C. L. "Max" Nikias, USC's provost and second-in-command, will become its next president, succeeding Steven B. Sample on Aug. 3 at the helm of the 34,000-student university, school officials announced Thursday.
Nikias, a Cypriot-born electrical engineer with expertise in radar and sonar, was long mentioned as the leading candidate to become USC's 11th president, so much so that some trustees reportedly argued against conducting a national search. But the board went ahead, considering 75 other educators before returning to a man well-known and well-liked on campus.
A former dean of USC's school of engineering, Nikias, 57, said Thursday that he hopes to build on Sample's accomplishments, by intensifying fundraising efforts. He plans to announce, early on, a major campaign aimed at doubling USC's endowment in the next 10 years.
"It's not a change of direction but an acceleration," he said in an interview. "This university is on the ascent under President Sample for 19 years. We can move the needle and move this university into what I call the pantheon of undisputed elite universities." Among other goals, he said, was improving the academic standings of USC's medical school and hospitals.
He also said he plans to strengthen USC's already extensive ties to Asian nations and colleges, beyond the large number of Indian and Chinese graduate students the university enrolls. "Our vision is that we want USC to become the university of the Pacific Century, the intellectual and cultural center of this world tied to the Pacific Century," Nikias said, his Greek-Cypriot accent still strong.
USC Board Chairman Edward P. Roski Jr. described Nikias as "a remarkable and inspiring leader, a brilliant scholar and the best possible person to lead our university forward."
But the campus' new leader will have big shoes to fill. Sample has been president for 19 years, a longevity rare in American academia, and he boosted the university's academic prestige and financial resources significantly. Since 1991, USC has risen from 51st to 26th place in U.S. News & World Report's rankings of national research universities.
USC's endowment also increased dramatically, to a pre-recession peak of $4 billion, but then fell to about $3 billion, relatively small for such a large research university. And, in difficulties likely to be inherited by his successor, Sample's recent tenure was troubled by NCAA investigations into allegations of improper gifts to USC athletes and whether the university lost "institutional control" over its athletics program.
