Dear Colleagues,
I feel privileged to join USC as provost. These first few weeks have shown me the remarkable range of expertise across our schools and how deeply our faculty care about our students, their scholarship, and the communities around us. You’ve welcomed me so warmly that I already feel part of the Trojan Family.
The faculty form the beating heart of any institution, and I want to learn from you about USC’s history, culture, and identity. Who better to teach me than the individuals who show up every day to instruct our students, perform pathbreaking scholarship, and serve our community?
I arrived just in time for President Kim’s investiture. His address laid out an inspiring vision for USC, one that draws on the university’s long habit of reaching for the possible rather than settling for the established. As an immigrant myself, I found his reflections especially moving: his family’s story, and Los Angeles as a city that people from everywhere have built while starting new lives. Our academic enterprise plays a central role in carrying that spirit forward, and I welcome the chance to help lead that work.
We have a lot ahead of us. How can we help our students build the intellectual, ethical, and distinctly human capacities they’ll need to lead and thrive? For our own creative activities, how do we solve ever knottier problems and maximize our positive impact in the world? Where does AI fit into all of this? No matter what, our success will rest on a culture of openness, respect, and collaboration.
Los Angeles gives us remarkable opportunities too. I look forward to deepening our partnerships with industry, with other institutions, with our neighbors, and with the global community this city represents. These relationships can enrich our teaching and research and make sure USC gives back to the region it has grown up with.
As a newcomer, I want to start by listening to and learning from you. Watch for invitations to town halls and informal gatherings where we can get to know one another. I can’t wait to work with you all to shape the great American research university of the future.
Fight on!
David Madigan
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs