The Brief

When University of Southern California administrators canceled valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s commencement speech this spring, the stated explanation — safety reasons — left many students and faculty confused. How could a university with its own private security, access to LAPD assistance, and that only a year before hosted President Barack Obama for commencement, not protect a student?

According to student journalists, in a call soon after with the university’s top administrators, faculty asked if perhaps the withdrawal of Tabassum’s speech — after she was criticized by pro-Israel activists — was meant to appease one or more donors.

USC’s top academic officer reportedly denied the accusation.

USC, like many other private universities, raises a lot of money. And as the faculty question alluded to, big university donors like to shape a university’s direction. But what is the relationship between donors and university policy? And how do those relationships change when the university draws widespread criticism?

“My main reaction to questions about the role of donors is it's probably over-emphasized compared to its actual importance,” said John Matsusaka, a professor of business and law at USC. He worked at USC during the various scandals that led to the exit of USC’s last president, C.L. Max Nikias. Those scandals rocked the confidence of big-money donors to the university.

And while USC administrators faced withering scandals in the last decade, how university officials have responded to protests on campus that seek to end Israel's war effort in Gaza — including by calling in police to clear student encampments — do not appear to be rocking the support of big time donors.

“[T]here has been no impact on donations,” USC said in a written statement to LAist.

Does the university answer to donors?

That doesn’t mean donors aren’t upset.

Two weeks after USC pulled its invitation for Tabassum to deliver a commencement speech, USC alumnus and benefactor Lloyd Greif — he has an academic center named after him — told the L.A. Times that administrators made a mistake inviting her in the first place.

Greif has a history of criticizing administration actions. In 2018 he lashed out at USC’s top leaders for the removal of a popular business school dean.

Other donors may simply tell their concerns to the staff members charged with raising money.

“Development is collateral damage during scandals, I’ve experienced that,” said a former USC employee with knowledge of USC’s fundraising. The employee asked for anonymity for fear of repercussions.

But donor reaction might be less about the original problem than it is about trust. That employee said one donor told them it’s not so much because of the scandals, "but because of the cover up, and other donors felt that way too.”

The ways administrators are held to account

There are all kinds of consequences — big and small — to administrative controversies.

For example, university faculty voiced their displeasure with President Carol Folt's recent decision-making by censuring her earlier this month.

“I always want our university leadership to succeed,” said Devin Griffiths, a USC English and comparative literature professor who authored the censure resolution. Censure is a formal statement of rebuke against top leadership, but not a call to resign.

“I'm not sure if I've entirely lost confidence with [President Folt] yet but … it's very hard for me to imagine what she can do at this point to really restore the confidence of the faculty and students,” he said.

The way the previous USC administration handled revelations about a campus gynecologist who had sexually abused hundreds of patients troubled Ange-Marie Hancock, then a professor of political science and gender studies at USC. She incorporated investigating university practices into an undergraduate class about the #MeToo movement.

But an upset high-profile donor can draw attention to problems in a unique way.

For many universities, “There is a history more recently of donors withdrawing their financial support, should there be a decision that they disagree with,” said Hancock, who is now executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, after 15 years at USC.

Another student encampment and university officials’ response to it at Columbia University have made the New York school an example of conflict over how to address protester demands.

One major donor to that university said he had lost confidence in Columbia’s administration.

“I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff, and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken,” said Robert Kraft to the New York Times. Kraft is the owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots.

In December, the University of Pennsylvania lost a $100 million donation and the following month, a big Harvard “mega donor” pulled his support.

What’s the most important job of a USC president?

The biographies of Folt’s two predecessors underline the extraordinary amount of money the two presidents brought to USC. President Steven Sample’s bio lists 10 major donations totaling $542 million. Nikias’ bio highlights his leadership of a $6 billion dollar fundraising campaign.

USC’s board of trustees hired Carol Folt in 2019 in part because she had navigated a major college sports scandal while president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“[Folt] has never been a fundraiser and part of the deal with her coming to USC was that she wasn't going to be as vigorous a fundraiser as [Steven] Sample and Max Nikias,” said emeritus USC education researcher William Tierney.

