The University of Southern California recently announced new financial aid guidelines to offer free tuition to students whose family income is under $80,000 and no longer weigh home value into financial aid consideration. This policy extends to the students of the class of 2024 and after but excludes current and incoming transfer students. Therefore, we ask President Folt, the USC financial aid office, and Dean McWhorter to expand new financial aid policies to incoming transfer students and currently enrolled students.

There is no difference between the financial needs of the incoming freshmen class, incoming transfer, and current students. Just because we started school sooner than the students who qualify for this new financial assistance policy does not mean we aren’t as financially vulnerable. USC has a large population of students who come from marginalized backgrounds and are the first generation that enriches the USC community and becomes one of the University’s best talent. Many students from marginalized backgrounds, despite our setbacks, continued to fight on, distinguish ourselves, and gain admissions into one of the best universities in the country. President Folt recently announced steps to offer more equity to current and incoming transfer students on campus. This was a necessary step but not enough. If President Folt and USC are genuinely committed to supporting current students and incoming transfer students, they understand that our financial hardships are just as important.

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting families across the nation, low-income families especially. Being from low-income, marginalized communities is hard enough without the virus impacting our daily lives. We hope the University recognizes that there is a community of current students and incoming transfer students that add to the diversity of the USC community. With this in mind, we are calling on President Folt and USC to reduce the struggles of navigating higher education by extending financial aid guidelines to current students and incoming transfer students.