On a recent Friday morning, University of Southern California inaugurated its 12th president. Dr. Carol Folt started off her career as an environmental scientist after graduating from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in aquatic biology.

She eventually fell into college administration and before her post at USC, she was chancellor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While at UNC, she had to contend with a number of controversies including a massive scandal involving athletes and academic fraud.

Folt was also at the center of a debate over a statue known as 'Silent Sam.' Activist students wanted the tribute to the Confederacy tribute removed and conservative lawmakers insisted it should remain.

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Protestors toppled it and eventually Folt called for the base of the monument to be removed and at the same time, she announced she would be leaving the university.

Chapel Hill is more than 2,500 miles away from Los Angeles but the subject of Silent Sam still came up during Folt’s inauguration when protesters began yelling out during her acceptance speech.

She paused to give them a chance to speak out saying they deserved the space to speak up for themselves and she wanted everyone to feel that moment.

“I think there’s a respect in space,” Folt said. “You know, I believe a lot in the idea that they call the open space of democracy and there’s clamoring and fighting and protests in that open space and so I wanted them to have their moment – I thought that was important. I also think it’s important, if you’re in a University, your students or others have things to say that takes many forms, and so I don’t ever want to stop that.”

She says as a scientist she has observed the ecosystem of USC to be an incredibly well-connected one through their programs, through the love of their students, and through the things that they do in their communities.

“That is really important because if you’re trying to work in an ecosystem and you don’t know how people even communicate, that’s a real issue. I think they’re connected in their big dream of this service economy for the public good, but also you come to California you come here to be a part of innovation and entrepreneurship,” she said. “And I have a lot to learn about what are the boundaries that make them not connect enough because I think that’s what the decade is about.”

She is facing a lot of challenges – a student admissions scandal and a campus gynecologist who sexually assaulted students – and said her strategy for change is to listen to what people have to say.

“I think it doesn’t really work if you go out and tell people ‘we’re doing this,’” she said. “People need to see actions. A promise is great, but it’s really the actions, so at it’s core, that’s what it’s about. It’s being very clear what you’re doing, explaining it and showing that you’ve taken the action. Hollow promises won’t work.”

In her time leading up to her post as president, she spent a lot of time with students, listening to their concerns.

“I was so, I’m going to say, inspired by the fact that every student came to me to talk about things that were important for other people. They never said ‘I need this’ they talk about what other people needed,” Folt said.

She the students care about their community, they care about those in need and they especially care about sustainability.

“For someone who loves students, teaching and research, those are some of the ways I think it needs to work anyway, so I feel very comfortable with that,” she said.

After dealing with controversy from Chapel Hill, she says she knows how to face it head on.

“I think you have to run to the scandal. I just think you have to run straight to it,” she said. “If you walk away, or try to turn your back on it, it just is not the way to do things, so I think I’ve learned that in a number of different ways in my life. And my experience is the more you do that the more people will walk with you, they’re wind in your sails as you go to fix it.”

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