It’s USC vice presidents, deans, the provost, and individual schools’ development officers that have the most interactions with big donors, according to the former USC employee.

An LAist review of Internal Revenue Service filings, also provided by USC, show contributions — donations made outside of fundraising events, as well as non-governmental grants — declining over the past several years. Governmental grants have grown.

The fundraising often brings relationships with funders that top administrators must cultivate and nurture. Hancock worries that students will suffer if donors pull out in response to a university crisis.

“If you were to talk to most development or advancement professionals, they will tell you that … aside from big buildings and having your name on a building, doing student scholarships is one of the other major, major resources that private donors give to universities around the country,” she said.

USC said it gave out $724 million in scholarships in the fiscal year 2022.

What about future donors?

Many of USC’s top donors are former students who have gone on to become wealthy. Current students are still processing whether the administration’s actions will affect their view of the university after graduation.

“They've made some poor decisions. Yes. But at the end of the day, it is a school that I genuinely love,” said undergrad Gabrielle Annon at a graduation celebration earlier in May.

USC is famous in Los Angeles for its cultivation of “The Trojan Family,” building school support among undergraduates and alum.

“The basic idea is that we're one family, that we stay connected together and that that relationship lasts over time,” said Griffiths, the professor of English and comparative literature at USC.

“I think there are many students and faculty and members of the administration who take that to heart and feel it,” he said.

In the weeks after USC administrators called on police to clear an encampment of protesters, feelings among students for the university appeared to vary.

“I still love the school, still a Trojan for life,” said undergrad Emma Adamson. She feels donating will be part of being a member of the Trojan Family after she graduates.

“[Donating] depends [on] my future, but hopefully if I do have enough money to donate, if it's going to the right places, I'd have to make sure of that,” she said.

But not all have forgiven the university’s missteps in the last month of the school year — canceling the valedictorian’s speech, clearing out protesters, and adding security checkpoints.

"It felt like collective punishment to everyone," said Anusha S, a USC graduate student who doesn’t go by her last name. She’s made up her mind about donations. "I don't want my money to go to a college that didn't really give me the best experience."

“I'm not a big donor but have always contributed to scholarships,” Viki Goto said via email to LAist. Goto said this is her reunion year as a USC alumnus and she won’t be attending.

“I'm urging my fellow alumni to withhold their contributions until the University seriously addresses their many shortcomings in handling this situation,” she said.

Griffiths, the professor, said he doesn’t embrace the culture of The Trojan Family. "The thing I always tell people is, institutions don't love you,” he said. But, he added, “The people who work at those institutions really do care about you.”

A news helicopter crashed in a Los Angeles neighborhood on Tuesday and burst into flames, killing at least three people near the scene of where an SUV had slammed into a city bus, officials said.

The helicopter crashed around 7 p.m. near a one-story commercial building in the neighborhood of Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, as news crews were covering the bus crash that left at least two people dead and six others injured, according the Los Angeles Fire Department.

An NBC4 Los Angeles anchor at the station confirmed during a live broadcast that its chopper went down just before 7 p.m.

At least one person killed in the helicopter crash was outside in the parking lot next to the commercial building, Capt. Branden Silverman, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said during a news conference. It was unclear if the other two who were killed were on the ground or inside the aircraft.

The scene of a deadly helicopter crash in Chatsworth broadcast be CBSLA.

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Courtesy CBSLA

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One person was taken to the hospital, but their condition was not immediately clear.

“We’re trying to determine how many patients were inside the helicopter,” said Silverman, who described the helicopter as “pretty well destroyed” and adding that officials would be sorting through the rubble to see how many victims were on board.

At least four cars and two storage containers on the ground burned after the helicopter caught fire, which was quickly put out, according to officials. More than 50 firefighters responded to the helicopter crash, according to the fire department.null

Police and LA Metro investigate the scene of a crash between an SUV and a LA Metro Bus that left three people dead on Tuesday in Chatsworth.

