Deep in budget crisis, USC spent $50K remodeling president’s mansion

The tidy, modern villas of Adelaide Place belong to an exclusive caste of Santa Monica society. 

Homeowners on this tony cul-de-sac include legendary director Oliver Stone’s wife, a Pakistani textile scion, and a heavyweight private equity executive. 

It is also home to the University of Southern California’s presidential property, a sleek, $9 million, modernist compound complete with a pool, gym, and ocean view. 

Seven months ago, it received an upgrade. 

Months into its worst budget crisis in recent memory, USC, no stranger to tone-deaf gaffes, spent $50,000 renovating the Santa Monica home.

Upgrades included a motorized, waist-high vehicle gate, a driveway callbox, and a parcel box, according to permitting records reviewed by Morning, Trojan. USC applied for the permit on Sept. 11 and city officials were scheduled to visit the property for their final inspection on Jan. 30.

The school purchased the home in 2020 to be occupied by former President Carol Folt, who in the 2024 fiscal year earned nearly $5 million.

The renovations, modest by the standards of Los Angeles luxury but striking in their timing, landed in the middle of a budget crisis that has slashed student programs, laid off scores of employees, and threatened to cull hundreds more.

A USC spokesperson did not respond to a detailed list of questions about the renovations. 

“We’re following best practices in providing security around a university president’s home,” the spokesperson wrote of the gate that offers an unobstructed view of the property.

In response to a question about whether USC plans to sell the home, the spokesperson said the school is preparing it for sale — a fact that has not been reported until now. Later, by phone, the spokesperson said the gate would add value to the home ahead of its listing.

Folt did not respond to requests for comment.

Construction coincided with budget crisis

By the time USC representatives filed for the property’s construction permit in September, the school’s budget crisis had already crept into public view.

The university ordered at least two layoffs in the months preceding the permit application, and as the academic year began, asked schools and administrative units to reduce their budgets.

The signs would only grow more alarming as construction started at the president’s property. In November, Provost Andrew Guzman announced that USC racked up a $158 million operating deficit the prior fiscal year. The school proceeded to ax scholarships, funding for student organizations, and popular employee benefits before the end of the calendar year.

Then there is the fact that USC’s fiscal year ends on June 30, suggesting that executives were likely aware of the deficit by that time in 2024. 

Indeed, this July — well ahead of the school’s typical November release of its audited financial statements — Interim President Beong-Soo Kim announced that USC faced a deficit of over $200 million.

“Left untamed, this recurring, structural deficit erodes cash reserves, constrains future planning and capital needs, and is simply unsustainable,” Kim wrote.

Life on Adelaide Place

On a recent visit to Adelaide Place in Santa Monica’s North of Montana neighborhood, Morning, Trojan found an idyllic cul-de-sac, hushed except for the occasional purr of a Mercedes Benz, or the whir of a Tesla Model S.

This is the kind of street where neighbors regularly appear on donor lists at local charities and boast profiles in Bloomberg’s web directory. In 2019, the neighborhood unleashed a minor media crusade when the owners of the cul-de-sac’s historic “Zuni House” turned the property into an Airbnb rental. The house is now owned by an oil engineer who holds a doctorate from USC.

At the president’s home, a worn sign that reads “Protected by HI Tech Security Systems” sits at the front of the property, and a surveillance camera installed on an exterior wall faces the street. Google Street View images show the camera was installed as early as December 2023.

The driveway callbox features a small camera that would face an incoming driver. During an early morning pro-Palestinian demonstration in March, the then-newly installed mahogany gate apparently encouraged protesters to stay off the property.

The house’s callbox matches a $1,500 model made by DoorBird, and the parcel box appears to be a $900 product made by dVault. 

LA records show USC obtained an additional permit to complete slope stabilization work in the property’s yard in April 2024, although it’s unclear whether the work has been completed and how much it was expected to cost. The university notified city officials that it was changing its contractor for the work in November.

A USC spokesperson did not answer questions about whether Folt, who left her post in July, has vacated the property. 

In April, Folt and her husband purchased a $2.7 million corner-unit penthouse on the top floor of a luxury Santa Monica high rise, property records show. It is unclear whether USC plans to purchase a new president’s home after selling the current property.

End of an era

It was March 2020, and the purchase of the Santa Monica home signaled a restart. 

For decades, the school’s leaders had lived in a palatial, 14,000-square-foot San Marino manor, which a listing would later boast was one of the largest private estates in the Greater LA area, at seven acres.

This was not for Folt.

The biologist, who most recently served as chancellor of the University of North Carolina, promised to make environmental sustainability a focus of her tenure. Accordingly, USC had rented the apparently eco-friendly Santa Monica home on her behalf, and now felt it was time to purchase the property.

It bought the four-bed, five-bath Ray Kappe-designed home for $8.6 million, and would later sell the San Marino estate for $25 million.

Folt’s decision to eschew the San Marino property signaled a break from the old guard: one that had presided over a series of recent high-profile scandals including a dean who hosted drug-fueled parties, a university gynecologist accused of sexually abusing hundreds of patients, and a sprawling, illegal college admissions scheme.

“The times have changed how university presidents operate,” Rick Caruso, then chairman of the board of trustees, told the LA Times. “We also have a very contemporary president who lives a very different lifestyle, and I felt, the board felt, that the home has to be such that it is a place where Carol is happy.”

Chris Bibona contributed reporting.

Tomo Chien can be reached at [email protected].