page_title: Steven Sample
section_title: University of Southern California presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Steven Sample / Career / University of Southern California presidency
caption_attribution_description: English: USC President Steve Sample stands among the USC Trojan football team on the field as they celebrate a victory over Nebraska. He is making the traditional USC Trojan "V" for victory hand sign.
context_page_description: Steven Browning Sample was the 10th president of the University of Southern California. He became president in 1991 and was succeeded by C. L. Max Nikias on August 3, 2010. Prior to his presidency at USC, Sample was the 12th president of the University at Buffalo in the State University of New York system from 1982 to 1991. He was succeeded at UB by Bill Greiner.
context_section_description: Under Sample's leadership, USC became world-renowned in the fields of communication and multimedia technologies, received national acclaim for its innovative community partnerships, and improved its status as one of the nation's leading research universities. In 1999, USC was ranked #41 among universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. In 2010, the final year of Sample's term, USC was ranked #26 in the same listing (USC is now ranked #23). In 2008, his own salary was $1.9 million.
  USC announced on November 1, 2009 that Sample would step down as its president in August 2010. He explained that he wanted to see "fresh leadership" take charge.  After stepping down as President, and following a one-year sabbatical, Sample taught a course at USC with Warren Bennis.
  On August 3, 2010, C.L. Max Nikias became the 11th president of the university.
caption: Sample with the 2007 USC Trojans football team, celebrating a victory
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-T10", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:09:19 18:30:53", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Image ExifOffset": "288", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "814", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4632", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "320", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:09:15 22:12:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:09:15 22:12:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "1027/100", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "526", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "854", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}