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Ronaldo Bolanos

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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About two hours before the crash, an SUV slammed into the middle of a city bus, killing at least two people and injuring six others. Photos and videos online showed half of the SUV lodged into the side of an MTA bus.

The helicopter crashed about a mile and a half from the bus crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said it will be investigating the cause of the helicopter crash.

This is a developing story.

The Los Angeles region’s lead homelessness agency is effectively forfeiting the federal administrative roles it has held for decades, including applying for millions of dollars in funding for the region and leading the annual homeless count, the agency announced Tuesday.

The decision comes as the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority faces mounting criticism from both the Trump administration and local leaders who accuse the agency of mismanaging homeless services.

It reverses a monthslong legal battle LAHSA had been waging with the federal government to continue in these duties.

The city of Los Angeles, L.A. County and other entities and organizations are now applying to take them over.

At a county meeting Tuesday, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath called it “a fundamental change that reflects the significant performance, contracting and financial concerns that have plagued LAHSA for too long.”

“ Officials avoiding accountability will no longer have LAHSA to hide behind, and the county and city must be accountable to each other and to our entire Los Angeles region,” Horvath continued.

LAHSA's decision

In June, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended LAHSA from conducting its federal duties, including applying for or receiving grants, putting $241 million in anticipated funding and LAHSA’s future in limbo.

LAHSA sued.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter paused LAHSA’s suspension on Aug. 13, but also instructed a regional planning body known as the L.A. Continuum of Care Board to solicit applications from other entities to replace LAHSA in those key roles.

The Continuum of Care Board opened its application process online last week, inviting qualified organizations to take on one or more of LAHSA’s current administrative roles.

LAHSA’s governing commission voted unanimously Tuesday to not apply, effectively forfeiting the federal roles that comprise most of its remaining responsibilities.

The city of L.A. and L.A. County are both applying, according to LAHSA.

“With both the City and County preparing their own applications, competing against our founding partners would only fracture regional collaboration during an already complex time,” the LAHSA Commission and the agency's leadership said in a statement.

“This decision reflects the shared judgment of LAHSA’s Commission and executive leadership,” the statement continued.

Federal roles

LAHSA will forfeit the following federal homelessness roles:

1. Coordinating and submitting annual federal homeless assistance funding applications to HUD on behalf of the entire L.A. region — about $240 million in the coming year.

2. Planning, executing and reporting the region’s annual point-in-time homeless count.

3. Operating and administering a HUD-mandated database that tracks who's being served and whether they're moving into housing.

4. Managing and operating a HUD-mandated system to match unhoused people to available housing and services based on need.

How we got here

After Carter paused LAHSA’s suspension, the federal housing agency appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Last week, the appeals court issued a temporary stay on Carter's order.

LAHSA said that ruling created more uncertainty about whether the agency was eligible to apply for the federal roles it has held for the past three decades.

“Stepping aside now supports alignment with the direction the City and County are heading with their applications, and focuses public resources where they belong: on the people who depend on the rehousing system every day,” the LAHSA statement said.

LAHSA is a joint powers authority between the city and county, created three decades ago to manage the region’s response to homelessness.

City and county officials are collectively responsible for LAHSA, which has administered federal, state, county and city homelessness funding across the region.

Citing LAHSA’s management problems, L.A. County pulled more than $300 million annual homelessness funding from the agency starting this year, choosing instead to administer the funds through a new county homelessness department.

The city of L.A. is considering a similar move away from LAHSA. Mayor Karen Bass and her election rival Councilmember Nithya Raman both say the city needs its own independent homeless system.

In the current budget year, 73% of LAHSA’s nearly $500 million budget comes from the city of L.A., 20% from the federal government and 4% from L.A. County.

What’s next? 

LAHSA said it will continue to fulfill its ongoing federal responsibilities “until those duties transition to a new entity or entities.”

The agency has agreements with the city of L.A. to manage programs and contracts through June 30, 2027.

