Beong-Soo Kim has been formally installed as the 13th president of the University of Southern California, and he is the first Asian American to hold the job in USC's 146-year history. AsAmNews reported the installation on October 19, 2026. The trustees appointed Kim in February 2026, after he had served as interim president for seven months.

Who is Beong-Soo Kim?

Kim is a lawyer by training and a longtime USC insider. He joined the university's senior leadership in 2020 as senior vice president and general counsel. Before that, he held senior roles at Kaiser Permanente, worked as a partner at an international law firm, and served in the U.S. Department of Justice. He has taught constitutional interpretation at Harvard and trial advocacy at the National Advocacy Center, and has been an adjunct professor at the USC Gould School of Law.

His degrees come from Harvard, the London School of Economics and Harvard Law School. He was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, and the family story runs through the campus itself. According to the report, both of his parents attended graduate school at USC. His father, who is 89, attended the ceremony. His mother died in 1996.

What did Kim say in his installation speech?

Kim's theme was "Move the Horizon," which the report describes as stretching goals past accepted boundaries, deepening interdisciplinary work and strengthening ties to industry. He announced a major overhaul of USC's general education curriculum, described as the first bottom-up redesign in decades. He also shared a forecast of a $30 million surplus and addressed declining public trust in higher education.

Three lines captured his argument. USC's core mission, he said, is "educating future leaders." On collaboration: "a university does not protect its excellence by separating itself from the world." On focus: "Great universities do not become greater by trying to do everything."

How big is USC, and why does a first matter?

USC has 23 schools and more than 46,000 students, according to the report. It was founded on October 6, 1880, with 53 students and ten teachers, and describes itself as California's oldest private research university. Kim noted in his speech that Los Angeles had a population of just over 11,000 at the time.

A first in a 146-year-old institution is not only a milestone for one family. It signals who the university believes can lead it through a period of curriculum change and public skepticism. For Asian American students, alumni and faculty, a president who grew up in the same region and whose parents studied on the same campus is a visible marker of belonging at the top of a major institution.

The report does not give enrollment figures for Asian American students, and 88tumble will not estimate them. What it does show is a leader setting an agenda: a rebuilt general education, a surplus forecast, and a case for universities to stay connected to the world around them.

What to watch next

The first test is the curriculum overhaul. The speech described it as bottom-up, which means faculty buy-in will shape how quickly it moves. The second is the budget forecast, which Kim presented as a $30 million surplus. Anyone following higher education will be tracking both.

Source: AsAmNews, October 19, 2026.