USC President to Retire
Steven Sample will retire as USC President in August 2010
Sunday, Nov 1, 2009 | Updated 2:00 PM PST
Getty Images
USC president Dr. Steven Sample will announce he will resign by August 2010. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
USC President Steven Sample said he will step down in August after almost 19 years on the job. The longtime president will officially announce his decision at USC's main campus on Monday.
"It's a time for fresh leadership," he 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?"
He and his wife, college sweethearts, have been married 48 years and have two grown daughters and two teenage grandchildren. The Samples live in USC's presidential mansion in San Marino but plan to find their own home in the Los Angeles area after he retires.
"We just have a feeling about what's right for Kathryn and me and our family," he told The Times.
In 2001, Sample announced he had Parkinson's disease and has a noticeable tremor in right hand, but he told The Times his health was not the driving force behind his decision to retire.
Under Sample's watch, USC received five gifts of at least $100 million. The largest, $175 million to the cinema school, was from the foundation of "Star Wars" director and USC alumnus George Lucas. USC's endowment grew from $450 million to nearly $4 billion before the recession, then fell to about $3 billion.
The USC Board of Trustees will begin an extensive search for Sample's successor with a plan to fill the position by the end of the school year.
The search for a new president is wide open and will cover the globe stressed Edward Roski Jr., the Board Chairman.
"We are going to search the whole gamut of individuals who would qualify," Roski told the newspaper, adding that finding a new president "after someone like Steve is a daunting task. We've made great strides under him, and we want to continue those."
Sample spent his time at USC growing the university to 34,000 students, and increasing its prestige.
Since 1991, USC has climbed from 51st to 26th in U.S. News & World Report's rankings of U.S. research universities.
Campus insiders told The Times that USC executive vice president and provost C. L. Max Nikias would be candidate to replace Sample.
Sample said could possibly teach at USC part time, maybe the leadership classes he now shares with management expert Warren Bennis or a course about his favorite novelist, Willa Cather.