The county’s Department of Homeless Services and Housing is applying to take over all four of LAHSA’s federal responsibilities, according to county officials. The city of L.A. is currently applying for at least two of those roles, putting the city and county in competition with each other.

“Moving forward, another entity will be leading the [Continuum of Care], which I believe should be the county, given our ability to most effectively administer contracts for our region,” Horvath said Tuesday.

Other organizations have also expressed interest. Better Angels, a homelessness nonprofit led by former L.A. mayoral candidate Adam Miller, contacted the court seeking to apply.

Applicants looking to take over LAHSA’s federal roles have until Sept. 25 to submit applications, but had to communicate their intent to apply by Sept. 15.

The applicants selected by L.A.’s regional Continuum of Care Board will have to be reviewed by HUD and the federal court.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s falling enrollment and budget challenges are fueling conversations planned for later this year about potential school closures and consolidation.

“Our goal is not simply to have fewer schools; our goal is to have stronger schools, schools that are better resourced, schools that offer more programs for our students,” Superintendent Andrés Chait said during a school board meeting Tuesday. The superintendent shared a similar message in a video sent to families Monday.

LAUSD is spending more money than it brings in and has relied on reserves to fill the gap in recent years. In Tuesday’s meeting, district leaders presented an updated snapshot of LAUSD’s finances that shows steeper enrollment declines and lower state revenue and reserves than projected early this summer.

“That deficit spending is only possible while we have reserves and the very significant challenge that we’re facing as a district is that those reserves are being depleted very quickly,” said Saman Bravo-Karimi, the district's chief financial officer. “They’re eventually going to go negative and we can’t have negative balances as a school district.”

How is enrollment changing? 

Almost 4% fewer students are attending LAUSD schools this academic year compared to last year, according to preliminary data — nearly a percentage point lower than expected.

Bravo-Karimi said that each 1% drop in enrollment is a loss of about $20 million a year for the next three years because California funds schools based on how many students show up to class each day.

Fewer students have attended LAUSD schools over the last two decades, in part because of falling birth rates and the region’s high cost of living, but those declines were steeper than anticipated in recent years.

Board member Kelly Gonez said the schools in East San Fernando Valley communities targeted by federal agents have double the enrollment declines of other campuses.

“That increase in enrollment decline last school year was not a coincidence,” Gonez said. “Something changed … that is the presence of a federal administration that is attacking our immigrant communities.”

How is LAUSD approaching school closures?

The district pulled a scheduled vote Monday night on a $960,000 contract with a school closure consultant.

The district planned to work with Alvarez and Marsal to develop a framework for possible school closures, mergers or reconfigurations.

The firm’s priorities, as described on their website, include “maximizing investment value in education” and reshaping how institutions operate.

Alvarez and Marsal are also associated with several controversial decisions, including closing more than a dozen campuses during an overhaul of St. Louis schools in 2003 and faltering when contracted to restructure New York City schools' bus routes in 2007.

Several members of the public and a leader in the district’s teachers union spoke out against the contract and any similar future consultants.

“It’s hard for us to seriously work with this district to fight for more state funding when you squander limited funds you have on contracts with vultures and privatizers like the Alvarez company,” said Julie Van Winkle, United Teachers Los Angeles vice president.

Chait said the decision to remove the contract from consideration was in response to messages from school, community and district stakeholders over the weekend.

“One of the core leadership principles that I’ve always really tried to live by is to listen to folks, especially when they disagree,” Chait said.

Chait said the district needs external support to convene community meetings and compile and analyze data.

“This is arguably the most complex, the most difficult endeavor we will ever take on,” Chait said of school consolidations. “It will reset the footprint of our district for years to come.”

Chait said the district will begin holding community conversations related to school closures in the next few weeks and will share more details during a Sept. 22 meeting.

How did LAUSD’s budget become so strained?

The district’s current $20.6 billion budget projects a $2 billion deficit.

