Los Angeles Biotech Summit

Delivered on February 26, 2015 at the Los Angeles Biotech Summit Good morning everyone! On behalf of the entire USC community, I am so pleased to welcome you to the Los Angeles Biotech Summit. Today, through several panels of prestigious researchers and leaders from academia and industry and our community, we will explore the extraordinary possibilities…Continue Reading Los Angeles Biotech Summit

Annual Address to Faculty

The Value of College EducationFebruary 2015by C. L. Max Nikias It is an extraordinary privilege for me to offer my annual address as president of USC. Faculty and students determine the quality of an institution. And USC stands among the most academically elite universities of the nation and the Pacific Rim. Your accomplishments define us,…Continue Reading Annual Address to Faculty

Why elite universities should admit more community college grads

The Washington Post, Opinion, originally published on October 23, 2014.

“The reality is that some students with the right combination of talent, creativity and personality will not begin their academic careers at a selective private university. Many won’t apply, while others simply require more time for polish or introspection. The most academically driven will hone their skills and prove themselves in a two-year program, emerging more motivated, more mature and hungrier than ever.”…Continue Reading Why elite universities should admit more community college grads

The Human Health Renaissance: USC’s Duties, Dreams, and Destiny

Delivered on October 9, 2014 to the USC Health Sciences Faculty

My fellow colleagues, we irreversibly committed the entire, worldwide Trojan Family, in perpetuity, to taking a leadership role in the human health revolution. Of course, in times of change, being reasonable and conventional isn’t how you become a leader. And so all of you responded with characteristic boldness and determination….Continue Reading The Human Health Renaissance: USC’s Duties, Dreams, and Destiny

NCAA Compliance Meeting for Incoming Student-Athletes

Delivered on September 2, 2014 to new student-athletes

Today I also want to affirm USC’s commitment to sportsmanship, embodied in the NCAA’s rules and regulations. They represent the guidelines to which we and our competitors have agreed to abide. They represent the foundation of sportsmanship and the foundation of our own efforts to reach greatness. You are Trojan student-athletes, who have been marked out for greatness. We will be here for you, to help you reach greatness….Continue Reading NCAA Compliance Meeting for Incoming Student-Athletes

Judge Robert Maclay Widney Statue Unveiling

Delivered on August 29, 2014 at the unveiling of the Judge Robert Widney statue on the USC campus

One simply cannot overestimate Judge Widney’s role in USC’s birth and early growth. He personally drafted the university’s articles of incorporation, which our statue now holds, and you’ll soon see. He asked and convinced three real estate partners – Childs, Downey, and Hellman – to donate the land. He was the first chairman of USC’s board of trustees. His brother, Joseph Widney, founded USC’s medical school in 1882 and later became the second president of the university.

Judge Widney donated $100,000 for the university’s first endowment fund—an extraordinary amount in that age—and he would later supervise the management of this fund. He was a dreamer, a visionary, a builder. Through force of will, he reimagined a region and the destinies of countless others who would follow here….Continue Reading Judge Robert Maclay Widney Statue Unveiling

President and Mrs. Nikias Host the Trojan Family

Delivered on May 1, 2014

Our university provides an educational experience that is unlike that found at any other university in the nation. This is a place that welcomes students interested in science and technology as well as those who are passionate about the arts, the social sciences and humanities.

In fact, USC’s student body has become a microcosm of the entire world. This rich tapestry of geographic and global diversity is evident in the fact that we currently enroll students from all 50 states and more than 115 nations….Continue Reading President and Mrs. Nikias Host the Trojan Family

Annual Address to the USC Faculty

Delivered on February 10 & 11, 2014, on the University Park and Health Sciences campuses

Let us turn our attention to the online education revolution that is getting underway. As with any other technological revolution of the past, we may see old industries disappear, while new ones rise up. Our children are inheriting a world that functions like nothing humanity has ever witnessed before.

In education, new technologies now let us reach out to faraway students where they can be immersed and fully participate in a virtual classroom experience. This, in theory, should change everything. I’m proud of the fact that USC has not been copying anyone else or chasing anyone else in this area. USC has been experimenting and exploring, and has been leading the way for others….Continue Reading Annual Address to the USC Faculty

Phi Kappa Psi Scholarship Awards Dinner

If you are just beginning your USC career, you should know that we at USC take the legends of the Trojans seriously. Growing up reading the Greco-Roman classics, I was inspired by the image of the Trojans as warriors who never gave up. Persistence and courage were engraved in their ethos.

When they were knocked to the ground, they always rose back up. They persevered. And they conquered, even when the odds were against them, even when they were outnumbered. Yes, even when the gods of Mount Olympus seemed to have forgotten them, they knew how to bend destiny back in their favor and to triumph. Destiny always favors the bold. Destiny always bends in the direction of those who take risks….Continue Reading Phi Kappa Psi Scholarship Awards Dinner