sfgiants

USC President Steven B. Sample to step down in August -- latimes.com

cc411

Thanks sfgiants- I hadn't heard. I really respect what Steven Sample has done for the university.

kmzizzle

i wouldnt mind taking over for $906,778 :}

Taxi1113

Who's going to take over? And what do you all think this will mean for USC?

jbusc

If they hire from within, a possibility is the current Provost, Max Nikias.

However, it is not that common to hire from within and it is quite likely that the search will consider high ranking administrators and presidents from other universities. For example, Pres. Sample was president of SUNY Buffalo before coming to USC.

Whoever it is, it will be a great loss of someone who accomplished so much, so fast, in bringing USC up in quality and prominence in almost every respect.

Noting my limited knowledge of the history of higher education, the sheer volume of his achievements here at USC must rank among the most extraordinary of university presidents in history.

FindAPlace

President Sample will be missed (although he will still be at USC at Viterbi following a one year sabbatical.) Reading the article, what is special about the man is that he is as equally willing to speak of his biggest disappointments as he is his biggest triumphs, AND he recognizes that this kind of achievement is not done just by one man (or woman) alone.

tsdad

Big loss for the University.

This is the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Steven B. Sample, president of the University of Southern California since 1991, plans to step down next August, the university will announce today.

"It's a time for fresh leadership," Mr. Sample, who will turn 69 this month, told the Los Angeles Times. "I don't mean to sound self-congratulatory, but we've had a good run. And so, why not quit while you're ahead?"

During Mr. Sample's 18 years as president, the Los Angeles institution has marked a number of milestones that have raised its academic prestige and improved its financial footing. Among them, according to information on the university's Web site, the value of Southern California's endowment increased from $460-million to a high of $3.7-billion in 2007, before the stock-market crisis last year. In 2003, the university completed a fund-raising campaign that collected $2.85-billion, then a record for a higher-education campaign.

Southern California has also attracted a number of nine-figure gifts, including two gifts totaling $220-million from the Annenberg Foundation, $175-million from George Lucas to endow the School of Cinematic Arts, $112.5-million from Alfred E. Mann to establish the Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering, and $110-million from the W.M. Keck Foundation for the school of medicine.

The university also moved to expand the faculty of its main undergraduate college under Mr. Sample, announcing in 2002 a three-year plan to spend $100-million to hire 100 "world class" senior faculty members over three years.

Mr. Sample told the Times that he was proudest of the improvements made in Southern California's undergraduate course offerings and the academic quality of its students, the latter achieved partly by cutting the size of the freshman class and increasing the selectivity of the university's admissions standards.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Mr. Sample is also a tenured professor in Southern California's school of engineering and regularly teaches undergraduates, including a popular course called "The Art and Adventure of Leadership."

Molly Corbett Broad, who is president of the American Council on Education and a former president of the University of North Carolina, praised Mr. Sample as "a towering figure" in American higher education. "I think Steve is just about the perfect example of the benefits to a university that derive from long, continuous service by a leader," the Los Angeles Times quoted Ms. Broad as saying.

The university has also come in for some criticism during Mr. Sample's tenure. While it has been praised for civic engagement, particularly efforts to improve education, health, and safety in neighborhoods near its campus, some community activists complain that it has not built enough student housing, which has led to the rise of expensive apartments for students and the displacement of longtime neighborhood residents.

Southern California has also weathered an athletics scandal that resulted in NCAA penalties for academic fraud, and it has taken some lumps for its decision last year to shutter its German department.

Before coming to Southern California, Mr. Sample was president of the State University of New York's University at Buffalo.

He was diagnosed eight years ago with Parkinson's disease, but Mr. Sample told the Times that his illness was not a major factor in his decision to step down next summer. The university's Board of Trustees plans to launch an international search for a successor and hopes to name a new president by May.

Georgia Girl

This is a great loss to the university. What an understatement!

UCBChemEGrad

Two things I learned in the LA Times article:

1. The USC executive mansion is far away from campus in leafy San Marino.

2. OC alums wanted USC to move down to the deserted El Toro airbase in the early '90s. (That would have been a better use of land versus a park, but an international airport would have been best).

CI180

Good news, he's trying to strangle the Row. Hopefully his successor will be more reasonable. I'm all in favor of improving USC's academic reputation, but not by stifling its social life.