LAUSD approved raises for teachers, principals and support staff earlier this year at the cost of an additional $1 billion this school year. LAUSD, like other districts in the state, also faces increased costs for employee health care, settlements for decades-old sexual assault claims and services for students with disabilities,

L.A. County education officials approved the district’s most recent budget Tuesday on the condition that LAUSD provide additional information about how it is implementing cuts this school year.

However, L.A. County Superintendent Debra Duardo also called out the district's “unsustainable” use of reserves.

“The district’s fiscal status necessitates continued monitoring for both immediate and future corrective actions,” Duardo wrote in a letter to district leadership, referencing the July appointment of a fiscal expert to advise the district.

LAUSD’s board has approved a series of plans to reduce spending and increase revenue. For example, the district eliminated hundreds of jobs, primarily in its administrative offices, earlier this year.

The district’s most recent fiscal stabilization plan includes furlough days for all employees, the elimination of thousands of jobs and cuts to programs that help high-needs schools pay for counselors, tutors and other student supports.

Most of these cuts aren’t scheduled to go into effect until the 2027-28 and 2028-29 school years.

The leader of a congressional panel warned Tuesday he would use “every tool” to get Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to testify after she skipped a hearing that put L.A.’s homeless services system in the hot seat.

It came as multiple audits, reviews and court rulings have found L.A. has failed to ensure proper tracking of large-scale spending on homeless services — particularly through the joint city-county L.A. Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA. Much of the money is federal dollars authorized by Congress.

Bass had declined to testify at Tuesday’s hearing, saying she was unavailable and that it would be a “politically motivated” attack. Her public schedule showed she planned to attend a groundbreaking of a shopping and community center in the Pacific Palisades two hours after the hearing was set to start.

Rep. Tim Burchett, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee's DOGE subcommittee, said she won't get off that easily.

Bass "seems intent on evading accountability, but she knows we will not let her off the hook," Burchett said at the hearing. He added that he and the Oversight Committee’s chair would "use every tool at our disposal to secure her appearance if she does not cooperate.”

House committees and subcommittees can issue subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify or provide documents.

Just before the hearing got underway, Bass called it "the latest attack on Los Angeles by the Trump Administration and his allies in Congress.”

"I don't run LAHSA," she said, adding that she was the first mayor to sit on its board and that street homelessness has dropped since she took office. The latest official count for the city showed a 8% year to year jump in street homelessness.

Bass stepped off LAHSA’s governing commission last week, after LAist reported she had missed most of its meetings since she appointed herself to it in 2023. The mayor cited “time and all” as her reason for stepping down. She continues to appoint — and has the power to remove — half the commission’s members, including its current chair.

What happened at the hearing

Much of the hour-and-a-half hearing focused on Republican members’ criticism that Democrat-led cities distribute drug paraphernalia and don’t require unhoused people with addictions to get treatment as a condition of living in publicly funded housing.

Some proposals raised Tuesday would change how money reaches Los Angeles.

Burchett said he will introduce the Recovery First Housing Act, to require federally funded housing to offer substance abuse treatment. He has also introduced a bill restricting federal housing dollars to only support U.S. citizens.

LA's fights on a national stage

Burchett noted LAHSA’s audit committee chair, Justin Szlasa — who was proactive in rooting out wasteful spending — was demoted by Stephanie Graves, a Bass appointee who has declined to give her reason for doing so. The move was first reported by LAist.

Burchett also made claims that don’t hold up. He said 50,000 people are homeless in the city with "another 75,000" in the surrounding county. The latest official count found a total of 73,000 unhoused people across L.A. County — a figure that includes the city.

Burchett also said, “ LAHSA recently doled out funds to an L.A.-area nonprofit whose CEO had just been indicted for fraud.” LAist recently investigated LAHSA’s awarding of funds to that nonprofit, Abundant Blessings, and found no indication that LAHSA awarded it any funds after the fraud indictment. However, the review did find that long before the indictment, LAHSA kept awarding millions in contracts to the group even after it was flagged internally as high-risk for failing to do its job.

Burchett, however, was correct in saying “a court-ordered independent assessment of LAHSA's finances found alarming financial control weaknesses that leave the door open to rampant fraud.”