A letter delivered by 52 business professors to USC Marshall Dean Geoffrey Garrett alleges a “downward trajectory” at the Marshall School of Business, citing academic reputation, research excellence, and student quality. The faculty signatories—roughly one-fifth of full-time faculty—said the decline coincided with centralized decision authority and reduced information sharing with faculty. The letter argues the governance approach has contributed to enrollment and quality slippage, including reference to preliminary admissions data across USC Marshall’s four MBA programs indicating a projected revenue shortfall. The professors also flagged threats to the PhD program as a risk to research standing. The dispute centers on how decision authority and faculty consultation are structured—an issue that can affect budget prioritization, hiring, curricular direction, and program viability. For university leadership teams, the episode highlights how business-school ranking signals can become downstream symptoms of governance conflict and internal trust breakdown.