C.L. (Max) Nikias ended his tenure as the University of Southern California’s president amid a widening sexual-abuse scandal involving a campus gynecologist.
But a golden parachute eased his abrupt fall from leadership. The university paid Nikias more than $7 million in his final year as president, according to just-released tax documents.
According to a Chronicle analysis, Nikias is the fourth higher-education chief executive in the last decade to earn more than $7 million in a single year. The others are Jay Sexton, New York University, $10,977,452, in 2015; Paula S. Wallace, Savannah College of Art and Design, $9,421,486, in 2014; and Shirley Ann Jackson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, $7,143,312, in 2012.
On Thursday, USC’s governing board released a statement regarding the payout to Nikias, which was more than three times his normal compensation in the previous year.
“In order to move forward with a leadership change, the Board of Trustees voted to honor Max Nikias’ employment agreement, which was negotiated when he was reappointed as President in 2016,” the statement read. “The board also agreed to certain other provisions to accelerate his departure prior to the end of his three-year term.”
It is unclear how much of the payout was earmarked to achieve the board’s goal to “accelerate his departure.” But more than $3 million of the total is accounted for in only the vaguest of terms.
The board wrote that Nikias’s larger-than-average pay in 2018 “reflects money owed to him for salary, retirement and other benefits, some of which date back to the employment agreement he entered into when he became President in 2010.”
A Strong Beginning
Just a year after Nikias assumed the presidency, USC announced a $6-billion capital campaign — a record in higher education at the time.
He enjoyed early successes as the university’s leader, overseeing increases in student housing and classroom space and the creation of more than 100 endowed chairs. The fund-raising campaign topped its ambitious goal by the summer of 2017.
But his handling of the accusations against the gynecologist, as well the case of a former medical-school dean who led a double life involving drugs and prostitutes, caused Nikias to lose the trust of the faculty and led to his ouster as president in 2018.
James H. Finkelstein, an expert in presidential contracts and professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University, cited “a number of instances” recently of colleges paying their departing presidents more than is contractually required.
Finkelstein pointed to Auburn University, where he said the departing president received the full value of his five-year contract — despite having served less than two years.
Finkelstein said university governing boards are eager to avoid litigation with a former president over money. A court battle could prove expensive, he said, and also risks “having their dirty laundry become public.”
“Given the number of scandals at USC, it might be understandable why the board wouldn’t want to have a lot in the public record,” Finkelstein said.
The newly released tax documents also show that Nikias received a $3-million housing loan in his final year, which at the time the 990 tax form was filed had not been repaid. And his wife, who is listed as a university employee, got a large raise in Max Nikias’s final year. Niki Nikias was paid $154,163 in 2017 and $194,559 the next.
University officials declined further comment. Max Nikias, who remains a professor at the university, could not be reached for comment.
