Facing Calls to Hasten His Departure, USC’s President Steps Aside

C.L. Max Nikias has officially stepped down as president of the University of Southern California, the university announced on Tuesday, more than two months after he said he would leave the post.

In his place, USC’s Board of Trustees has appointed one of its members, Wanda M. Austin, as interim president. Austin, an alumna who has served on the board since 2010, is an aeronautics engineer. She is the former chief executive of the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit based in El Segundo, Calif., that runs a federally funded research-and-development center.

The announcement comes amid intensifying criticism from some faculty members, who argued that Nikias should formally depart before students arrive on campus later this month. Many of those faculty members signed an open letter calling for an interim president to be named swiftly; some accused the university of slow-walking the process.

Nikias first announced his intent to step down in late May, after a string of scandals involving sexual misconduct, harassment, and abuse put his judgment under the microscope. The tipping point was news that George Tyndall, a former campus gynecologist, had remained on the staff at the university’s student health center after decades of complaints of inappropriate behavior, including charges of sexual abuse.

Nikias will retain the titles of president emeritus and life trustee, the university announced. In a statement, the departing president said he would return to the faculty:

C. L. Max Nikias made an official statement late Tuesday afternoon after the announcement of his resignation. pic.twitter.com/s262uMqvmu

— Daily Trojan (@dailytrojan) August 8, 2018

He had been a widely respected figure on campus: a scholar, engineering dean, and provost who took over USC’s presidency in 2010. But in the wake of the revelations about Tyndall, more than 200 senior-level professors signed a letter demanding that the president resign.

“We have heard the message that something is broken,” wrote the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Rick J. Caruso, in the May statement that first announced Nikias’s plan to step down, “and that urgent and profound actions are needed.”

In his statement on Tuesday, Caruso sought to convey that the university was still acting with a sense of urgency. He wrote that USC has retained Isaacson, Miller, a recruitment firm, to lead its search for its next full president. He also outlined plans to improve USC’s student-health center. A law firm conducting an independent investigation into the center and its handling of the complaints against Tyndall, he said, “has made substantial progress.”

“It is evident,” he wrote, “that the recent crises have resulted from systemic and cultural failures.”

Brock Read is assistant managing editor for daily news at The Chronicle. He directs a team of editors and reporters who cover policy, research, labor, and academic trends, among other things. Follow him on Twitter @bhread, or drop him a line at brock.read@chronicle.com.