Rate My Professor Steven Sample

At USC, Sample co-taught the undergraduate course 'The Art and Adventure of Leadership' with Warren Bennis. Under his leadership, the university doubled sponsored research funding to $430 million annually, tripled freshman applications, enhanced diversity and selectivity, and completed the $2.85 billion 'Building on Excellence' campaign, the largest fundraising effort in U.S. higher education history at the time, which included five gifts over $100 million and funded expansions like the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Ronald Tutor Hall. He oversaw USC's first Nobel Prize in 1994 and attracted renowned faculty. Sample was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1998 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, received the IEEE Founders Medal, and earned honorary doctorates from Purdue University, University of Notre Dame, Northeastern University, University of Nebraska, Hebrew Union College, University of Sheffield, Canisius College, D’Youville College, and SUNY Buffalo. He authored the Los Angeles Times bestselling book The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, translated into five languages, along with numerous journal articles and papers in science, engineering, and higher education. Sample chaired the Association of American Universities and co-founded the Association of Pacific Rim Universities.