums, zoos, immersive marketing events and more.

And yet theme park designer can feel like an elusive dream job, one based on connections, mentoring or even just luck. Part of that myth was shaped by the initial Disney Imagineers, many of whom were simply making up the job as they went along. As a longtime admirer of Tatham’s work, I recently chatted with the newly crowned academic leader on how one should prep for a career in the field, hoping to demystify it just a little bit.

Steve Tatham, photographed in Florida’s Epic Universe, is leading USC’s undergraduate program in theme park design.

(Steve Tatham)

You don’t need to major in themed entertainment to work in theme parks

There aren’t too many universities that offer a theme park design degree. (Along with USC, Purdue offers a themed entertainment design major and the Savannah College of Art and Design has one of the best-known and longest-running programs in the country.)

But Tatham notes that when he began his career in the industry, it generally wasn’t a field accounted for by universities. And many theme park designers I meet as a reporter, whether relatively new to the industry or veterans, created their own paths into the biz.

Tatham’s own background still provides a solid template for those students looking to enter themed entertainment design, as not everyone will have the means or the ability to attend a program such as USC’s. “I wrote my own major,” he says of his time as an undergrad at UC Berkeley, where he targeted theme parks as his career goal. He majored in film design but took courses that combined theater, architecture, environmental psychology and film studies. After graduating, Tatham went to UCLA for a masters in architecture.

Architecture was a career path pushed to Tatham by longtime scenic designer Henry May, who was his advisor at Berkeley. It was an early recognition that theme park design is an offshoot of urban design, requiring principles necessary in both stagecraft and real-world planning.

Think beyond theme parks

People are hungry for themed experiences. Global theme park attendance topped 246 million in 2024, a 2.5% increase, according to the Themed Entertainment Assn., which also charted a nearly 15% growth in attendance at the world’s top 20 museums, which are often a fertile industry for theme park designers. And that says nothing of the domestic trend of smaller, more locally-focused entertainment centers (think Netflix House or Meow Wolf).

It’s why Tatham tells his USC students to think beyond a Disney or Universal creation.

“If you look in the world out there, there’s marketing firms doing pop-up retail and pop-up dining, and they are doing immersive design in museum spaces,” Tatham says. “In addition to theme parks, there are opportunities within marketing and within architecture. Students who get this interdisciplinary training, which involves coding, architecture, design, exhibition work, landscape architecture and lighting, it’s a growing field.”

Steve Tatham once served as a tour guide on Universal Studios Hollywood’s behind-the-scenes tram tour.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The best lessons come from observing guests

Long before Tatham was designing Epic Universe, he was working as a tour guide at Universal Studios Hollywood. As a film buff, he enjoyed the early-career job, but says one lesson from those days continues to stick with him.

“I would go on and on, because I love movie history, and I would be like, ‘Right here is where Jimmy Stewart worked, and Edith Head designed costumes,’” Tatham says. “They would politely listen, but then when ducks walked across, they would get excited and take pictures. People love things that are alive and immediate and happening now. People respond to what is immediate.”

The best theme park design is in conversation with guests. I think of Epic’s “How to Train Your Dragon”-inspired land and the bounty of movement found in the space via animatronic dragons (if you promise dragons, guests better see dragons!), or Disneyland’s New Orleans Square, where the curved, winding paths encourage constant discovery.

AI won’t replace great original ideas

Tatham is careful when speaking on the subject of artificial intelligence. He doesn’t want to dismiss its potential to be used as a development tool. And yet Tatham is direct when it comes to AI and creativity.

“I think there are a lot of challenges with AI. I think there are a lot of things that are scary,” he says. “But I think, ultimately, if it’s used as a tool, it can be useful to artists.”

But there are limits.

“AI is never going to come up with a great idea,” he says. “It’s just going to recombine and reconfigure and spit back to you ideas that others have had. So I think this is an opportunity for original thought to stand out even more than it has in the past.”

Jennifer Bascom of Disneyland, gives a telegram to Disneyland guest Keith Kocienski of Fullerton while playing a live-action role-playing game in Frontierland called Legends of Frontierland back in 2014.

(Christina House / For The Times)

But the integration of smartphones remains a challenge

While Disney recently shuttered its Play Disney Parks mobile app, the park is experimenting with connectivity between the video game “Fortnite” and its attraction Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. Tatham cautions that any time a theme park invites someone to use a smartphone during their day at the park, designers are then pulling them away from the curated experience.

“The problem is when you’re in Universal or Disneyland, you’re now competing with all the opportunities that people have to explore their own entertainment,” Tatham says. “Are they going to be on Instagram or playing Solitaire online? So now you’re competing with that.”

And yet Tatham thinks there are lessons to be learned from the interactive world, as long as designers focus on real-world play. Tatham, after all, worked on what was once of my favorite Disneyland projects, the great but short-lived Legends of Frontierland. Some of those who contributed to it brought it to Knott’s Berry Farm, where it has been fine-tuned into the terrific Ghost Town Alive! The latter is a rarity in the theme park space.

Yes, it’s possible to make a decent salary

So how much can one expect to make? This isn’t an easy question to answer, as there’s only so many slots at Walt Disney Imagineering and Universal Creative, and the theme park design industry encompasses so much more.

There are independent themed entertainment firms to marketing outposts to studios to museums to architecture companies to theaters and more. And salaries can vary greatly between the public or private sector, as well as entry level versus senior positions. Even recruiting sites have a broad range, from around $50,000 to above $200,000.

The good news, says Tatham, is there is a high ceiling. Additionally, that there is a breadth of industries to work in should help any potential graduates. “There are many different job descriptions with different salaries in the themed entertainment field,” Tatham says.

