Core Values

The mission of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy is to improve the quality of life for people and their communities, here and abroad. Implicit in our mission is the call to serve as guardians of the public interest and common good.

The founding of our School in 1929 grew out of the ‘good government’ movement of the late 1920s, when women’s and citizen’s groups began to advocate for professionalism among public servants.

In the decades since, the School has demonstrated a deep and abiding commitment to the principles of ethical service, professional integrity and critical social awareness. Indeed, the expression of these principles in action led the family of Sol Price to make an endowment gift to name the School in 2011.

The following statements reflect the core values of our Price community, and are reflective of the University’s core values.* These values drive our work, our interactions with each other, and our engagement in the larger world.

We Value

• Principles of fairness and community engagement. We seek to infuse these principles into our teaching, research, and engagement with each other and the community;

• Respect for others and open discussion. We recognize that rational civic discourse and respectful debate is at the core of every healthy society and is imperative to our survival;

• Intellectual inquiry that is firmly rooted in reliable data, and fosters creativity and new knowledge. We aspire to be a School and community where we seek knowledge together in a learning environment reflective of diverse backgrounds and perspectives;

• Courage to protect dissent is critical to an open society and to explore and embrace ways to reach across divisions. We encourage the expression of alternative perspectives and opposing views in our quest for mutual understanding based on truth; and,

• Evidence-based solutions to address the complex challenges facing our world. These solutions should be grounded in our relevant fields/disciplines and influenced by all of the above values