And yet he knows it’s a concern of parents.

“I want students and parents to know that it is possible to make a solid steady income in the arts and that they shouldn’t focus on a backup plan but rather on putting together a killer portfolio because there is work for those who have honed their skills,” he says. “I would tell them that they should be prepared to live in Orlando, Fla., or Glendale, Calif., and be open to international assignments. Top directors can make in excess of $250,000 a year, but they should be prepared for starting salaries similar to architecture, graphic design or similar creative fields.”

A Disneyland cast member playing the role of Alice in Wonderland interacts with guests.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Remember why theme parks still matter

Anytime I have an opportunity to chat with someone with Tatham’s experience I want to hear their take on one question in particular, and that’s why they love theme parks and why they believe the spaces resonate with so many people. As someone charged with creating passion among the next generation of theme park designers, I was especially interested in Tatham’s response.

“If you go to a theme park, there is something for every demographic,” he says. “There are things for kids. There are things for grandparents. There are things for everyone in between. People can enjoy those times together, which was the original intent of Walt Disney. He was looking for a place while in Griffith Park where he could go do things with his daughters. He created it because it did not exist.”

For Tatham, it’s about the memories.

“If you ask people about their experience in theme parks, they will remember in great detail which parks they went to and who they were with,” he continues. “Ask them about going to the movies, they might say, ‘Sure, I went with my family, but can’t tell you what movies and who I was with.’ But they will remember those moments with theme parks. It’s a great bonding experience. That’s the reason they exist and the reason I love to create them.”

This week in SoCal theme parks

Plans are underway to refurbish the Griffith Park merry-go-round.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

• The Griffith Park carousel will spin again. Assessments are underway to see what it will cost to once again get the Griffith Park merry-go-round spinning. Theme park fans best know it as the site that is said to have inspired Walt Disney to dream up what would become the Disneyland Resort, and it has been shuttered since 2022. Curiously, there’s also a Disney connection with the carousel today, as some of those who work at Walt Disney Imagineering are volunteering their time and efforts to restore this treasure in Griffith Park. Read my story here.
• Six Flags Magic Mountain shuts down second coaster. Six Flags is closing several rides across the U.S. and Canada — including the Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia — after a man fell to his death from a roller coaster at one of its parks in Georgia. Park officials said Tuesday that the closures were out of an abundance of caution and were temporary. Times writers Hailey Branson-Potts and Fedor Zarkhin have more on this story.
• Merry Minions. Universal Studios Hollywood has unveiled its slate of holiday of programming, and returning this year are its popular “Grinchmas” offerings, including the 65-foot winding, drooping, Dr. Seuss-inspired Christmas tree. There will be meet-and-greets, including a reading of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” as well as holiday carolers and ornament decorating. New this year will be holiday festivities in the park’s kid-focused Minion Land, complete with Minions in holiday attire. Super Nintendo World, Wizarding World of Harry Potter and other areas will also be dressed for the season, beginning Nov. 21 and lasting through Jan. 3.
• A heads-up for ‘Cars’ fans. It’s the 20th anniversary of the “Cars” franchise, and those with a special affinity for the series will want to find their way to Disneyland’s Pixar Place Hotel and park themselves on the hotel’s second floor art gallery. That’s where the hotel is hosting an exhibit honoring the film with drawings, paintings, sculptures and behind-the-scenes footage that document how Radiator Springs Racers was brought to life. And before you go, read my story on how Route 66 inspired the film and Cars Land.
• Step into the world of ‘Dune.’ Tickets are now on sale for an immersive “Dune” exhibition in downtown L.A. that promises spectacle, as well as a bit of mystery. Step around, and potentially inside, awe-inspiring vehicles from the film, or come face-to-face with the Bene Gesserit, a group of priestesses who possess, among other things, the ability to bend the will of others. “Dune: The Experience” opens Nov. 20 and and is currently set to run through Dec. 20, although an extension is likely. Standard tickets start at $42 but there are various ticket packages available.

Ride Report

The dinosaurs on the Disneyland Railroad.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

It’s always a good idea to hop on a Disneyland attraction that has been recently refurbished. It’s generally a chance to see the ride in tip-top shape. And so I was eager to get on the Disneyland Railroad on a recent trip to the park, as the dinos in the Primeval World world section of the attraction had recently been hidden behind illustrated tarps. Good news, as the dinosaurs are looking as sharp as they ever have. No real changes were made to the figures, but they’re all moving as they should, be it munching on grass, rattling out of an egg or getting ready for battle.

The theatrical lighting overall feels a little brighter, and the few digital effects — a volcano erupting in the background, for instance — are all in working order and bring an added sense of dimension to the diorama scenes. Be sure to add it to your day. The Disneyland Railroad is also a fine reminder to slow down during your Disneyland visit.

Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.

Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.

Ride on,

Todd Martens

P.S.

What is “Eggs in Space”?

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

A cinematic mystery is brewing, one that seemingly has connections to the local immersive entertainment community. What, for instance, is “Eggs in Space”? A recent sci-fi event at indie nonprofit movie theater and store Vidiots ended with the beginnings of a puzzle.

The screening appeared to be interrupted by a film that was taking control of the projectors. The film? “Eggs in Space.” As an abstract image of an egg appeared on screen, performers began walking toward the front of the theater in a transfixed, cult-like fashion.

There is, of course, no record of a film titled “Eggs in Space,” although there is a website dedicated to its disappearance. So dig in. A new alternate reality game just dropped. I have a hunch you’ll want to know where it leads.

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